The Mall Cop in us all.

Last night Aubrey and I finished off our Thanksgiving festivities by watching Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like Kevin James' silly slapstick humor. And Aubrey liked it too, which surprised me a little bit.

[Some plot details ahead]

Paul Blart is a hapless Mall Cop who dreams of being a state trooper. He is overweight, unlucky in love, and rides a segue around the mall, deterring petty theft, and mediating insignificant arguments. Until one year, on Black Friday (appropriately enough), the mall is overtaken by terrorists. Blart alone is left on the inside, the only one who can attempt to play the hero.

I imagine this is the dream of every mall cop. Sure, for now they are the lowest rung on the law enforcement ladder, but someday something truly significant will go down at their mall, and they will have to call upon all their training, and all their segue riding skills, and they will be a hero.

As a small church pastor its easy to feel like a mall cop. As a small, country church pastor I have the lowest rung on the ministerial ladder. No one downloads my podcasts (I don't even have a podcast), I don't get asked to speak at theological conferences, most of the pastors in my own presbytery don't even know where our church is. But this is wrong, an attempt to seek my significance in all the wrong places.

I need to remind myself of these encouraging words (found, of all places, in BCO 47-2):

A service of public worship is not merely a gathering of God's children with each other, but before all else, a meeting of the triune God with His chosen people. God is present in public worship not only by virtue of the Divine omnipresence but, much more intimately, as the faithful covenant Savior.

A meeting of the triune God with His chosen people. Perspective restored. Its not about the size of your mall, but the faithful covenant Lord who calls you to serve there.