June 27 - St John's Des Moines

My original plan for Sunday, June 27 had been to worship with Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, but there was a problem. And the problem is proof that being a good pastor sometimes requires just a little bit of hypocrisy.

The problem was that Pastor Householder was not scheduled to be the preacher on Sunday, June 27. Pastors (myself included) play a lot of strange games with their congregations. For example, when I’m going out of town for a Sunday or two, I try not to advertise it. I don’t lie about it, but I don’t go out of my way to promote it either. The reason is simple, attendance drops a lot when people know that their pastor is gone.

I’m not sure why this is. Maybe people remember bad experiences with visiting pastors. “Today instead of our normal sermon, we’re going to have 2 hour slide show of our recent trip to Uzbekistan.” Or maybe it’s like mom and dad being gone for the night, “Oh come on, they’ll never know.” Whatever the reason, it’s true and I’ve always thought it was unfortunate. But on June 27, I did something very similar for the same reason: ‘I’m not going to that church today, because the pastor is gone.’

I’m a hypocrite. I admit it. My kids have known it for a long time. There I’ve said it, and I feel better.

So instead attending Lutheran Church of Hope on this weekend, I rearranged my schedule and bumped St. John’s Lutheran Church in downtown Des Moines up on the batting rotation. (Let me be clear, they weren’t a second choice, they just came sooner than I had originally planned. I don’t want to hurt any feelings unnecessarily.)

I love St John’s! At least what I know of it and what I’ve experienced of it.

Established in 1865, St John’s currently claims about 2,500 baptized members. I suspect this number is functionally overstated because their average worship attendance is less than 400. It’s a small point, but worth noting. If the membership number is accurate, then St John’s worship attendance is about half of what would be expected in a normal ELCA congregation. If on the other hand, the worship figure is accurate (and I suspect that it is), then a better estimate of “real” membership would be about 1,200. There is something interesting in all of this.

The best part of worship at St John’s is the sanctuary. The sermon, the music, the liturgy, the people, they were all great the Sunday we visited. But the space in which these things happened, that was the best thing.

It’s hard to describe and perhaps everyone has a different experience of the idea space. In St John’s sanctuary, the proportions feel right to me. The church is big; I am small. The Word in all its forms (preaching and reading) are a little removed and above me physically, as they are spiritually. If you sit near the front as Joe and I did, it is a long walk into and out of worship, just as it takes me some time to enter into or leave a worship state of mind. If Lutherans had cathedrals, St John’s would be the natural choice for our synod. It’s a great congregation in a great space.

So, I’m thankful for those who built St John’s and for those who are building it still.

Peace,

Pastor

PS – I may have a new favorite book, more on that soon.