West Cocoa Chat

I had one of those Sundays yesterday that makes people in “leadership” positions in any church long for the days of being “just” a member. Our church is taking baby steps towards moving away from a “high church” / traditional model. One of those baby steps is occurring in the “all-important” ministry of announcements. Our Deacon of Worship is attempting to make the announcements inviting to visitors by being warm and funny as well as setting the tone for our worship service at the conclusion of the standard church announcements.

One of the men that takes a turn at announcements was a close personal friend on my departed Father. This man knew me as a child. He was asked by our Deacon of Worship to come down off our raised platform and stand among the congregation holding a “hand-held” mic. He summarily resigned from making announcements and then made a bee-line for me, the nearest elder at hand. He told me that he was 73 years old and he wasn’t about to change how he did announcements.

If anyone is browsing this blog and you happen to be of the “older (I’m almost 47) persuasion,” I would appreciate the answer to a question. Is there any hope of me still being “coach-able” at an older age should the Lord grant me many more years on this Earth? Maybe I’m just from another planet (I was accused of this when I made a controversial call at the end of a basketball game I was officiating some years ago) but it just seemed to me that asking one to change his location to make announcements wasn’t that big a deal? I was always taught that you respected and worked with the leadership of any organization when they asked you to “tweak” something you were doing to enhance it’s performance.

We have “older folks” at our church that are flexible as well as congenial. Are they an aberration of the human species and I ask this not to be sarcastic. I just honestly want to know if there’s any hope for me, personally, to remain coach-able or will old age set in on me as well causing me to find some tradition(s) that I will hold on to with all the vigor of a pit-bulldog.