Coworkers, Colleagues, and Friends

This post serves as an announcement of staff changes at First Presbyterian Church, but also much more. Tina Brumley has been reducing her hours a great deal in order to have more time for her grandchildren. We'll call this a retirement from the Church Secretary position. Steve Freeman has accepted the position, and for the short term, Tina is continuing on an hourly basis to train Steve and serve as his "tech support" desk while he learns the ropes. Tina will continue as Children’s Worship Leader.

Since we've just passed the Labor Day weekend, I'll first appreciate the labor that Tina has done while here. Tina has been serving this congregation faithfully since Jo Ann Rains retired and transitioned the job to her. She is a conscientious worker who cares a great deal about doing things right by this congregation. She has been a good steward of her job and of the church's resources, recycling bulletins and offering envelopes, making sure lights are turned off when possible, greeting contractors as they come to work on the grounds, or plumbing, electrical, or HVAC issues. She made sure our bills were paid and tracked our finances. Money given for a purpose was tracked and spent only on that purpose. She faithfully prepared all the reports that session needs to govern and manage the business of

our church. I'm sure all of this is unsurprising; Tina has been a good and faithful worker.

As a coworker of Tina's, I'll add that I appreciate much of her particular ways of doing this job. She was a kindergarten teacher in her first career, my mom was also a kindergarten teacher, and because of that connection I think I particularly appreciate what I'll call her mastery of office paper crafts. She said that when she was teaching, she was known as the queen of the copy machine, and I have witnessed her skill, cutting, copying, and recopying various parts of bulletins and newsletters seamlessly together to make a perfect whole. Invaluable to me when I first got here was Tina's help in navigating the Who's-Related-to-Whom part of a small-town congregation. At one point, I gave up asking one-off questions, and we sat down together and used our office-paper-crafting skills to make a large page of family trees of the congregation.

Tina has been much more than a coworker. She has "held God's people in her heart" as she's done this work. That makes her a colleague in ministry, with us both working to the same goal: the care of the congregation and the advancement of its mission. She has been sensitive to alert me to events in the community, for instance, people beyond the congregation that might be sick or grieving for whom the congregation would care deeply. She has found ways to enable and empower volunteers as we do the work of the church, creatively thinking of supplies they may need, and anticipating other needs no one had thought of (like allergy-safe Halloween candy). She has also served as another voice in the newsletter, giving us a gentle dose of Dickens at Christmas or A. A. Milne any time. To be fair, she was doing that before I got here, and I'M the other voice. As I got to know Tina, I realized that her kindergarten teacher heart and mind and craft-hands would be perfect for the Children's Worship materials that I brought from Atlanta. As good as she is with office paper crafts, her joy really comes out in using those same skills for the kids. THIS. THIS joy is the sign that someone has found their vocation, their calling. THIS proves that what she does is a real ministry.

Working closely with someone, you learn their personality. Tina is curious and good-hearted. She enjoys learning things, especially about geography and even more so if it has to do with volcanoes. She and I tried a big origami project together as a mental break from the weekly grind (sometimes challenging, since she was copying me left-handed). She cares for living things: her dogs and grandkids, of course, but also stray animals, yard-critters like toads, and even spiders (which she would never squish, but would gently capture and release outside instead). Accomplishing things together makes us more than coworkers or even colleagues. As I'm sure she is to all in the congregation and beyond, Tina is a friend.

Tina's time and work as a church secretary serves as an object lesson for all of us. Jesus called disciples. They learned from him; he sent them to serve one another and others in the world. In John 15:15 he called them friends; he calls US friends. Paul had coworkers; he didn't do things alone. He had coworkers like Silas and Timothy and Lydia. He had colleagues like Junia and Priscilla and Aquila and Silas. He had colleagues for encouragement and challenge like Timothy and Barnabas. He had friends like Titus and Tabitha. This is how we do ministry: together with others. In I Corinthians 15 it says those who labor in the Lord labor not in vain. As we labor in the Lord--as we work and serve as colleagues--we labor not in vain. We experience the love of Christ and the Holy Spirit empowers us to love each other and we become friends. As much as the programs and work-products we work on, THESE relationships are our reward.

--Chas