FULL-SERVICE MINISTRY [W, 11-30-22]

 

REFLECTIONS ON FAITH & LIFE FOR THE YEARS OF WINTER: FULL-SERVICE MINISTRY [W, 11-30-22]

The obit of Rev. Larry C. Meadows was in the Princeton, IN newspaper online this week. He was 75. It said, “The last few years, he ministered directly from his front porch.” How neat.

I didn’t know Larry. No opportunity to. We were 10 years and 12 miles and one high school and several denominations apart. But I loved the obit of this tent-maker minister.

Not tents, literally, like the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Larry was an auto mechanic. The obit said he got his first car at age 12 and was a mechanic forever after. He owned and operated the last full-service filling station in the county.

Full-service was the norm for gas stations when I worked at Moe’s, while I was in high school. That place was even more full-service than most, because we had a grocery section, too, where we had to slice the bologna—no prepackaged stuff at Moe’s--as well as a hydraulic lift, in a side building, where we changed oil and lubricated cars. And, of course, we pumped the gas while you sat in comfort in your car. Also we checked your oil and washed your windshield and head lights. FULL service, to be sure.

Larry was also a Pentecostal preacher for 30 years. Served one congregation for 24 years. And then that wonderful line: “The last few years, he ministered directly from his front porch.”

I don’t know the details. I assume that Larry was physically limited in these last years. Maybe couldn’t get beyond his front porch. It’s neat to think about folks he served in his Sunoco station, and folks he served in his churches, just dropping by to hear the Word while having a chat with words.

If you’ve lived the right kind of life, you don’t have to go to the highways and byways to get them to come in. [Mt 22:9-11] They’ll come to you. Especially if you’ve kept both their cars and their spirits running. Full service.

John Robert McFarland