“Listening Post”
Last month, I promised you an update on the new Listening Post that we have been operating at 8th Street on Sunday afternoons, since the first Sunday of May. This new ministry was started and has been coordinated
by Board member Janet Pitt of St. Luke’s UMC, who has been an active member of the Vision Team for the missional expansion of “Alive in Christ on Saturday Night” since its inception in June of 2007.
I am writing this column and sending it to the printer just before the volunteers who have made the Listening Post work meet for their first official evaluation session for the first three months of our new ministry, so I must be somewhat cautious in what I write here. I can tell you that the ministry features the volunteer presence of trained listeners, who are Spiritual Directors and Stephen Ministers in Central Oklahoma. We have had at least two listeners present in the sanctuary each Sunday, from 1:30-3:30pm, sitting at little tables with candles for whomever might want to benefit from their presence and training. Numbers of people coming each week have been small.
At the same time, there have been several people coming each week who prefer to remain downstairs to enjoy lemonade, cookies and coffee, as prepared and served by members of the Unity Class at St. Luke’s. In that more informal setting, people who have been part of our Saturday evening congregation come to escape the heat and the isolation of life on the street, seeking to be accepted and affirmed by Christian people who care. While our downstairs setting has not offered the privacy that is available upstairs, each week 4 to 10 people come and go, generally requesting a conversation with a caring volunteer.
Dr. Ed Beckham, clinical psychologist and long-time Sunday School teacher at Church of the Servant, is another charter member of our Vision Team. He helped establish some essential guidelines for the Listening Post and will be guiding our first quarter evaluation what we have accomplished and where the Holy Spirit is leading us in this attempt to provide spiritual guidance and affirmation for some of our most valuable lower income neighbors. I am confident that this new ministry of Skyline has a promising future role in Skyline’s place in the mission of our Conference to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”.
Your brother,
The Rev. Dr. Dale G. Tremper
Executive Director
