Homecoming

Over a year ago, my colleague Matthew – pastor of the church I served from 2001-05 – contacted me about preaching at homecoming.

I told him I was covered up and offered to come next year.

Well, next year rolled around, and he contacted me and reminded me I was coming this year.

The annual homecoming of a church community is a beautiful thing. It is a strong tradition for a Sunday to be set aside when you have a former pastor come and preach.

Sometimes, it is an anniversary of when the church was founded.

Most are in the summer, which coincides with vacations when family and former members could come.

Whenever the special day comes, there is lots of food and fellowship. Oh and the singing: on Homecoming Sunday, the choir or guest singers would outshine the heavenly chorus.

One of the great joys is to catch up with folks, and see the children and grandchildren of the people you love and served.

You recall all the good memories and they greatly overshadow the bad ones.

You give thanks for the lives of the saints that have gone and joined the communion of saints.

During my time at Glencoe United Methodist Church, we were very active in the community with youth sports and service.

We built a new fellowship hall/educational wing, almost entirely by the hands of the members. I called in favors I will never be able to repay and saw the Lord make things happen.

Close to the building being finished, the crawl space had to be covered with plastic.

I thought I better not do this by myself, in case something happened while I was underneath the building.

I paid a few of the youth to hang around the entrance until I came out.

The crawl space got narrower the further I went in and it was almost like exploring a cave. I didn’t get stuck, run across any spiders or snakes or faint.

It never occurred to me, “I shouldn’t have paid the boys before I crawled in.”

I often ask churches I coach a question: are the best days of your church behind you or ahead of you?

It gets the faithful thinking. Great things have been accomplished in the past but the Lord calls us to do greater things. Homecoming is a time to dream of the greater things.

I cherish many memories from my time at Glencoe and one still makes me smile.

I stopped by the nursery during choir practice to say hello and two young ladies were saying a young boy had a dirty diaper and they didn’t want to change it.

I told them, “I’m not afraid of dirty diapers,” and grabbed the wipes and a diaper and laid
the boy on the changing table.

As I undid his diaper, a stream hit me and my shirt was wet.

The young ladies ran out of the nursery laughing hilariously and had to tell the choir.

I told the choir, “I baptized Trey; it was only fitting he returned the favor.”

Eric Reece is the faith columnist for The Graham Star. He is pastor of Robbinsville United Methodist Church and be reached via email, ereece@wnccumc.net.