Good morning, I’m Bailey May, for those who don’t know me. So, Brian asked me to come and talk about why I, well, not just me, but my wife Meredith and I, give to St. Matthews and do things here at St. Matthew’s. So, the first and foremost thing that motivates and motivates us was when we moved to, we moved back, I’m from here, but we moved back. I’d lived in Madison for many years. We moved back here six years ago, looking for a place to go to church, and my brother was already going here. He said, “You know, come in here.” And we walked in, and from day one, for the first time we walked in, I remember we went to traditional service, and it was as though we had been coming here our whole lives.

And from, and this winter, we didn’t go anywhere else. We were just here because everybody made us feel like we wanted to be here. It was great. And in those ensuing years, we’ve, you know, kind of continued to feel that we’ve been shown an enormous amount of love and grace since we have been here. And we have seen the people that are here treat the others who come here with the same kind of love and grace that they treated us with. It doesn’t matter what folks look like, where folks came from. If you come here, we treat people well. We treat people in the way that Christ would have us to treat them. We certainly try. And so, the more time you spend, you know, around the more likely you are to get asked to do something, and especially when you’re somebody like me who I make a lot of noise. And so when you make a lot of noise, you draw a lot of attention. We draw a lot of attention to people asking you to do stuff.

And I ended up, I don’t know how, helping out with our students, our youth group, and had a group of guys. They were… Carter, when did I start with you guys? Ninth grade or something? Seventh grade. And now they’re juniors in high school, and you know, they just asked me to just show up and just like sit there and well, you know, I’ve grown to get to know these guys now over the years and become extremely fond of them, and they’re my friends, but the biggest thing that that they do for me is not, it’s not like what can I do for you, but it’s what they do for me. They, I have accountability, they should give me accountability if nothing else, right? So I know that on Wednesdays and Sundays, I’m gonna see these guys, and if there’s like a picture of me acting foolishly or doing something, you know, that might not be a very wise choice. They’re gonna find out; they’re not stupid. And so, if nothing else, there’s accountability there, and that’s amazing.

The other thing is I sing in the choir and man, that’s, that’s fun. If anybody’s speaking of which, not to steal any of your folks, Brian, but if anybody has like the slightest inkling of like carrying a tune, even thinking about it, we need some folks. We’re getting a little slim over there. So, you know, talk to Tim. He’s amazing. Tim’s great. And the rest of us are okay. But, you know, at the end of the day, right, we’re called to serve. We’re called; those of us who love and serve God are called to serve and love one another. We are called to, first and foremost, love our God, and second only unto that is to love our neighbor.

And so, in serving, that’s how I am able to love my neighbor. But in doing so, I feel like I get more, I am blessed much more than I am doing any blessing because of it. So I would encourage anybody, everybody, you know, it may seem like a lot, it may seem like it works, but I mean as soon as you start, as soon as you’re there and you’re doing it, it goes by and it feels like you go home and you go, and I feel more, I’ve never felt more spiritually satiated than I have here at St. Matthew’s.

And so, if anybody has any questions about what you can do, you know, we’re going to do things back there behind you in
the room behind us, a great way to start. But, you know, reach out and do what you can because I assure you, I promise you, what you will receive in spiritual satisfaction, in grace, in love, will be tenfold what you feel like you’ve given.