By Glenn Dromgoole

My wife and I were at a party, and we met a church member whom we did not know previously. In the course of the conversation, it came up that we usually sit in the north section of the Trinity-sided sanctuary. We joked that we were “left-leaning Presbyterians.” 

Then I said that we had tried sitting in the center section, but we felt we weren’t getting any “credit” for being there because we weren’t sitting in our usual place. 

She seemed confused when we talked about the “center section.” 

We said, well that’s where you usually sit, don’t you? 

She still seemed confused. “What do you mean?” 

“You know, the center section.”

“There’s one section for sinners?” she asked. 

We laughed. Our West Texas pronunciation of “center” sounded to her like “sinner.”

“Actually,” we admitted, “that’s every section in the church, isn’t it?”

Thank God! Welcome.

Glenn Dromgoole’s latest book is A Few Encouraging Words. He is an elder at First Central Presbyterian Church.