Xvangelical Visits Cave City First United Methodist Church

Me Leaving Cave City First United Methodist Church, February 20, 2022

I’m finally doing it.

I’ve been in prayer and pondering about what my role, as Xvangelical, is supposed to be right now. How does someone like myself fit properly into the body of Christ?

I’m finally able to begin my next chapter.

While many of you see my posts as scathing critiques, I want you to know that they aren’t. For me they are instead letters of love. Just as I wouldn’t watch my child cross a busy highway without intervening, so also I won’t quietly watch the Church that I love drive away hurting, marginalized, and deconstructing people.

In the body of Christ, of which we’re all apart, this “driving out” is equally as dangerous to the long-term health of the Church as a child crossing a highway.

Now that SARS-CoV-2 is showing signs of abating, my wife (LPN) is permitting me to pick up on something that has been on my heart for a while.

I’m embarking on my encouragement tour.

I’ll be visiting churches every Sunday, so that I can write about my experience in your midst. These will not be critical. These will highlight the beauty I expect to find in every Christian congregation, in every Christian denomination in Batesville, Arkansas.

Today, I left the confines of Batesville to visit a church my friend pastors in Cave City.

This morning, as I was heading out to my car a strong, warm southerly breeze was whipping the Spirit within me with excitement just as it did the, long for me, hair on my head. I was exuberant. I couldn’t wait to share in the mutual encouragement I was sure to find as I visited with my friend Randy.

Well, maybe I should address him properly as Pastor Randy Seale.

I was driving out to Cave City, a 40-minute round trip, for the sake of dropping some loving encouragement on a friend in his ministry.

My encouragement tour is based on my understanding of Paul’s teaching and what I believe YHVH’s Spirit within me is calling me to be as my role in Christ’s body.

“For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us … the exhorter, in exhortation; … “

-Romans 12:4-6a & 8a, NRSV

Little did I know that by the remarkable work of the Holy Spirit, my friend was going to be preaching about the topic of service from that same text. I’m always surprised and yet never surprised at how the Holy Spirit works in our midst!

I entered the church with a welcoming wave from Randy. As I returned the wave I made my way into a pew toward the front … but not front row … my Baptist roots will not allow that sort of blasphemy! I made it early so I was audience to the finalization of songs that would be performed during the service.

Once those finishing touches were completed, Randy greeted me with a handshake and hug. A warm welcome! Randy, err um, Pastor Seale spent the next few minutes acclimating this Southern Baptist guy to the liturgical nature of the Methodist service.

I’m grateful for that gesture.

While admittedly, I’m not much for liturgies, I can appreciate that many, many believers worship in that way. I did my best to follow the liturgy and speak when I was supposed to speak, being respectful of the order it brought to the service. Liturgy can add to an atmosphere aimed at worship.

As Pastor Seale preached I was most compelled by his discussion of the gift of our presence in the lives of others. He illustrated the concept by stepping down and even having a seat and conversing briefly with a congregant to display the power of presence.

While I sought to encourage my friend, his words encouraged me to continue on in my own venture to insert and inject my presence into churches for the purpose of encouragement. It was as if YHVH’s Spirit gave Randy those words and actions for the sake of confirming in me that I was indeed hearing His voice and finding my role in Christ’s body.

I would be an utter and abject failure if I didn’t mention the cozy and loving reception I received from the members of his church. Many greeted me with sincerity and a passion for giving me a sense of belonging.

I was briefly recruited to help Randy, um Pastor Seale, out with my musical ability and ministry experience. I warned them that I try not to unleash my average singing voice on too many folks in order to spare them. It’s an act of sympathy!

One thing I received an immense blessing from was the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer that was printed in the bulletin. I’ll leave that unspoiled other than to say that this covenant is a powerful statement on contentment and belonging to one’s place in God’s community mission.

Anyway, Cave City has a kind and welcoming congregation at First United Methodist and a pastor who will lead ably into Christ’s mission for loving people. I’m looking forward to an eventual return visit.

You can check out all my church visit blog posts here.

If you like this, you may also like my book as well: What He Said: Living the Sermon on the Mount, Transforming American Culture