He was 83.
He'd been declining for about a year.
His wife also works at the store.
George was not a church man. So, there was no pastor on the job to take care of his funeral.
Interestingly, his wife, call her Sally, didn't look to a pastor in town to do his, uh, service.
She asked one of the baggers who is about her age to do the service.
The bagger does actually go to a church but he's known more prominently by us all for his deep and courageous love for Jesus and for his kind and gentle spirit.
It occurs to me that the fact that Sally didn't turn to a pastor in her moment of need is a story for our times, even among octogenarians.
Pastors don't mean much in today's world...outside of the institutional church, anyway.
This is evidence of the folly of my Conference's renewed and vigorous focus on pastors in its new New Strategic Plan, adopted a year ago.
Key to the plan is the role of "healthy, life-giving pastors."
When people outside of the institutional church look for spiritual guidance it is...
...and, in the future, no doubt, will be...
...more and more...
...to people they rub elbows with day by day,...
...not to people who stand behind pulpits.
It's long since past time to empower the Priesthood of all Believers, not to try to foist parish priest led churchianity on the world.
Will we ever learn?
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