January 15, 2007

• It has been a while and I have been remiss in not reporting the results of the vote to eliminate the Associate Pastor position at church.  I did, indeed, write a lengthy post, which I had to split up into about 5 days of posts, covering some ideas/questions which I have been mulling over in my mind but never got around to posting it here.  I can’t even remember which computer or drive I left it on at this point.  It was my further discussion on some posts/comments about “church” over the last year or so and maybe it is just not meant to be posted publicly here.  At any rate, here’s an update!

   

  First off, I hope and pray you all had a great holiday season and that you all remembered just what the season is all about.  I, myself, am kind of burned out on Christmas because of what it has been reduced to in the world and other than a few gifts for family and friends, I shun the gift exchanges where you buy someone what they tell you to buy them and then they buy you what you tell them to buy you.  If I want something, I’ll go buy it and eliminate the middleman (or “middlewoman”) from the process.  But, that’s not what this post is about!

   

  The night of the vote on eliminating the Associate Pastor position, my wife attended the meeting while I stayed home and prayed for the entire time.  I didn’t go because I get emotional speaking at meetings like that and then people think I am angry with them.  I tried something new and typed my prayer on the computer as it flowed forth and it is interesting to go back and re-read what I prayed in light of all that happened.  When Kathy came home, she had taken thorough notes on what everyone had said and there was a lot of support for keeping the position, which was in direct opposition to the committee who had been tasked to come up with some solutions of which this was one.  At that time, they decided to postpone the vote for two days and then meet again.

   

  At the next meeting, one of the “elders” of the church listened to what was being discussed and got up and proposed they table the discussion and not vote at all lest they cause division in the church.  This was agreed to by the majority and that was the end of it.  I had been prepared to accept the vote no matter which way it went if I felt that God was in it but I never expected that the vote would never be taken.  God is truly superior in His knowledge and He showed it in this situation.  Praise Him!

   

  The three weeks of December leading up to the Saturday Night before Christmas the Associate Pastor told the story behind a Christmas carol and then we featured that carol in that night’s worship. For “Christmas Eve Eve” we did a modified version of the script for Kent Henry’s CD “Christmas Is For Worship” (a great, great CD) which intersperses relevant scripture reading with Christmas carols.  We added a carol of mine, I wrote several years ago, and a couple of readings from Max Lucado.  The Lucado reading was actually a short chapter from one of his books (the title escapes me at the moment) which I split up into a reading about the birth and then another reading speculating on the childhood of Christ culminating in “Joy To The World” which we found out in a previous week is not actually a Christmas carol but points towards the second coming.  We also gave everyone, as they came in, a small gift box and a blank business card.  At the appropriate time we wrote our names on the cards, put them in the box, and brought them forward to symbolically present ourselves to Him as a gift.  We then all took a different box back and committed to praying for the name inside for a year.  We’ve had people inquiring about who the name in their box is, so they must be following up on their commitment.  It was something different, for us anyways, got people involved in the service, and all this seemed to minister to those in attendance according to the feedback we received.

   

  We have also had two coffee houses in the social hall, which replaced the usual service on those respective Saturday nights.  These consist of lots of coffee, home made soup (made by our resident “chef”) and lots of goodies in a casual atmosphere.  We come early to eat and then have some praise and worship before moving on to our main feature of the evening.  The first (in November) consisted of a discussion on “sacrifices” and was initiated by placing relevant scriptures on each of the tables (different scriptures for different tables) and then having the group at each table discuss the scriptures amongst themselves and then present their ideas to the group.  It was well received and sparked some interesting discussion from people whom don’t usually get a chance to express themselves in church.  It received a lot of positive feedback and drove us to decide to have a monthly coffee house.  (A church member also printed up with a place mat that contained the info from the bulletin for that weekend.)

   

  The second coffee house’s feature was playing a Bible “trivia” (don’t like that word) game from “The Bible Game DVD” from the History Channel.  We used a projector to show it on a big screen.  It was New Year’s Eve Eve and was not as heavily attended as the first coffee house but, again, it was well received, everyone participated, and we got a lot of positive feedback.  We’ll probably use this again in a few months.

   

  So, we’ve been trying some new things to get the congregation more actively involved in the services and have gotten some great reaction.  We just need the word to spread and see some new people start coming.  I think it is now beginning to head in a more positive direction and I’m really praying that both the lost and those who have bad feelings towards church in general will begin to feel welcome there.

   

  Our next coffee house will consist of a discussion on prayer since it will follow a prayer seminar at the church that day.  The following one will probably feature a hymn sing with some hymn stories told before the singing of each hymn.  I have a list of about 25 hymns and hope we can put out the list and allow those who attend to pick the ones from the list they want to hear.  We’ll be thinking more about that and tweaking it before it occurs.

   

  For Easter we’re leaning towards doing something that bridges Christmas to Easter.  I don’t think we ever treat the two as a beginning and an end but as two distinct events.  We’re thinking of starting with a Christmas carol or two and then coming up with a story line consisting of some Max Lucado (or others if we can find some) readings interspersed with relevant worship songs.  I may even have a poem or two I’ve written about the cross that might work.  I’m also thinking we can have a Christmas tree decorated with those little crosses that are made to carry in your pocket.  We could then have everyone take one at the end as a sign of their sharing in His suffering.

   

  So, for those of you who are still interested, there is my extended update!  

   

  Be Blessed!

   

  God IS Good!
  
  Go Ahead: Say It! Believe It! Confess It!
  
  You're Invited!!

  • 10:02 am
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