A story from the Together conversations: ‘Salad Oil and the Church.’

In his overview of responses to the Together conversation process, Steve Clapp relayed the following story:

A group of Church of the Brethren clergy shared a meal at a Golden Corral Restaurant. Their waitress told them that a friend, another waitress, was about to have a biopsy for suspected cancer and was distraught about it. She asked them if they would pray for her friend, and of course they said they would be glad to do so.

The friend was working at the restaurant at that time, and she joined the ministers at their table. They used a bit of salad oil from the table and anointed the woman for healing in the middle of the Golden Corral! Follow-up calls were made by one of the pastors, and the waitress, at last report, was doing well.

The church at its best has tremendous room for impact on the lives of people in our often troubled world. That group of clergy used the salad oil that was at hand to administer an ordinance that had significant meaning for the woman who received it as well as for themselves. It likely also made an impression on others who were seated near them in the restaurant.

What is the nature of the church?

--Steve Clapp is president of Christian Community Inc. and a member of Lincolnshire Church of the Brethren in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Source: 3/3/2008 Newsline Extra