Today I met with Pastor Hawking and his faithful ward The Hippie. I haven't met with them in a while and they were curious if the izzy group was still around, if we still dispersed ministerial contraband across town anymore, and how The Bossman & I were doing.
Pastor Hawking is probably the only church pastor in this ridiculously religious city that I deeply respect. If the CEO of the freaking universe manifested himself in full 3D form in front of me and pointed a finger at me and said, "Agent B...join a church in the mother city", I'd join Pastor Hawking's church. But only because the CEO made me join a church.
Pastor Hawking has Cerebral Palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. Like most CP folks, he talks with a retarded-sounding voice. When he laughs (usually at his own jokes, which are pretty funny) he sounds like ZZ Top's "La Grange" on super slow-mo ("Ah HAW-HAW-HAW-Haw). The Hippie is also confined to a wheel chair, but has no CP so he's a little more independent. He can drive so he often serves as Pastor Hawking's taxi. The Hippie's a quiet, mild mannered kind of guy, serving the pastor in many helpful ways. For a visual reference of The Hippie, picture a long-haired, handicapped Richie Cunningham. Except he's recently got a haircut but now sports one of those cool outlaw-looking mustaches.
The church Pastor Hawking ministers to is a church of societal rejects. I mean...they're all recovering alcoholics, addicts, quasi-homeless, annoying, ugly, elderly, health problem plagued, and probably people you would not find on church marketing brochures. It's beautiful. And especially the fact that out of this body of 75-100 people, about 80% are new to Jesus. No church transfer growth here folks. This is the real deal.
Pastor Hawking became real interested in Alcoholics Anonymous a while back. He's never drank in his life but he enrolled in a 12 step program so he could meet alcoholics and learn from them. In the process, he created his own Jesus-centered 12 step deal for alcoholics and now people come to his church for free recovery classes.
Pastor Hawking always wears a tie and sometimes a jacket. He says it's not to be pastoral, but because he gets called in to court at least once or twice a week to testify for one of his church members, so he wants to be prepared.
I arrived to his church's building before our planned prayer meeting. I casually gathered data on the surroundings. Like the 5 or 6 buckets in the sanctuary collecting rain water from the ceiling. Like the dumpy 1940's facility that hasn't been updated...ever. Like the second-hand...everything in the building. Then during our meeting they tell me they've been foreclosed on but have until April 2006 to find another facility to minister from, hopefully one that can become a halfway house for addicts.
I know of the big name church in town that owns the note on this property. And believe me...they DON'T need the money for this building. They could give it to Pastor Hawking and not miss it. They have their own huge modern building with a recent addition PLUS new church office structure down the block.
Those bastards.
Why they're sitting their fat asses on new pews and cushy offices Pastor Hawking, The Hippie, and 80 others are feeding people, ministering to the hurting, freezing their ass off in a cinder block building, dodging leaks from the ceiling, and just being real.
They deserve a better property and I guess this is forcing them to look for one. But they have little money. They're saving their pennies for a down payment in case they find something. They had to stop helping the poor with utility bills so they can prepare for the move. I had plenty of advice to offer them on being a church without a home. I know it all too well.
LORD...what gives?? Why does the izzy group and Pastor Hawking's church minister to the poor then get kicked in the groin out in the cold?? When will this all end?? WHERE'S THE JUSTICE?
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8 comments:
man where have you been? haven't you been reading the blogs about how the house church is a cult and the institutional brick and morter church is the true way?
if the mega church lets go of the building they have no control over what might happen there. that is sacred ground... one wouldn't want drunks finding grace, or the lost being found, or god forbid God manifest himself outside a church sanctioned event with in the confines of the sanctuary.
remember, material buildings are all that matter... that is how god works...
duh
sounds like an amazing group of people. that gets me excited about what the church can be at it's best and them getting kicked out makes me cringe for what church can be at its worst.
Dude, you should really try the "40 days of Purpose" with this crew. I think God might then decide to shed his grace and all will be taken care of.
In all seriousness, many blessings upon what you're taking part in. This sounds beautiful!
And you're not making up this bit about a mega-church owning the note on building are you? Makes me want to fall victim to tourets...
Dustin - thanks for stopping by. I've been a big fan of some of your blog posts.
James - I promise to never lie or exagerate on this blog. Pastor Hawking's ordeals are for real. Although Fletch threw in the term "mega-church", not me. And come to think of it, he's right. They are a mega-church.
Hawking's not playing 'victim'. He & The Hippie humbly admitted that their church hasn't held up their end of the deal. They fell way behind on their payments and supposedly they were to pay for maintanence all these years. But it's hard to not go into tourets about the mega-church. My original draft of this post had words other than "bastards". I toned it down for our offensive readers.
Hawking's church building was owned and occupied by a smaller church that merged with the mega church some 10 years ago. So the mega's own it. They sold it to a quasi-charismatic church a year or 2 later and financed the note, I guess. The pastor of the quasi left the ministry and associate pastor Hawking became head pastor.
He once told me, "When I became pastor, I chased after the AA & addict crowd. Which ran off all the churchy people. Ah-HAW-HAW-HAW". His church went from 200 down to about 20. Now they're about 75-100, all recovering addicts with little money (ie: little tithes, etc).
It's the only church I know that has a smoking section on the porch...where the pastor can be found with a cigar at times.
Pastor Hawking & The Hippie...if I was writing a novel, I couldn't come up with better characters than these guys.
dude,
send us some more detailed information about Pastor Hawking's situation. maybe s & s can help out a little bit.
dido to the gentry thing...
but i am only doing it to look like a good christian...
I'll send more detailed info via email only. Post an email address if interested. Thanks for asking.
mike_murrow@hotmail.com
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