talk about a conversation killer

i love what i do. the hard part is that i don’t get to tell many people about it.

scenario: me sitting on an airplane, exchanging pleasantries with the guy next to me. the conversation is going great, nothing too out of the ordinary or deep, but enough to make this flight more enjoyable than both of us pretending the other isn’t there. then the question comes up, “so what do you do?”

man…….

“i work at a church.”

“oh…(head nod)…well…great.”

yet another conversation killer. begin an hour of silence until the plane lands. i’ve thought often of making up a fake occupation for myself, just to salvage a conversation. once i felt the need to go into more details, lots of details, too many details in too short of breaths.

“i’m a worship pastor for a church. i do music, and service programming, leading teams of volunteers and planning. we have multiple venues on sunday morning that give people in our community a choice of options for where to worship. each room has a little different feel, style of music, some have donuts, that sort of thing, I work in the more, uhm, contemporary, modern, alternative, edgy venue, not that the other services aren’t contemporary, we’re just a little moreso, guitars and stuff, appealing to a little younger crowd, but the sermon is preached just in one of the venues. but all the venues get the sermon, it’s just we get it as a video–we pipe it in, it’s simulataneous, well, almost simultaneous, we tivo it. that way no matter where a person worships they hear the same sermon, just because that’s kinda important…(pause)…yeah.”

there was no recovery. i might as well have talked about something i saw on the discovery channel once (did you know there are sharks in some lakes?). we made it through the flight, and i apologized to Jesus the whole time in my head. i guess i should apologize to any church that ever had a chance of connecting with that guy… my bad

but i really do love what i do. really. i’ve had lots of different experiences with church, some better than others, and somehow i made it through and enjoyed it enough to give my workweek to it (and then some). churches aren’t perfect, mine either. but i believe that when all is said and done, churches have the most opportunity to give lives meaning. that’s what i get to work toward everyday. the role i’m in now lets me work in the areas that i feel really strong in, yet it still exposes my weaknesses – something i hate. i hate feeling weak. i’m weak all over the place. but this role stretches me. another thing i don’t much enjoy – stretching. nor do i enjoy cooked carrots and people who slow down when merging…and i guess when i butcher conversations with strangers on an airplane.

~ by bradherndon on January 28, 2008.