NOT GOING ROGUE

“And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.
And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him,
Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.” (Acts 20:36-38)

The context of the above passage is the Apostle Paul saying “Good-Bye” to the elders of the church of Ephesus (in modern day Turkey). The Apostle Paul spent no more than a few days or weeks in many places, but he lived and ministered at Ephesus for over two years and, according to the Bible, he had personal friends there. At this point, Paul has already moved out of Ephesus, but he’s stopped at a port near the area on his way from Greece to Jerusalem. Acts chapter 20 includes a very emotional scene in which Paul shares his heartfelt concerns for the Church at Ephesus, tells them they won’t see they again, and embraces and says “Good-Bye” to many of the leaders and people of the church.

Good-Byes can be difficult. This week, Framingham said good-bye to a “clergy person” who is a “class act” and a truly wonderful person- The Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell. Mindi had been pastor of First Baptist Church on Route 9 in Framingham Centre for almost four years. I remember meeting Mindi at a special prayer vigil the Framingham clergy led on the eve of the Town election in 2006. After the main time of prayer in front of the Memorial Buidling, clergy were assigned to go to variouis polling locations and pray there as well. Mindi and I were assigned to pray at McCarthy School, which happens to by my polling place. This may sound like a weird thing to say about a minister, but I was impressed with Mindi’s spirituality. She prayed a very heartfelt prayer, and I sensed the earnestness of her faith. (Some clergy get into doing rote prayers which sound like they are reading from the phone book and like they don’t mean what they’re praying.)

I quickly got to know Mindi. She was the type that got very involved in the community. Mindi is over twenty years younger than I am, but she’s the type that could mingle and communicate comfortably with anybody from kids in middle school to very elderly people. Mindi was very proud of her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska and liked to talk about Alaska. If she’s reading this, she may not be too happy with me, but I think her accent is a LOT like Sarah Palin’s. (She thinks Sarah has a much heavier Alaska accent- but I say, not really!) Well, people are always kidding me about my Boston accent, and I want to say, “WHAT Boston accent?! I don’t mispronounce ‘bathroom’or ‘laugh’, nor do I add the letter “r” where is doesn’t belong the way JFK did!” But, I get it...to anybody from outside New England, I DO sound like Boston and to anybody from outside Alaska, Mindi sounds like Alaska.

Mindi’s husband is also a minister and pastored a Methodist Church in Needham (although his ordination is with the Disciples of Christ). There are more and more couples in ministry pastoring separate churches that way. I don’t know how they do it! Mindi’s husband has just accepted the pastorate of a “Disciples of Christ” church in Oklahoma. For now, Mindi is going to be the full-time Mom of her toddler son, work on her writing, and make herself available as a retreat speaker.

I think Mindi’s somebody we’ll all “hear” of someday as she gets books published, becomes an accomplished speaker, etc. She’s not “going rogue” like that famous political figure from Wasilla, Alaska...she’s just going ON as God leads. We were blessed to have Mindi in our community of Framingham.

Farewell, Mindi! God bless you and your family!