Pastor
Tony tapped the steering wheel with a bit of impatience and disgust
in being caught in traffic here at the notorious Henderson and 23rd.
He should have guessed this would happen in this 6pm going-home flood
of cars. He was almost grateful that his cell phone rang to get his
mind on other matters. His little caller ID screen said it was his
hardworking Sunday school superintendent calling.
The
phone was flipped open with a cheerful “Hi Mark. How’s my banker
buddy?” “I’ve had a full day of meetings and just got home. It
continually amazes me how people can have so much to say about things
to be done, but don’t seem to get at it. Well… anyhow, Peg said
you wanted to talk to me.” With a bit of a chuckle, “Am I in
trouble again?”
The
young pastor countered with, “No – absolutely not. Mark, is there
any chance you and I can do lunch tomorrow? It’s my treat.”
“Pastor I can meet you at Ben’s Bagels about 12:30. Would that
work?” “Sounds great. That’ll work for me… 12:30 at Ben’s.”
And the phone clicked off.
Pastor
Tony made some morning visits and made sure to print out the picture
of the cardboard thing he saw in Dan and Barbara’s Primary Sunday
school class, the day before.
At
Ben’s the waitress took the orders for sandwiches, banana nut
muffins and iced tea. Tony asked the Lord’s blessings on the meal
and also on the discussion. He then said, “Mark I want to thank you
again for all your help in putting together our Pastor’s
Conference. I’m truly proud of you and all our people.”
“An
object I saw in Dan and Barb’s primary class room has me puzzled
and I hope you can shed some light on it. Here’s a picture I took
of it. Where’d it come from? What’s it do?” He slid the photo
in front of Mark. The cell phone camera didn’t do a very good job
capturing the image but Mark recognized the cardboard thing that
puzzled Pastor Tony.
Mark
smiled big at Tony and slid the photo back to him and said, “That’s
the beginnings of ‘Flour Power’.” Pastor asked, “What is this
then…a Daisies and Dandelions Project for Primaries?” scratching
his head to understand. “No… no… It’s Flour… F.L.O.U.R.
Power. You know, like baking flour. Flour Power… Let me explain.”
Mark
continued the conversation with details and good eye contact with the
young pastor across from him. “About a week before the conference I
met with Dan and Barbara discussing an idea they felt would help
spark interest in their class and be a great method to help teach
spiritual truths from God’s precious word. They both convinced me
that we should move the cowboy and dinosaur themes toward the back
burner and carefully integrate a computer flavor.”
“Dan
was adamant about the change not sending signals that we were to
change our message or mission at all. They both are very sensitive to
not offending anyone or their style. Barb mentioned that churches
today have moved away from the opaque projector and overhead
projector without changing their message or mission.”
Mark
continued, “Barb went on to say, ‘Technology has allowed us to
create and update our presentations tailoring them to the audience
we’re reaching at any given moment. And I’m so glad we also keep
a sharp eye on not watering down God’s message of Salvation and the
God honoring life.’ Dan then told me that it is likely the church
will give serious consideration to us using a computer theme to
supplant some of the cowboy and dinosaur themes.’ Pastor, I
suggested we work on developing the idea a bit, while keeping a close
eye on the direction we’re taking. Do you agree?”
Pastor
said, “Well it sounds good so far. But you still haven’t told me
what the Flour… that’s F.L.O.U.R… stands for. I’m dying to
know.” Mark asked, “Tony, if you’ll allow me, I want to explain
that with a short story I ran across. I think we have time.” A nod
from the pastor started the story.
