November 27, 2022
I was a little worried when I noted only one other car in the church lot when I pulled in at 10:25 this rainy morning. But the sign out front did announce a 10:30 service.
There are a lot of homes nearby, I observed. Maybe there are walkers? So I headed around the building looking for the entrance. Nothing on the Neil Street side. On the Garfield Street door a taped note said to use the parking lot door. In this way, I got to tour the entire circumference of the aged brick edifice before going in. Although clearly not designed as a main entrance, the parking lot door did open. A loud buzzer sounded and a musty smell hit me. From the small entryway, narrow stairs went both up and down. A voice from above called out a welcome. Another alert bell noted my passage as I went up the stairs toward the voice. A hall at the top led to an open door. “Come on in!”
Oh. Ok. I crossed the room to an ancient orange arm chair which, unfortunately for me, had a rogue spring pressing hard up into the seat. After a minute of getting acquainted, the three of us, my smallest congregation so far, focused on a laptop screen on the desk.
Windsor Road is a non-denominational church, said Michelle, but she had grown up in it and a family member attended there. Their theology is similar, thus the streaming for today. “We are a peace church,” she went on, “although I would defend myself.” The older man sitting near me in a sock hat had been the Brethren’s previous pastor, but now they had a new leader who was on her first vacation. They’d been out of the sanctuary since Covid hit.
Besides a sign language interpreter, the Windsor Road service included singing in English, Spanish, and an African language lead by one of their worship team. You Are Worthy of It All! A family from Puerto Rico was responsible for today’s scripture reading in both English and Spanish. The congregation was encouraged to pick up Advent booklets if they hadn’t already: $8 or free. One hundred had been picked up last week, so another fifty were procured for today.
Their long-time pastor, Randy Boltinghouse, spoke on Hebrews 8 for this, the first Sunday in Advent. We need to learn the benefit of waiting, he said. Jesus didn’t go into the Holy of Holies at the Jerusalem temple; he was the reality of God and so didn’t need the symbolism of God’s presence. Boltinghouse shared John Piper’s example of a lost child finding comfort in simply seeing the shadow of his mother. Hope is the expectation of something that has been guaranteed.
During the Windsor Road message, a young couple with a 9-week-old baby joined us and seated themselves on the second couch in the Brethren’s library. It took that little one about five minutes of crying to get settled into her bottle as we five adults tried to attend to the laptop screen. I wondered how a young military couple ended up in this tiny peace church.
Michelle had mistaken me at first as a caller coming for a food basket. During the service, sure enough, someone did come for food from the pantry, taking Michelle from us for about ten minutes. She said the church had had two request calls that morning, unusual for a Sunday. Apparently the Brethren do a lot of community service.
When the Windsor Road stream went to communion, Michelle shut off the computer. Next week, she announced, they’d be back in the sanctuary with former-pastor Paul at the organ and the preaching pastor returned from her vacation. Holding their tiny one, the marine wife said she looked forward to it. Michelle asked her dad to close with prayer.
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