Meet Veronica

Dear Pastors

Meet Veronica

Veronica (or Vonny as she prefers to be called) shows up at your church. She heard about your church, I mean the church you are Pastor of, through a friend at work and a leaflet she found in her letterbox a few weeks later introducing your church. She liked what she both heard and read…..she really liked it. Words like ‘you are welcome here’, and ‘come as you are’ and ‘we love doing life together’ and she was especially grabbed by the phrase ‘no perfect people allowed’.

So a few Sundays ago she decided to come along. She felt good being at your church. The people seated by her were friendly enough, the music was a pleasant surprise, she loved the fact that there were young people around her age in the room and the Pastor presented a good talk. As he closed off his talk he invited any people who would like prayer to come to the front and he (or a member of the Prayer Team) would love to pray for you.

Vonny thought she would go forward. You see, life isn’t easy for Vonny right now. In fact she is facing all sorts of challenges both with her relationships and also some dissonance and internal conflict on the inside. So Vonny decides to quietly go forward.

It turns out Vonny is a really thoughtful and kind person. She stands about 6ft 3inches, solid (as in muscly), former rugby league player with quite a deep voice. She is wearing a colourful dress and a beautiful blouse. And oh you notice she has about 3 days of stubble on her face.

You do what we all do as pastors. You greet her warmly, introduce yourselves and sit down on the front row and start a conversation. A couple of things are immediately clear. She is transitioning. She identifies as a women. She wants to be referred to by the pronoun ‘she’. And it doesn’t take long before it becomes evident that she is feeling quite unhappy and uncertain about her future.

Now for a few questions.
1. How will you interact with Vonny?
2. What will your body language be like?
3. Will you respect her wishes?
4. What will you say and what will you pray?
5. Will you put your hand on her shoulder as you would normally do or even place your hand on her head as you pray?
6. You know people are watching. How dies that impact on this moment?
7. What are you going to say to folks afterwards when Vonny has gone home?
8. Will you follow up this interaction with Vonny in some way?

And then you go home for a quiet lunch but your mind is ‘noisy’………really noisy……it’s racing and full of all sorts of thoughts. And in the midst of it all it seems The Lord speaks to you and says, [your name], this is exactly what it means when you say ‘come as you are’ and ‘no perfect people allowed’.

Pastor. I present you with this case study, this scenario today because I would like us all to think through how we will respond to not only ‘transgender’ people but anyone who shows up struggling with their sexuality? How will you talk about this issue publicly? How will you bring to reality a ‘come as you are’ culture in your church and how will you train your people to respond?

And BTW, Veronica means, “she who brings victory, true image”.

Blessings
Alan

Announcement:
Revitalise is a half day gathering for Pastors and Christian leaders in Hamilton on the 18th March 2021. Don Barry is the Keynote speaker. Information and Rego details can be found here. It’s not to late to register.