CLAIRE

“Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; ... The elder women as mothers; ...” (from I Timothy 5:1-2)

There are SO many ramifications of a church closing. Most of you know that First Assembly of God of Framingham where I pastored for over 23 years held its last service this past Sunday. The corporation will remain open...probably for at least a year. The worship services, classes, and all the “religious life” of the church are pretty much over. People speak of the church as a “family”. That’s particularly true of a small church. In a church of under 30, there is a STRONG sense of family. There is a HUGE sense of loss when such a church closes.

I’ve been told “People are resilient...even elderly people are resilient...they’ll find other churches”. In some cases, I’m sure that’s true. But let me tell you about CLAIRE.

That’s her real name. Claire is 81-years-old. Claire is an AMAZING person. Claire is one of the finest people I have ever known. I first met Claire in late 1986. She was the Church Secretary at First Assembly of God of Framingham. That did NOT mean she had a paid position or that she took shorthand or anything like that. Claire was the elected Secretary of the Corporation; (sometimes called a “Clerk” in certain Protestant churches) and she also came into the church office several times a week to check the mail, put out a newsletter, keep up records, and just plan do all sorts of things. Claire was the person I dealt with when the church was looking to hire a pastor in late 1986 and Claire was the person who helped me get settled in and pretty much gave me the “low down” on the church and its workings in early 1987.

At the time I came, Claire was in her late fifties. To my surprise, she had only been a “born-again Christian” for 5 years and she had been the Church Secretary a little over 4 years. I was also surprised that she’d been a devout Catholic from birth to her fifties and had been “led to the Lord” by her young adult children. My own experience with Catholics born in the 1920s is that most had no interest in being “led to the Lord” in Pentecostal fashion, and certainly not by their baby-boomer offspring! THIS was a very different lady!

I learned that Claire’s husband Jack was not a born-again Christian nor a church goer, but rather a “lapsed Catholic”. I also learned that Jack was an M.I.T. graduate and a very intelligent man. Claire described Jack to me as a man who “has all the fruits of the Holy Spirit without the Holy Spirit”. I was kind of taken back when she told me that and I tried to tell her that’s theologically impossible. But when I met Jack, I understood. Jack is one of the most pleasant, kind, generous, gracious men I have ever known. Everybody at church just kind of wished he’d put a Bible under his arm, come to church, and become a guy who had “all the fruit of the Holy Spirit WITH the infilling of the Holy Spirit” but to date, that has never happened.

I have a very, very close relationship with Claire. Truthfully, she reminds me VERY much of my late maternal grandmother, Mary MacDonald Richard. My grandmother almost never raised her voice or got cross in any way. She was kind, and cheerful. My grandmother was around 3 inches taller than Claire (Claire’s REALLY short) and probably weighed 60 pounds more than Claire, but in the FACE and in the whole attitude and persona, they’re SO much alike! I LOVED to go over my grandmother’s as a kid. Having Claire in the office was like going over my grandmother’s every day!

Claire loved her church. Claire believed that when you joined a church, you committed yourself to it NO MATTER WHAT! Today people say, “People will NOT come to a church if it’s in such-and-such a neighborhood, if it’s small, if it doesn’t have all the modern amenities,” etc. NOT Claire. If Claire’s church met in the worst “...hood” in the area, had an absolute DUMP for a building, and didn’t even have running water...she’d be there every Sunday and every midweek service WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE! No kidding! Anything I needed done... Claire did it. ANYTHING.

As she was getting older and older it was getting harder and harder for her to do things, but she would insist on vacuuming the whole building, mopping floors, filling towel dispensers, running off bulletins, and all sorts of other stuff. Claire and Jack are of modest financial means, but if you looked at Claire’s giving records you’d THINK she was “loaded”! Many years ago when we were in rental facilities, we had to come up with a security deposit, and a first and last month’s rent in order to rent a church office in a modern professional building. Claire took her FAMILY’S “emergency money” and used it for that purpose. When we moved out almost 4 years later, the professional building’s management were not happy with us because we did damage to sheetrock walls, etc. We did not get our security deposit back. Claire did not care. Another time at our present building, a large plate glass window shattered. Claire brought in $500 and told me to have the window replaced. There are at least 30 more stories like that. Claire used to say, “Jack is SO good. No matter HOW MUCH money I give to the church, he never complains.”

Claire needs a hip replacement badly, but she has other complications. She walks with a cane, now with difficulty. This is very hard for me to write, but Claire is slipping a tad mentally. I think of my Dad who had Alzheimer’s Disease. Claire has a long way to go to be as bad off as he was; but there are episodes of definite forgetfulness and confusion. Usually those episodes are not TOO bad; but once in awhile, they CAN be. Claire’s hearing has also deteriorated quite a bit over the past ten years. She wears a hearing aid, but it doesn’t seem to help very much any more. And her voice is getting weak and faint.

Again, this is a woman who has given her all...tirelessly...for 28 years....to First Assembly of God of Framingham. Claire officially stepped down as Church Secretary in February of 2009. Even so, she’s still been at the church building at least 2 weekday mornings every week. “Bill”, a longtime Board member recently observed, “This is Claire’s PURPOSE. If Claire’s purpose is taken away...” and he added the consequences could be dire. My daughter Amy told me that Sunday it was so hard for her to talk to Claire without falling apart emotionally. “Claire’s eyes were full of tears,” observed Amy, “and she kept saying over and over... ‘I’m going to miss my little desk’.”

Claire called me yesterday, wanting to go to the church building by herself and take some of her personal belongings out of the building. (Yes, she’s STILL driving; I’m not sure she should be.) I feel bad, but I kind of spoke sternly to her and said, “Look, I’m NOT in charge there any more. Whatever you do, DON’T go in there by yourself!” I did tell her I’d try to make time to go in there with her sometime this week.

Claire’s not going to find another church. Not with forgetfulness and confusion, needing a hip replacement, a major hearing loss, and a faltering weak voice. During the entire tenure of my pastorate, no one supported me more...no own worked harder...gave more, etc. Incidentally, during the years, there were those families and individuals who would sometimes ANGRILY leave the church. Some of them made a point to let it be known what they thought of me- and it wasn’t much. What they DIDN’T realize is how hurt Claire was when they’d say things like that and leave. Every time someone left the church with a bad attitude, it was as though Claire went through Jesus’ scourging.

I must say, it pained me to see that. She kept in all very quiet, but sometimes she did tell ME about it. Numerous people have deeply hurt Claire over the past 23 years. I will admit, I used to “stew” about that and I really had to wrestle with God about it. I would think, “If they want to hate me and be nasty to me and leave the church, FINE, but WHY cause disappointment, pain, and heartache for Claire?!”

No, Claire’s not going to find another church. She gave and gave and gave... She sacrificed. Everybody else came first. She loved and she served, and loved, and served, and loved, and served, and worked.

What has happened to Claire...the loss of her church...no matter what the church financial picture was, or the low attendance, or my own leadership failures or anything else...

it just doesn’t seem right.