“Covenant Stories” by Gordon Atkinson
Gordon Atkinson (aka Real Live Preacher) is someone I look up to as an example of what a faithful Christian and church pastor should like. Gordon is the pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in San Antonio, where Brooke and I went for a Franciscan Retreat last summer. Over the past few months Gordon has been writing short stories about the time he has spent at Covenant. I find these stories quite meaningful and I look forward to each week’s new edition. Here’s a bit from this week’s story:
I met George at a sandwich shop to talk, and in that conversation he confessed that he would like to come to church, but he felt it was a problem that he did not believe in God. I asked him why he wanted to come to church if he didn’t believe in God. He told me he remembered the hymns they sang in church when he was a boy. He thought he would like to hear that music again before he died [George had AIDS].
I shrugged my shoulders. “Okay, come to church. People come to church for all sorts of reasons. Just sit there and sing hymns. You don’t have to do anything else. We won’t bother you or try to get you to convert or join or anything.”
and later:
I don’t have time to tell you how George became a Christian, and I don’t remember in any case. We never asked him. We just let him sing on Sundays and come to church picnics and be with us. We became his adopted family, you might say. One day George pulled me aside and said, “I think I’m ready to be baptized and become a Christian.”
“Really?” I said. I was surprised. “What happened?”
He scratched his beard. “Well, I don’t know for sure if there is a God. I still kind of doubt it, to be honest. But I started praying. I’ve been calling God ‘Dad.’ You know, like, ‘Hey Dad, can I talk to you for a moment?’ Do you think that’s okay?”
“Sure,” I said. “God, Dad, Father, Creator, Abba, whatever.”
You can read the rest of the story at The High Calling, where Gordon is posting these stories.
