no bargaining

    In 1984 we were checking out which church to attend. Hope Lutheran on the east side was where my wife did her Director of Christian Education Internship. She was placed there by Concordia University (formerly Concordia Teachers College in Seward) After her fulfilling her nine months contract, working with the youth and children at Hope, the congregation chose not to hire her. We checked out the Open Bible Church, the New Life Center, the Assembly of God, and a charismatic Lutheran church called Redeemer, just down the street from Drake University.
     I remember calling the pastor on the telephone telling him how my wife and I wanted to attend, and how I had done some religious artwork with the Calvary Lutheran Church for the Deaf, and some larger cartoons that went with the pastor's sermon. I knew he would be interested in this.
     Pastor Hendrickson told me not to bother showing him the artwork. He advised that we come and check out the church services and see if it suited us.
     Not be put off, I told him about banners I could make and offered doing artwork for his church.
     With a gentle voice he encouraged me to come and be. Attend and see what God could do for me. Come and let God minister to you.
     My pitch was not going the way I thought it would. The phone conversation was what not I had expected. After all when I looked at my father and all he did for the St. John's congregation with his art work, and the art pieces he regularly put up in the narthex niche, well, something was amiss here. I mistook the doors that opened up for my father as "privilege." Dad seemed to have this "big following" and I figured it would be that way for me as well. Churches just did not turn down "talent," especially "free" talent.

     We tried the worship service a couple times.

     It became our home church.

     And I learned about the iceberg in me.