Parson to Person

FICTION

Brian Haas is the Pastor of Covenant Community Church.  Having grown up in the church, Brian is the product of conservative-evangelical Christianity of the modern era.  Now, he finds himself facing a number of new experiences, none of them particularly appealing to him: he’s turning 40; his children are moving from childhood to adolescence and into their teenage years; he’s finding that the pat answers he was trained to give others aren’t meeting his own needs; he’s discovering that his modern era conservative-evangelicalism looks a lot more Pharisaic than Christlike.

In this story, the characters and settings are ficticious, but the struggles are real.  They are played out in the lives of Pastors and congregations every day.  Many of the characters and conversations in this story are based on experiences from my own life in ministry.

Excerpt from Parson to Person:

I looked thru my email. I came across this:

From: jaydukes@finley.edu
Sent: 11/15/05 6:56AM
To: Brian Haas
Subject: Concerns

Pastor,
Evelyn and I thought you should know that the couple who visited this past weekend, we saw you talking with them in the foyer after the service, aren’t married! Our Annie goes to school with their children (they have two illegitimate children!!!) and we’ve met them at some school functions. Let’s just say, their family values are very different than ours! We thought you and the elders should know so you can take the necessary action!
In His love, Jay

I stared at the screen. I noticed all the exclamation marks. My eyes were drawn to the phrase that seemed highlighted in the middle by parentheses – illegitimate children. I read again the words “different than ours”. I noted Jay’s expectation that the elders would take action. I know it’s not a laughing matter, but I smiled for a moment imagining church folks making an all out fundamentalist assault on this family after they visited the church – “You pagans need to quit sinning! Get married! Legitimize your kids!”

Then I studied the closing words, ‘In His love’.