And my first month as an official pastor is over and what a way to start this new journey. As I mentioned in one of my sermons in July, my colleagues gave me the confidence to be in charge of the church just a few days after my ordination and installation. Not only did they leave me by myself for fourteen days, they also took my wife, my secretary, and my musician! Some of you have already heard parts of this story, but what I have not shared is how beneficial these days were for me as the sole pastor.
As the final months of planning for the Tanzania trip approached, questions about who would worship in English came up because I had to lead worship in Spanish. After a conversation, the three pastors concluded that it was not necessary to find a substitute for worship in English at 10 a.m. We decided to have the bilingual service at 10 a.m. both Sundays.
We have already had bilingual worship on multiple occasions. This was not new to any of us. What was new was the lack of multiple worship leaders. For previous bilingual worship service, it was easier to know when to listen: English-speakers knew to listen when Pastor Chris or Pastor Tony were speaking, Spanish-speakers knew to listen when I was speaking. But with only one pastor, the congregation had to listen all of the time because you never knew what language I was going to speak. As I was looking out while preaching, I could see that it was a greater mental effort than normal to follow, but I could also tell that everyone did the work. If it became too much and you tuned out, you did a great job covering it!
The different services had different challenges. Because Spanish worship is the same time as 10 a.m. English worship, the attendees at the 10 a.m. service aren’t as accustomed to my accent. But, they persisted and continued with an amazing effort to understand me!
For the 8:30 a.m. worship, we experienced a different linguistic complication. Those worshippers were the first ones to hear me preach that day’s sermon. Afterall, my wife was in Tanzania! At the end of the service, one of you approached me to help me with the pronunciation of the word “yoke.” It was the key concept and the word I said most frequently throughout the sermon. I found out I mispronounced the word. Every single time. Instead of preaching that Jesus came to lighten our yoke, I told everyone that Jesus came to lighten our joke. I guess the joke was on me! Thank you for your grace with what must have been a terribly confusing story about gathering water in El Salvador with a joke and the questionable theology that Jesus came to bring us lighter jokes.
This is the wonderful thing about our multicultural ministry. We will continue to walk and experience new things together as a community. I will of course continue to struggle with some words during my preaching, but also all of you will continue to develop your ears listening to the words of hope, peace, joy and love.
Pastor Edwin
