Last November I met a pastor from Chicago’s Willow Creek Church.  We were both at a conference in Seattle.  He told me about a project he had started called “Wedding Pastors USA dot org.”  He also invited me to put my own page up on the site.

The impetus for Wedding Pastors is that many pastors are unwilling to do weddings for people who are not members of their own church.  Therefore Wedding Pastors offers this service to people who would like to have a pastor help them through this important moment.  I now have a page at that website, and people looking for a pastor in the Merced area can find me.

I recently schedule my first Wedding Pastors wedding service, and I am elated.  I hope that as time progresses the word will spread, and I will get more such opportunities.  I think it is a grand way to be of service to the community.

I’ve also gotten three other wedding invitations recently.  I feel really honored about that, because I’ve been asked, not as the official representative of their church, but because I’m their friend.  That is, I think, a good foundation on which to build ministry—friendship and trust. 

Funerals remind me that life is a full cycle of events.  This past week our friend Marie died.  She was in her 80’s and one of the most charming people I know.  Her daughter asked me to preside at the memorial service, which I am honored to do.  I plan to say that Marie is a person I’d like to be like.  She was bright, encouraging, cheerful, not afraid of change, and quite spunky.  I will miss her.

Four weddings and a funeral.  Life is joy and sorrow, and it’s an honor to be invited into lives at all those times.