Me and the farm

Well, I'm about 100 days into my experience at two very rural congregations in central Ohio. It has been a time of huge personal (and professional) growth. I've gotten to see and do some things which are amazing to me (even if they are normal to people who have had more exposure to country living.) So, in no particular order, here are some of my thoughts/observations/reflections:

• These people are incrediably tied to the land. Time after time I have heard them speak about how they experience God in nature.
  
• Ties to the land run deep. One of my paritioners recently died. His health took a dramatic turn for the worse when he was forced to sell his farm because he couldn't maintain it any more and he did not have any family to give the farm to. He was born in a log house on that farm and that is where he lived until he had to sell the land. Someone else in the congegation bought the old log cabin in order to preserve it and had the logs hauled away one by one. Bill died about 1 hour after the last log left his property.
• There is a certain "do it yourself" attitude which pervades the congergation. Every time something in the church needs to be fixed the men look around at each other, figure out who has the tools and the know-how to get it done, and by next week the problem is fixed.
• The men run the congregation. There are no women on council. I don't know if this is a theological thing or a cultural thing. I suspect that it is the latter. However, I think that the church would do a better job of social outreach if there were women involved. At least maybe we wouldn't spend so much time in council talking about what needs to be fixed.
  
• There is a generosity of spirit here that I have encountered in few other places. People are always looking out for one another (even for thier Vicar).
• I've found that I have grown professionally. Even in the classes that I'm taking this fall, I'm coming at them with a more serious approach. I find myself bothered when people waste class time with stupid questions or trite observations.
• Whether I realize it or not, I have been charged with a huge responsibility: climbing into the pulpit every week and declaring that God loves us and is at work in the world, transforming everything.
  
• I'm amazed every week at how in the course of a few short days the Spirit can lead me from a place of confusion and ignorance to a place where I can stand up and confidently declare the things that God is doing to overcome sin in the world.
  
• I'm amazed that the Spirit finds a way to deliver a message to the people in the pews in spite of all of my shortcomings and hangups.
  

This isn't everything, I'm sure that there is more. As I find words to express it they will likely end up here.