Church

We attended the First Methodist Church of Renton. When the church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1967, we became the “First United Methodist Church of Renton.”

Church was a family. We dressed up in our “Sunday best,” Dad in a suit and tie, Mom in a dress. It was never acceptable to wear jeans, shorts, or for that matter, anything you might wear to the beach. We have gotten away from that, and I like it. Some people’s “Sunday best” is a clean pair of jeans. Beach wear is still in appropriate however.

We went to church regularly. The only acceptable reasons to skip were around our cabin or vacations. Weekends were focused on building and with the drive up after work on Friday we generally skipped church on Sunday in order to make headway. Later we used Scout outings, or the occasional ski days. For the most part we were regular irregular attendees. I continue that role even to this day – even the excuses are the same with one addition – Seahawks games – when we have tickets of course.

We met many of our close friends at church, and while we have moved, grown, married, and moved again, we still send Christmas cards and in some cases such as Dad and Mom – vacation together.

I remember many of their names, the Lee’s, Stark’s, Westpfahl’s, Abrahamson’s, Holm’s and Wieman’s (sic).

I remember Steve, Karen, and Sandra; Sue, Carol, and Lesa; Carol and Linda; Tim and Tom; Nancy and her sister; Larry and his… Also Sandi and Matt from youth group!

Church was a safe place. When I was in Kindergarten, I had a friend from class I wanted to have over at the house to play. His name was Jonathon. We would meet at the Church to play in the sand while his father and my Mom chatted. You see, it was 1962, and it simply wouldn’t be right for a black boy to be at a white boy’s house – and his father certainly couldn’t come over. I never understood why at the time.

Church is where my Dad and Mom first taught me about volunteering. Mom counted money on Monday mornings in the church office with lady’s from church – Mary I specifically remember. In the summer we hung out in the church exploring or outside playing.

Dad would sign us up to be ushers. The head usher would get the sanctuary ready before service so we always arrived early when Dad was the head usher. We carefully placed the offering plates at the front pew (we kept them in a closet during the week), filled up the baptismal font (never knew if someone would be baptized), straightened the hymnals, the attendance sheets, sharpened pencils and replaced if necessary and stood at the doors – and ushered people to the pew of their choice. I still usher today, and have tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to get Chad to usher too.

Being Methodists meant lots of food. Fellowship hours were always full – and the opportunity to be the family servers was an honor. There were never empty signup slots for any jobs – at least not that I remember.

We had potlucks – and still do at Sumner. At Renton it seemed like once a month we had a Church Dinner. Everyone was there because church was the family.

Dad also gave lots of presentations at work over the years – he would practice his toastmaster speeches at home. I wanted to emulate his comfort of speaking in front of audiences. Church was the perfect place. It was where I first spoke in front of a couple hundred people. I read Bible Verses and made announcements about youth activities.

Like I said before, church was a safe place – here I could even sing with very few people cringing or plugging their ears.

- Craig