Lime Green Ministry

Three days before annual conference, Jill Daniel, student pastor at Wellington UMC for the past three years, called to ask me a question: should she wear conservative brown or lime green for the commissioning service? That really is not so odd a question for her to ask me, since I consider her my friend and colleague. And if you can't ask a friend what color to wear at commissioning, who can you ask? I do not remember the first thing I said, but I ended up saying, "Yes, of course" (which is something Jill says often) ...yes, of course, wear lime green" and she did. A beautiful flowy, chiffony dress with layers and she even wore lime green jewelry. And her wonderful husband Ken wore a lime green sports shirt. They were glorious in living color. However, that is not Jill in the picture nor is it HER lime green dress....or mine.

In our short conversation, I got it that Jill was saying more than that she liked lime green better than brown. She wants her ministry to be lime green and not brown. There is a time for brown--when a non anxious presence is needed--however, I think that non-anxious presence is too often an excuse for a pastor who would rather stand around and smile and say "there-there" instead of having the courage of his or her convictions. And non-anxious presence of course is good if everybody in the church is in a ruckus. Brown is good when it is time for a wedding or a funeral or most other milestone type worship where the Solid Rock needs to be represented.

However, I, like Jill, want to have a lime green ministry, and to tell you the truth I think I have pretty much had one to this point. I now have entered the gates of metaphor just to let you know. I want to be alive and joyful in ministry; I want to dare to be a little different; I want people to know that the Lord live in my heart in loving color, in nuances of color, and that my heart is a prism through which his light bounces off and out so that it is not my own lime green folks see, but the gorgeous twinkling, sometimes muted, sometimes bold colored rays of light of the Lord.

And a note to the McMurry folks reading this---I do not own a lime green dress. But I sure am looking forward to being in a joyful, living ministry with you.