Many years ago, before we moved to New Hampshire, Martha and I and friends from Pittsburgh, PA paid a visit to the former pastor of our first Lutheran church in Pittsburgh. Our former pastor was a graduate of Thiel College in Greenville, PA and was on the faculty of the college at the time before moving on to the faculty at Gettysburg Theological Seminary. Knowing we were all big fans of the Thiel College Choir, he had invited us to visit Thiel and take in a concert by the choir. The venue for the event was, as I thought at the time, Theiloff Center, or that was the name I recalled the pastor telling us years before our visit. Little did we know he was just setting us all up for a future laugh. As it happens, the venue was a large concert venue seating, perhaps, a thousand or so folks. The building was basically hemispherical in shape with a high, open ceiling not unlike our sanctuary. The ceiling featured a grid of large interlocking patterns which, on casual inspection, did not seem to quite line up with itself. The fact was that in the final construction of the building the uppermost section of the hemisphere was placed about 30 degrees out of position and the error was not noticed until it became impractical to correct it. So the facility who's official name was the Theil Center became playfully and unofficially known thereafter as the Thiel Off-Center. For nearly any performance attendee, the error was out of sight and out of mind and had no negative impact on the functionality of the venue. I imagine the facility manager was one of a few people that saw it, but for nearly everyone who saw it, it was just a scotoma, something that we see, but it does not register ... a blind spot.
As the Property Team leader for many years, I can attest to how difficult it is to walk into our building and just enjoy the surroundings without taking notice of things demanding attention ... things that are broken, cracked, scuffed, missing, non-functional, unsightly, unsafe, out of compliance, or whatever. With time, it becomes increasingly difficult to overlook property issues and just enjoy a service or gathering. I can't tell you how much I worried and fretted over the filthy, non-functional ceiling fan in the sanctuary! You may or may not have noticed that a new fan has now been installed and I can focus my mind on something else. And there is always something else. For me, at least, there are very few scotomas to put some of the property matters out of mind. If you cannot put some or most of these things out of mind, the ongoing reminders tend to weigh on a person. That is why, in part, it is time for me to move on. The congregation needs someone with a fresh and vigorous approach to lead the property team. Steve Bauer's recent Tidings article on the transition of the Property Team offers starting points to move forward. I hope all of you will offer your support and suggestions to Steve.
Dave Mercer, Property Team Leader (Pro tempore)