Save the Town (Pastor David Long-Higgins)

Apocalyptic morning clouds slowly floated over Historic Canal Winchester, marching to the drum of low rumbling thunder that echoed in the wind as I approached the door to David's United Church of Christ. I walked in and, being somewhat familiar with the building, headed straight for the pastor's office.

I remember meeting Pastor David Long-Higgins years ago not by going to his church, but by simply calling him up to talk about life and such. When I walked through the door of his office, he was still the chipper, insightful leader that he was then. I sat down and gave him the update on my life before motioning to the notepad and telling him of the reason why I scheduled the meeting. I told him of my interviews with Pastor Stuntz and Mayor Ebert, and how I wished to include him in this circle of advice on what the people can do to benefit the town.

It was much more informal than my previous interviews. The first thing that came to mind in my search for words was his quote which I shared with the others in my earlier meetings: "When it comes to doing ministry, don't think of it as sprinting. Think of it as running a long marathon."

"What's the marathon that one needs to run in Canal Winchester?", I asked with pen in hand. I was wondering what it was that all of the Canal Winchesterians needed to do to benefit their hometown. Essentially, what is the slow-and-steady that wins the race here? He understood the question and prefaced his answer with, "Jarred, before anything, I want to let you know that I don't claim any originality with what I'm about to tell you."

Humility, as does pride, shows in a person's life much easier than they may think, I thought to myself.

Talking with him was like being firehosed with information and insight. We took a lot of bunny trails to the point where we both stopped and wondered how we got on such and such a subject in the first place. But a consistent point that kept coming up was what Pastor David called the I/thou mindset. While there is so much more that the pastor and I discussed, I feel that this was of most importance to write about.

I/thou is a mindset where you actually see people as people and not just obstacles or means of personal gain. Opposite of I/thou is the I/it mindset, which is when you see another person and immediately start thinking about your time, your energy, your rights, your comforts, your will, and so on. An example is if you were walking down the street and see a homeless man sleeping on the bench where you usually like to sit. The I/thou mindset sees the man and thinks, "How can I help him? What does he need?", while I/it says, "That guy is disturbing me. Someone should tell him to leave." Do you understand the point? I/it doesn't see a person, just a problem. I/thou sees the person and the person's problems. If you have an I/it mindset, your heart will grudgingly ask, "What's this taking from me?", while the I/thou mindset asks, "What can I give?"

I don't mean to belabor the point, but this is a great answer to the simple question of, what can we do to make the downtown a better place? The life of a town is in its people, and if the majority of people hold this I/thou mindset that Pastor David and I discussed, what a difference that would make.

Recommended reading: I and Thou by Martin Buber

~The Harvest Crier~