Yesterday I wrote about attending two memorial services in one day – some similarities, many differences. Today, I want to go more in-depth on Willie Hill’s service: attended by all kinds of people – black and white, young and old, believers and not (most likely).

As I said, it was my second memorial service of the day, and in this one, I had no responsibilities (I thought!), so I drove the hour and fifteen minutes, arriving exactly at the 4p start time, intending to slip in and sit in the back. The service hadn’t started, and as I walked in Willie’s widow, Mary, rushed to the back of the auditorium, wrapped me in a big hug, thanked me for coming, and dragged me to the front: “You will sit here with me, and at the end of the service, we will be asking people to come forward to be prayed for. You will be up front with the other pastors to pray for people.” OK…

I always wear a coat and tie to a memorial service, but this one was Saturday afternoon in the summer with barbecue to follow so I asked Mary in advance what the dress was. “Summer casual.” And sure enough, it was. Here is one of the pastors giving a eulogy and after, he and I praying for each other.

The service was tightly organized (Mary is a detail person) but carried out with spontaneity. Lots of laughter and tears, live presentations and videos. In the main eulogy, read by Roger Smith on a video, Mary had included material from my end-of-year ministry update, December 2020. She said Willie found these sentences especially meaningful:

Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world. – Mutua Mahiani, International President of The Navigators, quoting Howard Snyder’s Liberating the Church.

Willie was a Kingdom person in every sense of the word. And his celebration of life with the diversity of people and styles was a picture of that Kingdom. I think that’s what energized me about being there and participating.

One more thing: I write about racial reconciliation and racial justice from time to time, most recently about a week ago. But it’s one thing to write about it and another to be in the middle of a mixed-race event. I came away with a new insight: we need each other.

Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5.8 – 10, NKJV)