I wish there was a fancier, more beautiful word for the special service when someone officially becomes the pastor of a congregation. We use the word installation when we’re putting in new drapes – or replacing our furnace filter. Heck, we install mufflers in our cars. Surely we need a more beautiful word to describe what happened yesterday morning, when Mark Doidge became Holy Communion’s newest pastor . What happened was so much more profound than snapping a replacement piece in for an old part that has worn out, become defective, or gone missing. What happened yesterday felt much more like the dawn of a new day, the start of a new journey, the turning of a page. It felt a little like a wedding, a little like a baptism or christening, and even a little bit like an inauguration. But none of those phrases or metaphors begins to do justice to what transpired. It was amazing.
One caveat: Pastor Mark has in fact been Holy Communion’s pastor since he started there in early September, so what happened yesterday was in some ways a mere formality that in a sense really didn’t change anything at all. But I’m actually really glad that the service happened yesterday, more than a month into his tenure as our pastor, because we found ourselves installing someone who is already our pastor- someone we already know and, I dare say, already love . . . and someone we already know loves us. That makes all the difference and gives the installation service a much deeper sense of joy. We are so thankful for him – and he is thankful for us – and the service thus becomes one enormous outpouring of thanksgiving. That’s why the word installation feels so dry, so sterile, so tepid. It’s what they do at Jiffy Lube. It does not begin to describe what happened yesterday.
First of all, it was neat to see Mark and Heather joined by people that mean so much to them – all four parents, both of their best friends, and a host of other friends, some of who came from as far away as Florida to join in the festivities. That, in and of itself, created a special energy and excitement.
It was especially right that the preacher for this occasion was Pastor Kris Capel, a former pastor at Holy Communion who is now senior pastor of one of the largest and most vibrant congregations in the Twin Cities. She is a force of nature, and she has been an astonishingly skilled and compelling preacher from the first days of her ministry. (Holy Communion was her first call out of seminary.) She was preaching because she is best friend to Heather and of course knows Mark very well- and her fervent recommendation was key to Holy Communion extending a call to him as we did. (When Kris Capel says that someone is really good, you listen very closely.) What she did so masterfully in her sermon was to make it an intensely personal sermon, unique to Mark and who he is – but ultimately the sermon was so much more than a laundry list of his commendable qualities. It was a sermon about what it means to be a servant in the truest, most profound sense of the word. I can’t imagine a more fitting or inspiring sermon for the occasion – and the fact that it was our own beloved Pastor Kris made it even more meaningful.
After all that, the music almost feels like an afterthought, but I think most of the people who were there would be quick to say that it was anything but an afterthought. We harnessed an enormous array of gifts and talents to deliver two stupendous anthems, “A Mighty Fortress” and “Come, Let us Singing” – utilizing multiple choirs, bell choir, brass, organ and piano. I’m not sure the walls and ceiling of our large sanctuary have ever trembled quite as much as they did yesterday morning- but it was so much more than loud. The music was offered up in a sincere spirit of celebration, and I’m not sure who was more excited and pleased – the congregation, Pastor Mark and his special guests, or the musicians themselves. All I know is that the joy was like a current of energy that was almost scary, it was so intensely powerful. And by the same token, when the senior choir offered up the much quieter, tender “Precious,” (a setting of a tender-hearted text from Isaiah) it was a different kind of joy that was no less powerful.
Anyway, the service was an emphatic expression of gratitude for the present and hope for the future – and the tears that I saw in more than one set of eyes, and that I felt rolling down my own cheeks more than once, was all the confirmation I needed that yesterday was one of those astonishing occasions when we know that we have been extraordinarily blessed, and our thankfulness extends far beyond what mere words can say.
Especially an utterly earthbound word like installation!
pictured above: Pastor Kris Capel delivers her sermon. In the front pew are friends and family of Pastor Mark, who is seated right on the center aisle.