Pastors head into busiest church weeks

FINDLAY — These last weeks of the year can get hectic. There are holiday celebrations to plan, family to contact, gifts to buy and food to prepare. Pastors, meanwhile, are also planning multiple holiday services and special events at church, along with celebrations with their own family. "We joke, 'This is our Super Bowl,'" said the Rev. Dan Metzger, senior pastor at St. Marks United Methodist Church. "This is when the hours get a little longer." After church services last Sunday, he planned to join the congregation in delivering food to those in need for Thanksgiving, then return to church to set up a stable on the front lawn for the Dec. 6 live nativity. A father of three children, Metzger planned to follow this by attending a volleyball banquet. "So, are these long days? Yes," he said. "But they're the best days. I have the best job in the world." This year, St. Marks will focus on Christmas through the eyes of Mary. Metzger plans to explore her story, working backward from the end of Mary's life, and see what the church might learn from her. Each year, he tries to tell the Christmas story in "a somewhat fresh way," but mostly he is simply happy to tell the story that he knows people love. He added that retelling the same stories is a part of personal life as well. Over the holidays, "I'm going to sit down and watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas,' because that's what I do every year. Do I know the story? Absolutely. I'm going to watch it anyway." The Rev. John Drymon, rector at Trinity Episcopal Church, said of the Christmas story, "There is this desire to say it differently, say it with more creativity, say it with more pizzazz or something like that. But, having done this … I've been a priest for 16 years, and have discovered that the Christmas story never gets old. You just have to tell the story." On Christmas, Metzger may see extended family of regular parishioners who are visiting Findlay for the holidays, or people who live here but only go to church on Christmas and Easter. "That's great, and I hope that they get something out of it," he said, adding that he would love if they were interested in coming back to hear more, but mostly he is glad that this tradition "feeds their hearts and souls. ... I think the Christmas story draws them in, but also, just Christmas in general. It's the music. It's the lighting the candles. It's hoping to walk out at the end of the service and have some snow flurries falling. It's the beauty of that season that people are, I think, longing for. And whatever ways we can give that to them, we will." Along with the traditional religious story of Christmas, Santa is a theme at the home of the Rev. Tucker O'Leary, senior pastor at First Lutheran Church. He and his wife have three young children and, while the family is aware he cannot be home as much this time of year, he spends as much time with them as possible. Drymon's in-laws will stay with him and his wife on Christmas. "In addition to being the priest who does all of the churchy stuff, I am also the cook," he said, adding that it's by choice and he finds cooking relaxing. Along with the feast and the gifts, his family's Christmas will end with the English traditions of Christmas crackers and flaming pudding. Traditionally, families prepare the Christmas pudding the Sunday before Advent, boiling down raisins and mixing ingredients. The pudding rests for a month. On Christmas, Drymon will steam it again, then pour brandy on it and set it on fire. "And the Christmas pudding is sort of like Advent," he said. "You stir it up and then you leave it. And you don't know how it's going to turn out in a month's time. It's all expectation. And then, guess what? On Christmas, every year, it's worked. It's come out." Metzger said the season involves a lot of planning, and the entire church staff works as a team. "So that's No. 1 – you've got to surround yourself with good people," he said. "And I'm thankful that we've been able to do that." He determines what needs to be done immediately and what is less urgent, and emphasizes the importance of "a lot of good communication," particularly with his wife, Holly. Metzger's parents are also his neighbors, and can help provide transportation for one of their granddaughters if necessary. O'Leary relies on "a really anxiety-producing Google Calendar" to manage his church and home lives. And he said the season's juggling involves remembering that things may change unexpectedly. "I love having a plan for things but ... The best thing that I learned in my undergraduate in North Carolina was from a professor who looked at me and said, 'If you want to be in ministry, you need to remember about the best way to make God laugh. And that's to say that you have a plan,'" he said. Drymon, too, said surprises are just part of the season. "Honestly, the best moments are when things don't quite go to plan," he said. "When, you know, the altar server doesn't quite ring the bell at exactly the right time, or somebody swings that censer a little too hard and a little bit of burning something goes on the ground. Just these reminders that it's not about us. And God is still praised. And, whatever we do, however we mess it up as imperfect human beings, Christ will still be born and Christ will still return. And God will still be praised." While this is a busy time, it also brings its own rewards. O'Leary said he enjoys seeing people he hasn't seen in a long time. And throughout the year, but especially on Christmas Eve, the congregation's children present him with pictures they have drawn. "So sometimes I'll put them on my wall," he said. "So that way, throughout the year, I can look at them and just be like, 'Yeah, that's right. This is why I'm doing the work.' Because I'm doing it for those kids." "You put in a lot of effort," Metzger said. "I crash on December 26 — really, Dec. 25. I crash. We open the presents and then I take a nap. And I definitely look forward to that time between Christmas and New Year's to just kind of catch my breath a little bit." But the work, too, is especially rewarding this time of year. "My favorite day every year is Christmas Eve, at the end of that service, when I get to look out and everybody's lighting their candles and singing 'Silent Night'. I have the best view in the house, getting to watch this," Metzger said. "And you have that moment when all is calm, all is bright. It's wonderful. This is beautiful. And I definitely try to have those times where I pause and just have gratitude for what it is I get to do, what it is that we are doing together, and the way that God is just moving in this church and in this community. It fills me with a lot of joy."