Ministry beyond the church walls

LOUISVILLE — Some of the most meaningful ministry the Rev. Tony Larson engages in is well outside the walls of the church he serves, Trinity Presbyterian Church in Surfside Beach, South Carolina.

On Tuesday, Larson, Co-Moderator of the 226^th General Assembly (2024), delivered the second part of the Woods Lecture Series in Blades Chapel at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. View Larson’s talk, “The Church’s Witness in the World,” delivered as part of a worship service, here. The Co-Moderator’s remarks begin at the 21:05 mark.

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Larson used Luke 5:1-11, an account of Jesus calling the first disciples, as his preaching text. Larson asked those in worship what they thought Simon was doing once the two boats completely laden with fish came to shore after the crew had caught nothing all night. “Maybe scratching his head?” one person in worship suggested. “I think he was scratching out the profit,” Larson said, and perhaps even wondering: Can we add a third boat to the fleet?

Compare that with Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. “Jesus was really scraping the bottom of the barrel when he called these disciples,” Larson said. Maybe he continues the same pattern with many modern-day disciples, Larson said. “There are days I know that is absolutely true — when I consider my own call, when I feel inadequate,” he said. “Discipleship is costly in the way the world measures it.”

He then sat down to tell the story about “how I ended up on the front page of the local newspaper” in the early years in ministry with the first church he served, Springs Community Presbyterian Church in East Hampton, New York.

Larson discovered he could rent a fishing boat every Thursday from a couple named Buck and Bernice, who operated a boat and fishing gear rental business at the nearby marina. After he’d fish — like the first disciples, he’d often return to the marina without any fish — Larson would join others at the marina to catch up on the local news. Eventually, he became a pastor to people who weren’t about to attend any church, Buck and Bernice included.

“As I listened, it became clear the God they spoke of bore little resemblance to the God I was in relationship with,” Larson said. “This was a God who smote whole cities. I didn’t blame them for not trusting God.”

Larson grew close to Buck and Bernice. “By the alchemy of faith, I was becoming their pastor,” he said. One day, Buck brought over a bottle of whiskey rather than the cold beers he usually served. “This will be the last drink we have —at least for a while,” Buck told Larson. “Bernice is pregnant, and so we won’t be drinking for a while.” Hugs were exchanged, and then Buck asked, “Would it be possible for you to baptize our baby?”

“As your friend, I’d be hard-pressed to turn down that request,” Larson told the expectant parents. But as a Presbyterian pastor, he’d have to ask them to make promises on behalf of their child — promises to God and to those gathered for the baptism. Come to church one Sunday and check it, Larson suggested. “You will be making promises, and so will we,” he told them. “We will make promises to you and your child. Baptism is a journey of faith that lasts your entire life.”

Two weeks later, Buck and Bernice surprised everyone by walking through the church doors. A few months later, they made professions of faith and joined the church. “They were busy at the marina, but they became part of the [faith] community,” Larson said. “It was a huge step for them.”

They named their baby Bailey. A few weeks after her birth, Larson stopped by to prepare the family for baptism. When you give her a bath, remind her of her baptism, he suggested. When someone tells her what she can and cannot do, remind her of her baptism, and her belovedness. Springs Community Presbyterian Church will help you and Bailey, he said, and Buck and Bernice told him, “that is exactly what we wanted.

“They wanted Bailey to know she was God’s beloved child,” Larson said.

No matter how many theological arguments Larson made, the parents were convinced one bowl of water would not be enough for their big event. They got permission to hold the baptism at low tide near the marina, where the church gathered.

Despite the baptism occurring in July, Larson showed up in his robe. “We began to draw onlookers,” he said. Buck and Bernice confessed their faith, and the four of them waded out into the water. Larson took a clamshell from his pocket, dipped it into the water, and baptized the baby in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “Bailey, you are held in love that will never let you go,” he told the child.

Bailey loved the water and was unfazed, but her parents began first to tear up and then to cry. The girl had never seen her parents cry, and so she began too. Buck, who’d given up going to church long ago, scooped up some water and threw it all over him. Bernice did the same. The sobs turned to laughter. A sea bird flew overhead, and Larson thought he could hear it saying, “this is my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”

The next Wednesday, the newspaper published the story of the unusual baptism on its front page. “There was other news in the world that week, but that news was important for that community,” Larson said. Early on in his ministry, “I had the notion I could take off my [clergy] collar and not be identifiable as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I learned from that relationship with Buck and Bernice that’s not really an option.”

These days, Larson wears the collar to the local dog park and the neighborhood tavern in Surfside Beach. “Showing up in a collar leads to conversations I don’t get to have in the Sunday school room at church,” he said. “When you sit there with a collar, often they will tell you how the church wounded them deeply.” When he hears those stories, Larson tells the person he is “sorry that was your experience with the church” and that it “probably breaks God’s heart.”

Twenty-three times in the gospel accounts, Christ invites people to “follow me,” Larson noted.

“Make your life look like my life” is the way Larson puts Jesus’ invitation. “The invitation is to follow, and the commandment is to love. It really is as simple as that, and oh so challenging.”