Woodbury’s King of Kings Traffic Volunteers

Photo: Emily J. Davis

Glenn Boyd at King of King's Lutheran Church in Woodbury.

For the past 12 years, Glenn Boyd’s Wednesday evenings have stayed almost exactly the same. Regardless of whether it’s pouring rain, blisteringly hot or freezing cold, you can find Boyd at King of Kings Lutheran Church on Radio Drive, directing traffic flow on the most eventful night of the week.

Between the REV confirmation program, CLUB 56 religious education and two different choir practices, more than 400 congregation members come and go throughout the evening. It’s the responsibility of Boyd and 8 other traffic volunteers to keep things running smoothly and ensure the safety of church patrons—most of them kids.

Every Wednesday around 5 p.m., Boyd arrives at the King of Kings Lutheran Church with his fellow traffic volunteers to begin setting up for a busy evening. The volunteers arrange traffic cones which direct churchgoers through the one-way lot, alleviating a lot of congestion for people parking or driving through.

“I just devised a way to keep everyone going in the same direction,” Boyd explains. “If you watch it now, it’s just like a parade going through the parking lot,” he says.

Around 5:30 p.m., after the lot is fully set up, the crew members take their positions at the entrance, exit and every crosswalk in between. Then the cars come streaming in.

For the next hour, Boyd and his volunteers remain at their posts to make sure traffic runs smoothly. Beyond just keeping things organized and efficient, the presence of the volunteers reassures visitors that the church is both a welcoming and safe environment. Greeting folks going into the building is one of their most important responsibilities.

“We want everybody to feel welcome and right now we have a fabulous crew that does that,” says Dianne Johnson, director of operations at the church. “I always tell the guy at the entrance to keep a smiling face, because we’re the first greeters people see,” Boyd says.

For Boyd, keeping church traffic efficient and stress-free is a definite priority. But his calling to monitor the safety of his community runs much deeper than that. His decision to help ensure the safety of his congregation is one rooted in his faith as well as his own personal history.

“I had an 18-year-old boy in 1981 that was hit and killed by a car, and he was just a month out of high school,” Boyd says. “When this opportunity came up, that was on my mind. I felt a real need to go out there and take care of the kids.” 

That memory continues to be what drives him to keep kids safe, especially when it comes to car safety. Boyd says it was the presence of God in his heart that influenced him to organize the program 12 years ago. Ever since then, come rain or shine, Boyd has been at the church on Wednesday nights, patrolling the lot, monitoring the crosswalks and always greeting visitors with a reassuring smile.

Keeping the church safe isn’t limited to pedestrian traffic. Boyd extends the same courtesy to members’ vehicles, too. After a break-in incident at the church a few years ago, Boyd decided he would patrol the lot with a flashing dome light on his car during his downtime, “just so people know it’s being watched over,” he says.

The crew continues to direct traffic throughout the night until the very last choir practice wraps up at 8 p.m., when Boyd and his volunteers clean up the lot, take down the cones and bid the remaining visitors goodbye.

Prior to the advent of the program, congregation members were frustrated and confused by the Wednesday night traffic flow. Now, the volunteers are a total asset to the day-to-day function of the community. “It’s truly a ministry of the church,” says Johnson.

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The King of Kings Traffic Control Ministry Team

Al Bongard

Glenn Boyd

Larry Gunderson

Rich Hybben

Mike Jacobsen

Dick Towler

Linda Walton

Matthew Walton

Tim Walton

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