Perhaps the main entrance to St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church should be through its kitchen door. That’s definitely where the action is.
“We are known for our cooking,” admitted the Rev. Jan. Chubb. She likens the action to a family get-together where the “work doesn’t seem like work,” when preparing a congregate meal. That’s because a good dose of talk among the cooks is one of the major ingredients.
Chubb, 55, has been the priest at St. Timothy’s since 2005. She and her husband live in Parsons where he runs a business and she works mornings in the business office of Power Flame, Inc. Before that, she worked 16 years at Ducommun Aero Structures, a producer of titanium airplane parts.
Chubb’s role at St. Timothy’s is a non-paid position. The Diocese is suffering a loss of attendance in southeast Kansas, she said. A typical Sunday’s gathering will have 20-25 parishioners.
Chubb accepts the low number as a broader read of rural America in general.
Parishioners worry about the future of the church, she said, “when they’re not here anymore.”
Still, the small church has made a big impact on Iola specifically through two programs. Once a month it hosts a community dinner free to the public. And it started a “backpack program” that sends non-perishable high-protein foods home with needy school children to see that they have food over the weekends. That program includes elementary and middle school students and now has help from the congregation of Wesley United Methodist Church.
For Chubb, the word faith is a verb. It’s what motivates her to “show up for people.”
That, and an occasional “tapping on my shoulder — the Holy Spirit — challenging me to do God’s work.”
She doesn’t always answer the call.
“Sometimes I say ‘I’m too busy,’ with what I think is more important,” she said. “But then the Holy Spirit really lays into me until I sit up and listen.”
It’s that intentional practice of listening for God’s word that Chubb feels people are choosing to ignore or tune out.
Instead of taking the time to listen for God, people hide behind the distractions of TV or are continually plugged into their iPods.
“Some people are deathly afraid of silence” she said.
She also has little patience for those who beg out of an organized religion by saying they are instead of a “spiritual” nature.
“They don’t know what that means,” she said. “We are called to do more than say we believe in a higher power.”
What frustrates Chubb is that “there’s room for everyone at the table,” when it comes to Christianity.
THE CHALLENGE for a church such as St. Timothy’s is to show its relevancy in modern day life while at the same time not losing its identity.
A Sunday service there follows the liturgy of its Book of Common Prayer, which includes a certain format of readings and responses.
“People like the beauty of the liturgy and the words,” she said. “It speaks to them.”
The subjects of Sunday sermons come from a lectionary.
“There’s a good and bad side to this style of worship,” Chubb said. For her, the most challenging part is to preach about topics she’d rather avoid.
“A lot of times I think ‘Oh man, I got to talk about this?’”
Divorce, for example, is low on her list.
Chubb doesn’t think the Bible holds all the answers, especially for a fast-changing world, but God’s teachings can “always serve as guides and be a positive influence.”
Chubb grew up the daughter of an Episcopal priest.
It was her father’s second career, after being in sales.
That’s not an unusual step, she said. “For a lot of clergy, it’s a later realization of a calling.”
The transition from sales to the priesthood also isn’t as different as some might suspect, she said.
“You have to believe in your product,” to be successful at promoting it.
Chubb attended the Episcopal Kansas School for Ministry on weekends while she worked and helped raise the couple’s two children.
She received her ordination in 1997.
AS A FEMALE pastor, Chubb feels she brings different talents to the position.
“I’ve been told I have good pastoral skills that have a calming effect,” she said. “I think that comes in part from being a woman.
“Women have a lot of special gifts to give that are very important. Of course, most times people don’t remember what you might have said, just that you showed up.”
Chubb finds great joy and rewards in her role as a pastor.
“It’s a privilege to have people entrust their stories with you,” she said.
“We all have to understand that faith is a journey, that you don’t get there overnight. All of us are lackadaisical in our faith and in our lives. Oftentimes we don’t strive for the best, but settle for mediocrity.”
That God continues to have faith in us is what Chubb finds most humbling.
“I’m always amazed that God cares so much about us. He’s way more interested in getting you into heaven than all the bad things you’ve done. Still, it’s amazing he still love us, considering what crazy things we do. I want to say to Him, ‘Why do you care?’”
SERVICES at St. Timothy’s, 202 S. Walnut, are at 9 a.m. each Sunday, followed by coffee hour — “the best part,” Chubb said, referring to the milling about and what else — eating.
