Well, today after worship there was a flashmob outside of the church building. After which a couple was engaged to be married. The Beauty And The Beast theme was well done, and it was special to see the couple’s family and friends waiting to abush to the soon-to-be-bride with their surprise.
Often times stories like these are recounted as pastoral nightmares. This is because families don’t understand the nature of worship, or the people planning the surprise have no sense of what “sacred space” is supposed to be 1. In this case, the process was only a joy. The parents of the soon-to-be bride are core members of Central and possess a deep faith. They wouldn’t even conceive of taking over worship for their own ends. The soon-to-be groom also had no intention of taking over. He actually asked my permission to use the church grounds to propose this way, and iterated over and over how he did not want this to detract from the service. It might seem like a little thing, but demonstrating an awareness of a potential conflict of purpose helped make the build up to today’s proposal a joy instead of a burden.
- No, the “show” leading up to your proposal can’t be done in place of prayer time today. ↩
Painfully Hopeful 
My dad had to once alter a couple’s plans for their wedding. Halloween was a Sunday that year, and the whole party–without telling Dad–had dressed in bizarre, and often lude, costumes. I’m trying to recall, but there was at least two members of the party who felt uncomfortable marrying in the church, but the bride and bride parents kept pushing it. Dad compromised: he’d marry them in their costumes, but they were not holding the ceremony like that on sacred ground. Or, they remove the costumes and pay respect to the sacred space they were in.
They picked the park.