Why did the Pastor Cross the Road?
I’ve been serving as the Interim Pastor at Faith Church for the last 6 months and I finally took the chance to cross the road. Across the road from Faith is St. Mark’s United Methodist Church. I had met the Rev. Mike Proctor at two previous B.A.M.A. meetings. In case you don’t know it B.A.M.A. stands for Baytown Area Ministerial Association. (It’s where leaders of our local congregations meet to “jell” )
What made me, one who was previously “chicken to” cross the road? … a March of Remembrance.
I had gotten a phone call from a man named Jeff who had gotten my name from a friend of mine named Joy who I had responded to on one of her posts on Facebook about a March of Remembrance. So Jeff came to meet with me and brought a friend and another person who actually turned out to be the sister of a friend of mine from Houston. When I heard what they were proposing I said, “We need to share this with Mike across the road. I’ve only been here a little while, but Mike is the president of B.A.M.A. and he might know more about how to promote this idea.
We drove four cars across the road and met in Mike’s office. There we learned that last year, for the first time, in the Houston area 8 churches observed a March Of Remembrance to honor Holocaust survivors and let their voices be heard and their story be told. With six week’s notice, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Christian, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist and Church of Christ churches in Kingwood joined together to stage a 7 station 2 mile Prayer Walk that culminated in a Memorial Service at St. Martha Catholic Church with over 1,000 in attendance. There were Praise Dancers and great music, testimonies from Holocaust survivors and their descendants. We have seven weeks.
On Saturday, April 6, 2013 they are going to have another March in Kingwood and this year’s vision is to multiply these Walks in seven locations around the city of Houston. Those of us in the Baytown area could represent the Southeast.
If you or the leaders of your congregation are interested in finding out more about participating, I invite you to join me and Mike at the Golden Corral next Thursday February 21 at High Noon. (Don’t worry it won’t be like what happened at the O.K. Corral. I’m not O.K. with that.)
Come and see what can happen when Pastors Cross the Road.
Pastor Jim Gill
Rev. Dr. Jim Gill is the Interim Pastor at Faith Presbyterian Church, at 3900 N. Main in Baytown, just across the road from St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.
Published in the Baytown Sun 2-17-2013
