Dear Inner Circle,
I’ll never forget the look of sheer panic in the eyes of a young man in the back row the first time I spoke publicly. He had fallen fast asleep during my presentation and woke with a start, clearly mortified. The poor fellow had been bored to sleep by my content and delivery, and honestly, no one could blame him. Years later at Wayside, when I asked a particularly restless congregation, “Am I boring you?” someone shot back with perfect timing: “You’re the minister—that’s your job!”
That quick rejoinder taught me more about staying engaging than that embarrassed young man did some 25 years ago, and it keeps me much sharper on my feet to this day — most of the time. Waking up in public is a terrifying experience as is driving someone to sleep through boredom!
Recently a mum and daughter came to Wayside, evicted at short notice from the home they’d shared for 40 years. As their world suddenly fell out from beneath them, our people rushed to put solid ground under their feet again.
Their utter disorientation reminded me of the early days of the pandemic, when everything we took for granted was suspended. In those first days our team immediately and courageously took to the streets. This was at a time when this was an act of civil disobedience, but rebellious love demanded nothing less of us, to be where our people were. Our teams were amazing, donning hoodies with our wonderful logo, and stuffing backpacks to overflowing with the essentials for street survival, also often acting as the “bush telegraph” as family frantically tried to keep tabs on loved ones, but were prevented from doing so due to restrictions on movements.
Sometimes these messages and care packages needed urgent delivery and our teams would find the people we were searching for asleep. Gently our teams would attempt to awaken them, moving slowly closer and closer. Upon waking, there was always that moment of fear, however, as soon as the Wayside Chapel logo was sighted, you could see the initial response of fear melt into comfort and security, even still in the pre-cognition phases of response.
Such is the power of the Wayside heart and wings and the six decades of compassion that it represents. If you look closely at the logo, you can see the beams of light shining out from the centre of the heart. There’s a line from a Leonard Cohen song that goes ‘there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’. I think it’s also how the light gets out, one broken heart lighting the way for another.
Thank you for being part of the Inner Circle.
Jon
Rev. Jon Owen
CEO & Pastor
Wayside Chapel