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Trustee Eddie Lemons apologized to the congregation, mostly seated under a tent on a lot across the street from the church, for the sporadic problems with the sound system.

"If you look up," he said, referring to the only other thing that could go wrong this special Sunday, "I hope she appears."

The Rev. Carolyn Sims, known for her sense of humor, came slowly into view on the roof of Newlyn Street United Methodist Church, wearing a white robe with colorful handprints across the fabric.

"She's really doing it," 10-year-old Nicole Summers said as she spotted Sims, who wasn't about to let her congregation down.

With the help of a sturdy ladder and the stable hands of several church members, Sims had climbed onto a 20-foot-high portion of the roof of the 83-year-old church without so much as a teeter.

Or totter.

Sims was keeping her word to the congregation that when membership doubled during a regular service she'd preach from atop the roof.

"They say it seems like you are always doing something," Sims, holding her Bible, told the congregation of about 150. She was referring to outreach efforts in the community such as the upcoming Trick 'R Trunk, where members will decorate the trunks of their cars and children can stop by the parking lot for goodies.

As part of eight small churches supporting Blessed Table Food Pantry, the congregation helped feed 3,000 local families last year.

"I just say we are receiving the blessings of God," Sims said. "We are tithing and praying ... and proclaiming the good news."

On this sun-kissed Sunday, it was so, even as traffic squealed to a stop and made a U-turn at the orange barrels set up to close the road in front of the church. Even as the piano rested on concrete and the choir was seated on a patch of grass.

Though some might see it as a gimmick — and Sims has said it was meant to draw attention to the "country church in the city" — others say it's the outreach that matters.

"People are coming back to God," said Eva Laws-Goodman , who was handing out visitor's tags, "and that's all she wants."

It was indeed church as normal when Sims got to her message: The miracle of Jesus turning five loaves and two fishes into enough food to feed 5,000 hungry people and the urgent need, especially on the day of the Crop Walk for hunger, for believers to continue the work. "Jesus has called us — he said, you feed them," Sims said. "We are not to turn our backs and say, 'This doesn't exist.' "

After the service, Sims took off the robe covering her jeans and made her way back down the ladder, to the relief of church visitor Barbara Proffitt .

"I just wanted to make sure you safely got down," Proffitt said, meeting her at the foot of the ladder. "You looked like an angel up there."

But from now on, Sims said, she'd rather be used by God at eye level with everybody else.

Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nmclaughlin@news-record.com