Cowbell service brings three preachers with diverse messages on patience

By Frank Ramirez

Some of us have become used to navigating our way through cyberspace with voice commands, but on Thursday night at the 2025 Annual Conference in Greensboro, N.C., it proved possible to change the speakers the old-fashioned way–with a loud, clanging, cowbell.

All those pastors’ spouses, board chairs, and prayer warriors who worry the pot roast cooking at home is getting a little crispy at the edges when Sunday morning worship lasts longer than expected–and whose subtle signals as they glare at their watches are all successfully ignored by a preacher who, like the Blues Brothers, is “on a mission from God”–must wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” The cowbells clanged Thursday evening as one by one preachers Josiah Ludwick, Becky Baile Crouse, and Tony Price stepped aside to hand the “preacher’s bench” over to the next minister.

*At the close of the benediction, the three preachers rang cowbells together. Photo by Glenn Riegel*

The idea of the cowbell service was imported from Virlina District by Annual Conference moderator Dava Hensley. Preaching from Ephesians 4:1-3, under the title “Love Is Patient,” the three preachers were challenged to get their messaging done within the confines of 10 minutes, at which point many preachers are just getting warmed up. Each kept within the time–although it didn’t hurt that all three might have spoken just a little faster than on a regular Sunday morning!

Josiah Ludwick of Harrisburg, Pa., admitted, “Patience is not super easy for me,” adding that “waiting for people who disagree with me to finally come to their senses,” and “waiting for the world to change,” are not easy.

“Part of the problem with patience is a common misconception,” he said. “We’re making it about us.” Instead of waiting impatiently for people to change to agree with us, it is important to remember that “agape love is patient love.” He reminded the Conference that our focus should not be on us, but God’s patience with us. In the example set by Jesus, when people did not get what he was saying Jesus did not abandon them.

“Patience is not passive,” Ludwick added. Referring to the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he warned his listeners that an active patience does not urge the oppressed to wait for relief. We should not expect others to suffer so we can be comfortable.

Becky Baile Crouse of Warrensburg, Mo., asked her listeners, “How many of you dread Thanksgiving dinner and the topics we have to avoid?” And how many of us, she wondered, wish we could take our vacation during the church council meeting that tackles a controversial topic?

But in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul calls upon us to abide patiently with each other in love. Crouse called to mind an occasion when a church wrestled with questions about the parsonage. Should they build a new one, remodel the old one, or leave it as it was? There were strong advocates for all three alternatives. Once the church voted to build a new parsonage, however, one of those who showed up early for the first day of work was one of those who actually disagreed with the decision. That, she said, is a good example of patience tempered with sacrificial love.

“Only with sacrificial love can our congregations begin to thrive,” she said. There are so many ways to humbly, patiently show love and kindness to our church family, the elderly, children, immigrants, and neighbors, she pointed out.

Tony Price of New Madison, Ohio, concluded the preaching by focusing on the Brethren value of communit, as defined by the German concept of gemeinschaft. “Our very name embodies family, relationship, and community!” he said. But then, “why so many splits? So many schisms?” What is missing is patience, as Paul defined it.

“We are in this together,” he reminded the Conference. “The bound together community calls for patience,” he said. “This is more than just a catchy phrase. It’s how we as Brethren and all of Christ’s followers should be known.”

At the end of each message, the cowbell dutifully rang. The message was heard.

— Frank Ramirez is a retired pastor and a volunteer on the Annual Conference Press Team.

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