MY FIRST BLOG POST

Pastor Andrew Cooney   -  
Welcome to our Pastor’s blog.   If your reading this it’s either because you clicked on the wrong thing, or you were semi-interested in what a pastor had to say.  Frankly, we are hoping it’s more the second choice.  🙂
 
The early vision for this is to give you a place where you can see some of the things we are thinking and get a sense of who we are as people.  It will not be a place to promote church events, and it likely will be less polished than some other forums since the goal is to share thoughts with you rather than writing essays.
 
God created us as people before he made us pastors–some people forget that.  Like teachers in the grocery store, we sometimes get interesting looks from people when they see us in “civilian clothes” standing in Walmart.  It’s both funny and challenging.  Not long ago I had some church folks walk towards me at Home Depot.  I said hi to them.  At the time I had on shorts, a t-shirt and a ball cap (it was Saturday after all).  One of them looked at me, smiled and said hi in return with a look that indicated he knew who I was.  The wife looked at her husband and said:  Who is that guy?  He said–in that awkwardly loud but trying to be quiet voice:  He’s the pastor of our church.
 
True.  Even pastors go to Home Depot.  I wasn’t in my typical uniform so it took a moment for the light to come on and the look of recognition to register.
 
Now, I have a friend (a UM pastor)  who retired last year and I have not seen him since.  Every time I saw him (over the course of 25 years) he was wearing a shirt with a clergy collar–the one with the white tab collar that you often times see a priest wearing.  Every time–in his office, at meetings, around town.  Since he retired I have wondered two things:  1. Did his pajamas have a clergy collar?  2. Did he throw out those shirts after he retired?  We are friends, BTW, so I would ask him those questions to his face if we met tomorrow.  Maybe I should just call him and ask!
 

I own one of those shirts.  It’s been 20 years since I last wore it.  I’m not opposed to wearing it, but people respond to you differently when you wear it.  It’s worse than having a giant “S” on your chest and a cape (and red boots–get the picture?).  There can be a real and deep distance and even a level of distrust that I’m not sure superman encountered.  Despite that, you would not have caught my friend in Home Depot without that shirt.  Two different people–both pastors.  Just the way we are–and we were both good with that.  I’m secretly hoping he kept the shirts by the way–and that they still fit him.  Retirement can be bad for the waistline.

I confess I like the awkward moments in Home Depot.  Our humanity is a gift from God and sometimes people interact differently with me when they start with the thought that I am a fellow human on a spiritual journey with them rather than the “pastor” thought.  Sometimes I cultivate that a bit.  It’s why I’m willing to climb on the church roof to film the children’s sermon because I think some people will listen differently knowing that pastors are real people.
 
My preaching reflects some of this, but this blog will reflect more of it.  So, I hope you join us as we share our hearts with you from week to week.
 
Thanks for reading!
 
Andrew