View from the Chancel: Church-related Writings by a Pastor

View from the Chancel: Church-related Writings of a Pastor collects four e-books I have at Smashwords for free: Sweet Corn from the Pastor, At the Chancel Steps: Talking to the children of the Congregation, Two for the Chancel, and Ol’ Zak, After the Angel: A monologue. I will be charging for the convenience of the collection, but each of the four items can still be downloaded for free.

Sweet Corn from the Pastor: On July 1, 1998 I began my pastorate at the Olathe United Methodist Church on the western slope of Colorado. Barely settled into the parsonage, I began hearing about the Olathe Sweet Corn Festival, how on the first Saturday in August the town expected 25,000 people to descend upon the community park for free "Olathe Sweet" sweet corn which grew in the fields around the town. The one-day event featured food and drink concessions, craft booths, music by local performers all day long, and a rock and roll concert by the Kansas Band when the sun went down followed by a fireworks finale.

My first reaction was: Twenty-five thousand people! That many people in this small town? I found it hard to believe.

But I became a believer that first Saturday morning in August, as I watched the cars parked every which way on Highway 50 and people--young and old, whole families with children--streaming into the park to sit on the grass before the bandstand and eat the delicious roasted and boiled sweet corn. It was then that I got the idea for the name of my pastor's column for the church newsletter: "Sweet Corn from the Pastor." This collection includes a number of articles I wrote for "Sweet Corn from the Pastor." It also includes excerpts of sermons as memoirs. I have always been interested in memory, especially in our memory of God, and I have long thought of my sermons, for better or worse, as memoirs.

At the Chancel Steps: Talking with the Children of the Congregation: As a pastor, I love to sit with the children of the congregation on the chancel steps and have a conversation with them. I try to recognize each child by name, to look into their eyes, to listen to and to learn something about her or him. I try to be spontaneous in responding to what the child brings forth. I also try to be responsive to the child within myself. This book contains some of the strategies I have used in talking with children at the chancel steps.

Two for the Chancel: Easy Button: The serpent tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and to share it with Adam. Their eyes are opened, and Eve plans some improvements to the Garden. The serpent brings an Easy Button to the couple, and they fight over it. But in order to cover themselves before God arrives, they also learn to divide the work, though they each want to possess the Easy Button. Four Drumsticks: At dinner time, Alice, 12, brings up what she’s learning in science class as the family tries to meet everyone’s demand for their favorite part of the chicken. The three children and the father each want a drumstick. There are, of course, only two.

Ol’ Zak, After the Angel: a Monologue: I have a degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a degree from The Iliff School of Theology. Zechariah is struck dumb by an angel, in Luke 3: 7 - 18. His loss of voice becomes a metaphor for me, of forgetting that all things are possible with God. As I entered into ministry after graduating from Iliff, I wondered what would happen in my writing life. Would I doubt the birth of something new and suffer a long period of voicelessness as Zechariah did?