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Season Ticket Holders · 12 July 2006

Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I Thessalonians 5:26 (NIV)

Back when I was growing up in a small church, everybody pretty much sat in their assigned seats in the sanctuary. They had their “season ticket” seats and everybody knew where everybody else sat. My parents and our family used to sit on the right side of the third pew on the right side of the church as you faced the altar. George and Dorothy used to sit behind us. I do not know if it was just being creatures of habit or if the seats there were more comfortable or whether the acoustics were nicer there but we sat in the same place all the time.

Other people, whether they grew up in small or large churches must have had similar experiences because they all laugh when Pastor Nate (or any preacher for that matter) mentions “season ticket holders.” I have not attended a large church like Cascade Community Church for very much of my life but I do know that being a season ticket holder is not just a comfort thing. For me, being a season ticket holder is a way to make a large church (with hundreds of people attending a single service and several services being held every weekend) feel small and intimate.

I used to think that there was no way that I would ever attend a large church. When I was in college, I attended University Presbyterian Church near the University of Washington a few times. It was huge and I did not know anybody there so I did not make it my home church. When I first came to Cascade, I thought, “This church is huge!” and did not know if it could be my home church. I felt that I could meet God here but I wondered if I could meet others and really build relationships in a church so large. We have now attended Cascade for several years and have become season ticket holders. We sit in the same place during the same service. We often see the same people. Kerry and Jill usually are in front of us and we enjoy greeting them each Sunday. We may not have really gotten to know them if we had not been “randomly” placed into the same Forty Days of Purpose small group. Over to our far left are Martha, Sue, and Rick who we may not always talk to but who we usually wave and smile at. Closer but also on our left is Joyce, Thor, and Janey. We exchange pleasantries and even though we only see each other on Sunday, we enjoy getting to know each other little by little.

When I sit down for service, there is comfort sitting in the same place each week. That security and comfort comes not just from being a comfortable creature of habit but from knowing that as I look around the sanctuary there are familiar and friendly faces. Other season ticket holders around us and throughout the room make the large church a little smaller.

I do not need to know everybody at church but seeing Jill and Kerry in front of us and Thor and Janey and Joyce somewhere near us and Martha, Rick, and Sue over to the left of us and many of the people that we may not remember their names but who we recognize and greet gives me a sense that the church might be large but it can still be friendly and intimate. Everybody in the church might not know who sits in the right side of row three during the first service but those who sit in that area weekly do. Season ticket holders are probably the lifeblood of every church but in a large church such as Cascade they also help make attending service a smaller more intimate experience than it would be without them.

By the way, when we go back to visit my mom and dad, we all still sit in the same pew (and a couple extras if my siblings and their families are there too). I guess in some churches season ticket holders can keep their tickets for generations.

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One-Hundred Unique Words · 8 September 2003

A challenge in the Parade magazine in the Sunday newspaper said to write a paragraph of one-hundred unique words. No repeats. Below is my result.

One, two, three, four are words that I can not use any more. But five, six, seven, eight still sound really great. As the count gets higher less choice exists for a completely unique paragraph with no repeated phrases. However, having dictionaries near at hand, stalwarts will undoubtedly create works worthy of praise. After all, ten-thousand different nouns, adverbs, adjectives, etc. could come together in inspired minds. Perhaps even coherently. True difficulty arises from heavy reliance on pronouns, prepositional preponderance, be-verb abuse, few conjunctions, limited articles, and little exposure to literary creativity. Somebody should also mention something about cavalier attitudes. Nevertheless, counting verbiage thus far yields greater than one-hundred. Challenge complete. Job done. None too soon. (First couple lines were probably cheating, okay. Without them made it anyway.)

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Quality Time · 25 October 1998

“Quality Time.” Whoever thought up that concept probably did not have any kids. I have come to this conclusion after spending the last three years with my seven-year old son, Zachary, and the past three months with my newborn son, Peter. The two of them, especially Peter, have no concept of what quality time is. Zachary is just figuring out what time itself is and Peter is just taking in everything. And regardless of what my kids think of time, I am sure that I do not know beforehand what will and what will not be “quality time.”

The person who thought up the idea of quality time had the right idea in the abstract but nobody has the key to determining what time will be quality and what time will just be. Like beauty, quality is in the eye of the beholder. Or as the saying goes, “I’ll know quality when I see it.” People know quality time when they remember it. Personally, I am glad that I do not have a magic switch that turns time into quality time. I am glad that I can not just schedule my kids’ precious memories into my day. That I need to spend lots of time with my kids just to get a few precious memories.

It is interesting to find out what times our seven-year old thinks are special. He remembers the summer we three got married (I met my wife, Lisa, and her son, Zachary, when he was about 4 years old) and the trip we took to Mount Baker. He remembers the mountain that turned out to be clouds and the sand alligator we made which had eaten part of a man’s arm. We like to make cookies together and I think he will remember baking as our special time. He will also probably remember the trip that we took this summer to a family reunion — being in the car, Yellowstone Park, swimming, meeting and playing with people at the reunion and of course, his brother throwing up in the Safari Room in Wyoming. He will also probably remember all of the animal skins and stuffed animals at the throw-up place. But only he will decide which of the times and events qualify as quality and which do not. I am just glad that we have been able to provide the quantity.

So far with our new baby, every moment together has been special for me. I remember the first time that I ever held a baby was when I held Peter in my arms just after he was born. I was so afraid that I would break him, that I had to sit down and have my wife, Lisa, place him gently in my arms. I know that Peter will not remember the times that we have spent together so far. Or at least not the details. But I do know that because of my experiences with Zachary, I must spend lots of time with both of my kids. Our family will share memories with each other because we spend so much time together. Peter will not remember the walks that we have taken or the trip this summer or even the nine months before we ever got to see him. But I will tell him of when I first held him and his brother spoke from somewhere across the room. Peter tried to find the source of the voice that he had heard almost daily from inside the womb. And it was pure love when their eyes finally met. It is a moment etched forever in my heart and soul and it will be a moment relayed to Peter when he is older. And there will be lots more that he will remember on his own.

I do not know how much quality time I have spent with my wife and children but some day I will. Whether my family remembers a favorite movie that we have seen together or a trip we have taken or just the time we have sat around the dinner table, I hope they all decide that I have given them enough time to get some quality.

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Published 25 October 1998 in The Seattle Times – Essay

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