He glows : Pastor Gary Erdos

COMMUNITY FOCUS | HE he glows

PASTOR GARY ERDOS

By Cathy Shouse | Photo by Rachael Smith

Pastor Gary Erdos will reach his 10-year anniversary with Trinity English Lutheran in November, and during his time in Fort Wayne, he has been intentional about ministering to more than his congregation. He, and they, have reached out to the Fort Wayne community in unexpected ways, especially in the downtown area.

His most unconventional act might be this. Every Thursday during the summer, for the past four or five years, he has participated in Lunch on the Square at Freimann Square Park. Because the church is near the center of the city, he feels a special calling to that community. Erdos sets up two chairs, one for himself and another for anyone who comes by. He puts up a sign that says, “You talk. I listen,” and wears a claret, but doesn’t indicate the name of his church. “People sit down in that chair and share all sorts of things,” Erdos said. “Some don’t want to sit. They stand. I’ve been able to learn a whole bunch of things about people. If you give people half a chance, they’ll tell you all sorts of stuff.” Erdos seems to enjoy people, as well as being fascinated by them. Some will walk by several times before eventually stopping, and others have visited with him more than once. The idea of the two chairs came from trips he and church members took to London to learn from a friend, pastor, and theologian named Sam Wells. They took five different trips. From his years in that chair, Erdos has concluded that people want to know a variation of this question: Do I matter? The London pastor’s observation to Erdos? That Jesus spent 33 years on earth and other than the week when he was crucified and arose, he “was hanging out.” So the Trinity congregation offers dinner to everyone on Thursday evenings. Church members opted to “serve” to those who come, rather than offering a buffet. They also sit down and eat with their guests. On Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the church doors on Washington Boulevard are opened to all. Members have been encouraged to overcome the fear of getting to know people who are not like them. “Isn’t it the responsibility of the church to be present with the people whose lives feel a little more disorderly, whose lives are different from ours?” Erdos asked. “Church isn’t about what people think it is . . . The point of the project that we’ve been involved in is, How do you be close to people?” His approach is to listen, not to offer the standard solutions, and to act based on what is revealed along the way. “These are intended to be the first step, not the only step,” Erdos said. Erdos and wife Louanne, a teacher at Concordia Lutheran, have two sons. One lives in Richmond, Virginia. The other lives in Charleston, South Carolina, and has two children. a Indiana has some of the most beautiful wildflower gardens, cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers. The list goes on and on! This colorful tour will lead you to a few of the wildflower fields of Wabash County. As always, refreshments will be included with the tour along with multiple photo opportunities. To top off the tour, you will get to create a whimsical keepsake from the wildflower fields to take home.

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