Some Things You Can't Learn in a Seminary Classroom

This weekend provided me with two very different, yet valuable learning experiences.

1. Being willing to do any sort of maintenance work on the church building will earn you your way in with the building and property committee and the respect of most of the men of the church.

Saturday morning was a church work day and my second day on the job. I arrived at the church at 8am in some grubby clothes ready to do some cleaning and maybe plant some flowers around the church. (This is what a church work day entails at my home church.) However, this church was serious about their work day. Before long, I was hanging out of a third story window cleaning up some debris that was caught in the window box. Soon I was all the way out the window and standing on the little landing that was maybe a foot and a half by 5 feet. Once all the big debris had been picked up, I used a shop vac to really get the landing clean. Then I climbed out another window landing that the pastor had been cleaning up and I tarred the space.

Myself, the male pastor, and about ten other men ... four hours of working at the church ... it was quite the morning.

2. Saturday afternoon was the church picnic. It was a great chance to meet congregation members. It also reinforced the fact that I am in the deep South for the summer.

While there were hamburgers and some hotdogs at the picnic, the main food item was crawfish. At a crawfish boil, the crawfish are purchased live and then poured into large pots to be cooked. Once done, they are emptied onto large tables. Everyone gathers around and eats them.

I was brave enough to approach the crawfish tables immediately after the prayer. Everyone was very willing to teach me how to eat crawfish. You have to take one, twist it, and snap it in half. Then you can choose to suck the head or not; (apparently there are really yummy juices in it) that would be something I chose not to do. Then you have to break off the top portion of the shell tail and squeeze the little bit of meat out. It's a whole lot of work for a little bit of food. It was a little too spicy for my liking, but I did eat five. After that I had to leave the crawfish table because it just wasn't appetizing to look at it all.

Pot lucks and church picnics differ by region. Know your context and be willing to try new things.