Pastoral Pondering: Finding Your Seat

I worshiped with the people of East Clermont Lutheran Church early in January. That is the congregation where I grew up – the place I was every Sunday morning for 18 years, and where I was for lots of other activities and events during those 18 years. It was indeed a home away from home.

It is a little strange visiting there! I am usually there only once a year or so. I look around and wonder who all those old people are, and then I look more closely and they are my former classmates, distant cousins and folks my age who I grew up with.

It was a little disconcerting to see someone different sitting in my grandmother’s place. All the years I was growing up, my grandparents sat in the same place – the short pew on the right side, second row from the back. It wasn’t really a short pew, but the pillar holding up the balcony made it so it was impossible for more than two people so sit on that end of the pew. Even after my grandpa moved to the care center before he died, Grandpa sat in that pew. But it has been a few years since my grandma has been able to leave her care center, so someone else moved into her pew.

We are all creatures of habit. We get into our comfortable routines. I am so grateful for those who make Sunday worship as part of their routine. And like my grandpa and grandma, most folks have their pew – their spot. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with having one’s place for worship. As long as it never gets in the way of hospitality. There are stories – and I do not know whether they are real, or just the stuff of “urban myth.” But I have heard stories of folks “shooing” visitors out of their pews on Sunday morning.

Life in congregations changes over time. It is good that someone else is sitting in my grandmother’s pew since she can no longer sit there. As people move away or deaths in our congregation occur, there end up being gaps, or big holes. As people’s needs change, they sometimes need to find different places – to see better, to hear better, to be closer to the bathroom doors, to be closer to the elevator doors.

And I have to say, as worship leader, I enjoy leading worship much more when there are not huge empty spaces between me and the congregation. I have heard of all kinds of gimmicks or activities that pastors and congregations have tried to get people to “mix it up” from time to time when it comes to seating. I will not propose any, other than to simply encourage you to once in a while “fill in the the empty gaps” and to be attentive to the needs of folks who may need to be closer to doors, stairs, elevators, speakers and the like. And, for whatever it is worth, when you are all closer to me, rather than farther from me, it gives me more energy and enthusiasm.

See you in worship on Sunday!