This is long overdue but I’ve been both busy and lazy and so…

Saturday Night (2:42) Coffee House is still holding its own.  The Admin people decided late last year that they were indeed going to eliminate the Associate Pastor position (as they also attempted to do a year ago) so, after June, we will be without our favorite guy in charge of Saturday night service.  At this point we are not sure if the service will survive or not and I have mixed emotions at to whether I want to be a part of it.  The Senior Pastor will take the service over but doesn’t feel comfortable with the “discussion” format so we would be subjected to hearing his regular Sunday sermon.  He also would not be interested in any of the set-up/preparation work and would want someone else to do it all.  I think our coffee house idea is an idea that has yet to reach its full potential as far as gathering people who do not want to attend a regular, traditional type, service but we have more or less stopped advertising it lest we disappoint people when the “big” change occurs.

So….as I said I have mixed emotions.  There are always the arrogant Christians who right away espouse the position that people shouldn’t attend a church because of the Pastor but because of God, but when certain individuals, especially newer Christians, are being nurtured by certain Pastors there is always the danger they are going to be cast adrift because of their feelings of loss of the relationship they have established with the Pastor who is leaving.  These things never seem to be taken into consideration by those who run the “business” of church.  But back to my mixed emotions, I like the kind of informal service we have and don’t think I can go back to a regular Sunday service where we all sit back and wait to be entertained by the people putting on the show.  I want to see as many people as possible involved in what is going on.  The Bible tells us we should all have something to share when we come to the service.

Above and beyond my preferences I am concerned with those who have been attending the coffee house.  We are going to try and find out their feelings as to whether they want to continue on Saturdays while not being able to have the discussion type service we are used to.  If there are those who want it to continue then I have to seriously consider staying for their benefit as there is no one else to lead “worship” for that service.  If there is no interest then I will most likely be out the door.  I have joked to several people both in that service and people I know outside that church about starting to meet at my house and had to stop joking about it because of the interest it was generating.  It is a shame that churches are trying so hard to increase their attendance figures while at the same time they are making decisions that are driving people away from the organized church.  I, as I hinted above, am afraid that decisions are being made as business decisions around a boardroom table rather than spiritual decisions made at the altar on one’s knees.

The good news is that there is a Methodist congregation somewhere in Western PA that is about to be blessed with an enthusiastic and quickly maturing Pastor who has a real heart to change people’s lives.

Work has been going pretty well.  As I said last time, I have plenty to keep me busy and with the great work crews we have, we have been doing some great work getting our projects ready and completed in a timely manner and within our budget.

We finished remodeling our powder room before Christmas and are trying to get some other work done around the house.  We are still putting together a teaching on prayer and worship for a prayer seminar the church will be giving in March.  We are also gathering some ideas for the Saturday Night Easter Eve service.  Both of these things are approaching rapidly and need to be completed soon!

Again, a quick thanks to those of you who still stop by and especially those who respond with a comment, they mean a lot to me.  I know I rarely get around anymore so I can understand when others don’t stop here.

Be Blessed!

God IS Good!

Go Ahead: Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Okay, only 2 months since my last blog. 

The Saturday Night coffee house as a weekly event is holding its own.  We get new people who say they like the concept, but then someone else disappears.  We have a running joke that there are only about 35 people there a week, but if they all showed up we’d have 250!  Besides our monthly soup night, we have also had two social events these last two months:  ice cream in September and pizza this month.  I think we have decided on pumpkin pie night for November and maybe a Christmas dinner in December.  Most of the people seem to hang around for the socials after the service so that gives us all a chance to maybe develop some relationships with those we don’t know well.

Work has been going well since we are now in a new fiscal year and working under a new budget (at least we will when Congress gets off their lazy butts and passes one).  I have enough jobs that are supposed to be funded to keep me plenty busy during the next 12 months.  The added benefit in what I do is that, though I am an electrical engineer, I’ve taken on other maintenance type tasks to keep my position in the office I have been working in.   Though it is sometimes a challenge, it is also a learning experience and gives me enough variety that I don’t get into a rut of boredom.  God IS Good!!

My wife and I were off last week so we took a three day trip to Columbus, Ohio which is about a 3 hour drive from home.  We got a suite in a hotel and spent some time relaxing and, as we usually do, visited all the Half-Price Books stores in the area (5).  We always end up with a bunch of cheaply priced books and CDs.  We also visited the Eaton Town Center which is a mall type shopping center which is outside and based on a town square type setting.  Very interesting and I’d like to go back when I could spend more time there.

Besides work I am trying to get some work done around the house as well as putting together a teaching on prayer and worship for a prayer seminar the church will be giving in March.  I am also researching several books for some ideas for the Saturday Night Christmas service as well as tweaking the Giving of Thanks service for November.  After I get some ideas our “group”, presided over by the Saturday Night Pastor, will tweak them and put them together until we think it is what God wants us to do.  As a group we don’t feel very creative but we have, with God’s help, come up with a few services that had an impact on the congregation.  God IS Good!

A quick thanks to those of you who still stop by and especially those who respond with a comment, they mean a lot to me.  I know I rarely get around anymore so I can understand when others don’t stop here.

Be Blessed!

God IS Good!

Go Ahead: Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Wow!  Almost 4 months since my last blog.  I keep stopping here and thinking I need to update but never seem to get back here to do so.  Thanks for the comment Patrick, you spurred me to blog today!

Since my last post we have decided to take the Saturday Night coffee house format to a weekly event.  We didn’t seem to draw as many to the service in the sanctuary as we did to the coffee house so it seems to make sense to go with our strong point.  This is the second month we’ve doing it and it seems we are starting to attract some new faces.  Of course, there a few of the regulars that are disgruntled over our abandoning the sanctuary but we felt God was moving us in the direction of the coffee house and that is where we decided to go.  When Saturday Night first started years ago it was the only service like it in the area but now it seems every church wants to tap into that same group of unchurched people and while that is a noble idea, it certainly seems to thin out the available number of people to draw from.  In my opinion, I would think it is time for churches to seek God for unique opportunities for reaching the lost but most still seem to want to try and duplicate the efforts of others.  While it may work for some, I’d think that when you present too many instances of the same thing it probably creates confusion for those who are seeking by giving them too many choices to choose from.  Anyways, we decided to seek God for something different and now we will wait for Him to bring in those who need such a place.

I will also add that we never did go through with the questionnaire for the congregational input but we have been having some great discussions at the coffee house concerning what has attracted people to the church and to the coffee house.  Seems that there is reality to the assumption that some people want to seek God in a place that isn’t “religious” in nature.

Work has had its ups and downs but God is in charge and I’ll let Him guide me through the good and the bad times.  God IS Good!

We bought a 2008 Ford Escape about two weeks ago.  Our 1997 Mercury Villager needed over $1000 of work done on it and it didn’t seem prudent to put more money into a vehicle with 120,000 miles on it with no guarantees it wouldn’t need more.  It has satellite radio, a 6 CD changer, and a port to plug in my mp3 player so its got a whole lot more music choices than I am used to or actually want to contend with.  Since the CD changer plays mp3s I made some discs with some of the older worship CDs I’ve accumulated and have been listening to some of those lately rather than any newer CDs.  It seems like we’re in a dry period for new worship songs or at least I haven’t been able to find any good ones.

I did buy a 22” LCD monitor for my computer, a big improvement.

We were in Virginia Beach the last week of June.  I had training there during the day and my wife got to just sit around the hotel and relax.  We were right on the beach this time and it was pretty nice.  We drove down and the traffic from DC to Richmond and then to VA Beach was horrendous so I’m not sure I ever want to drive down there again though I never know if I’ll be scheduled for more training there or not.  We used to go to the Annapolis area which we preferred as it isn’t as far as a drive from Pittsburgh as VA Beach.

Well after four months time that is about all I can remember that is in any way significant in my life.  

Be Blessed!

God IS Good!

Go Ahead: Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

I was looking back over my old blogs yesterday and I was surprised to be reminded of some major events in my life of which I had completely forgotten the timeframe.  I was never one to keep a diary but I’m now guessing that, in my case anyways, there is some value to writing down your thoughts once in a while.  I also noted that I joined xanga on 3/21/2001 so my sixth anniversary has just passed unnoticed.  I find it hard to believe that it has been that long.

As I went through my subscriber list I also saw some names that stood out as old friends and some I couldn’t remember what kind of relationship I might have had with them.  Some are still around and some have left xanga for greener pastures.  I, at one time, started a blogspot web log for the times when xanga used to go down, but I was never comfortable over there and preferred to carry on my relationships here.  I guess some want to move on to the latest and greatest hot spots but I prefer the tried and true comfort that comes from being in a familiar place.  I like change, but not change that comes too quickly or too drastically.  I suppose that is why I never plan on moving!

We had another Saturday Night coffee house this past week.  After all the planning for Palm Sunday Eve and Easter Eve is was nice to just kick back a bit and be even more casual.  We had a discussion on questions from a book entitled “Over Two Hundred Questions Kids Ask About Religion” or something like that.  The SN Pastor had a lot of pages bookmarked to use but I think we only got through about three of them.  People seem to really like the chance to speak their opinions about things when given the chance.  They really like the soup too!  Our next one (in May) will either feature slides from the Pastor’s trip to England to view the places Wesley walked (Methodist) or might be an open discussion depending on how quick he gets the pictures developed.  We are also planning a questionnaire to see what people want out of a service and what they think we might be doing right and doing wrong.  That can expose us to some criticism but I feel that the church is for the congregation and we need to at least consider their input before we assume that we are doing what they feel ministers to them.  At the least, it gives us a chance to explain what we do if they are missing the point.

Work is work and I’m feeling I’ve complained enough about my current situation.  I have the perfect job for me and though it could be better, it could be a lot worse.  I read the news and see what is going on in the lives of others and can just thank God that I have a great and prosperous life.  I just need to give it over to God and quit trying to manipulate my circumstances.  Amen.

I bought the Matt Redman CD “Beautiful News” back in 2006 when it first came out, listened to it once or twice, and forgot about it.  My wife and I were listening to it in the car the other night and I remarked that out of all his CDs, this one doesn’t seem to have the stand out worship song that the others have had.  I’m always looking for something new to do at church but I haven’t heard anything on this CD I want to do.   I guess I could say the same thing about Chris Tomlin’s “See The Morning” too.  I’ve done “How Great Is Our God” a few times but it really isn’t a song that strongly appeals to the worship in me.  That CD seems to have had a strong following though so maybe it is either my age won’t allow me to relate to his age or the lack of my having a band at SN anymore restricts my song choices.  I’ve been considering getting Tim Hughes “Holding Nothing Back” but I don’t want to spend money on another CD I won’t listen too.  Anyone have that one?  Sometimes I think I should just buy the CDs from the Passion seminars, which usually have the latest and greatest from Tomlin, Redman, etc., and forget buying their solo efforts.

I’d like to buy an LCD computer monitor as my 17” CRT has me reaching for my glasses all the time but I never wear them at work where I have a 19” LCD.  I know the bigger size has something to do with it but I also think it is clearer.  I’m also in the beginning stages of wanting a plasma or LCD TV.  Our old 28” CRT takes up a lot of room in our small living room.  The entertainment system cabinet we bought several years ago has always seemed like the Tardis (extra points if you know what that is) is parked in our living room waiting for the Doctor to come back.  I could cut it down to make it thinner if I got a thinner TV to put in it.  The only draw back is the cost of the cable would be higher to get the HDTV.

Well, this could go on forever so I will stop for now.  Hope to get back here soon!.

Be Blessed!

God IS Good!

Go Ahead: Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Have been poking around some of the sites I used to frequent often.  A lot of things have changed in a lot of lives and I'm sorry I missed most of it but it was nice to catch up with some of you a bit.  I still relish the realtionships I developed with some of you here and hope I can rekindle some of them by getting around more often.  Be Blessed!

I keep meaning to update this more often but time flies when you’re having fun!  I thank those of you who still take the time to stop by and read my infrequent rantings.

When last I updated I was discussing the “coffee houses” we’d been having.  As I indicated our next one consisted of a discussion on prayer.  The following one was to feature a hymn sing with some hymn stories told before the singing of each hymn but we decided that it might be more appropriate subject matter for a regular Saturday Night service.  We went with a discussion of “What’s God Doing In Your Life” instead.  It occurred on an icy and snowy Saturday evening and we weren’t expecting much of a turn out but 68 people came and enjoyed the soup, coffee, discussion, and fellowship.  The soup and coffee times just may be having more of an effect that the regular service and we may need to have them more often.  As it is, the entire church is doing a series right now and then we have Palm Sunday Eve and Easter Eve so the next coffee house will be the week after Easter.  I’m not sure what we will be doing but I would like to open it up to allow the congregation to tell us what they like and don’t like about our services and what ideas they might have to make them more effective in ministry and outreach.

As I also stated previously, for Easter we’re leaning towards doing something that bridges Christmas to Easter.  I, for one, haven’t put the time into planning this that I should be but I’m confident that between the 4 or 5 of us that plan these things God will make something special occur.  We’re still using the Christmas tree and will probably end the Palm Sunday Eve service with the congregation decorating the tree with the little crosses.  Then, on Easter Eve, we will have everyone take one at the end as a sign of their sharing in His suffering.

I got a book by Michael Card ($2 at Half Price Books) called “A Violent Anger” as well as the book  “With One Voice: Discovering Christ’s Song in Our Worship” by Reggie M. Kidd, which was a Christmas gift.  I mention them because they both have chapters that compare the prophecy of David’s Psalm 22 with the gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion.  I’m wondering how we could work that into the Easter Eve service.  I’ve also found a great song called “When I Remember” by Kim Hill which I will be using.  It was on a special CD named after the Lucado book “He Chose The Nails.”  I’ve also been using the song “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us” which I have on the Skillet Ardent Worship CD but which was written and recorded by Stuart Townsend.  I’ve had several comments on it when we’ve sung it from both the younger and older generations.  It has that “hymn-like” quality about it and some pretty convicting lyrics.

As for myself, it has been a bit of a struggle to get things done at work since the Federal Government has not had a budget this year.  Congress finally passed a resolution to fund the government for the rest of this year but the final numbers have yet to filter through the system and get to those of us who need to get our work done.  The end of March will be the half way point of this fiscal year.  Politics!  As I stated, it has been a bit of a struggle but somehow, in some way or another, God seems to enable me to get what seems an impossibility done.  I’m really leaning on Him now.

Be Blessed!

God IS Good!

Go Ahead: Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Well, that is a full typed page so I will stop for now lest this get too long.

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!!

I will ask you to pray as a vote is coming tomorrow to eliminate the Associate Pastor position (at the church I am a part of), which was just created about a year and a half ago.  I like the Associate Pastor but above and beyond that, I just want to see God’s will done on this situation, whatever that may be.  I don’t pretend to know all the reasoning behind this but I see the trend to run the church as a business and also to have not given this enough time to work before deciding to take it all in a different direction.  Again, I don’t know enough to judge but it reminds me of the people warned not to drift to the left and to the right on every wave of doctrine that comes their way.

My wife and I drove our daughter 500 miles to Albany, NY to visit her boyfriend last Thursday morning, returning on Sunday.  What a disaster!  On the way there a truck whipped over in front of us and threw up a stone, which chipped the windshield.  While there we visited Ruby Tuesday which normally has great steaks but not at that location.  They were quite chewy.  The next day we went to a place called Grandma’s, were you’d expect to eat some good home cooked meals, but I had the worst lasagna I ever ate.  It was mushy and stone cold in the middle.  I should have went to an Italian restaurant.  The next day we ate at a place called Garcia’s, a Mexican restaurant.  I love Mexican food and eat at several Mexican places around here often but the food at Garcia’s was about the blandest excuse I’ve ever had for Mexican food.  The locals seemed to love it and I can only assume they’ve never had real Mexican food cooked by Mexicans.

On Saturday morning we were sitting in a diner having breakfast when my wife noticed the rear tire was almost flat on the car.  I pumped it up with a small compressor I carry in the car right in the middle of a driving rainstorm.  We went to Wal-Mart to see if we could get it checked but they told me there was a four hour wait, though I saw people standing around in the garage talking and only one car being serviced, even though there were people standing around waiting.  Praise God He led us to a Mobil station down the road from the hotel that actually worked on cars and they fixed it for us right away.  Their efficient work and friendly demeanor may have been the highlight of the trip for me.  On the way home my wife hit a pothole and bent the rim on one of the front tires, though, praise God again, it hasn’t leaked.

As for Albany, I don’t think I’ve ever traveled in a town that had more confusing road signs.  It is hard to find your way around and you sit in traffic waiting at lights so much, your gas mileage really suffers.  All in all, I don’t anticipate ever returning to Albany, NY.  I will say that we did enjoy a day of walking around the main street of Saratoga Springs, NY.  It was quite an interesting place with its historical looking buildings and interesting shops.

As for the daughter’s visit, she found out how much men can act differently when in a different location and with different friends.  I don’t think she wants to go back again either.

Well, I want to/need to write something but really don’t have any certainty as to what I want to write.  I have a few hundred different emotions/feelings/ideas running around inside my brain but am uncertain as to how and/or when I should release them, especially when they might be taken the wrong way by some and I’m never sure who might be reading these things (though from the comments on my last post, I’d say no one).  All areas of my life seem to be having their ups and downs these days though I do want to stress that my life has been extremely blessed by God and I consider it to quite excellent.

Work continues go well for me but the uncertainty caused by unknown budget specifics (mostly due to the wars going on) always has me speculating as to whether I will continue to work at my present workplace or, once again, be sent to work in the Federal Building in Pittsburgh again.  I’m not a cubicle type engineer, I’m a field engineer who thrives on going out and working with the craftsmen and that is what I hope and pray I can continue to do.

The bathroom is coming along nicely, albeit a bit slow as far as Kathy is concerned.  I finished the trim and she now has to fill in the screw holes and paint everything (I don’t paint, but that’s another story).  I need to finish a small area in a corner that will eventually have small baskets hanging on it in place of shelves.  We’ve lived here for 16 years and this is probably one of the few projects we’ve actually seen through to completion.  We built the deck a couple of years ago and for all intensive purposes it is finished but I had grandiose plans to expand it, which I have never moved on.  I am not the most ambitious person in the world when it comes to looking forward to spending an hour or two a day doing extra work at home, the everyday chores such as grass cutting keep me busy enough.   That’s one reason why I like to take a week or two off of work so I can enough time on a project to get it moving in the right direction.  Is that clear?  I came to the conclusion. Not to long ago, that we were planning to do too much at one time (kitchen, bathroom, living room, etc.) and we needed to turn our focus to one project at a time as it was all too overwhelming for me and that was one reason I wasn’t getting moving on anything.  I’m not sure what our next move will be but it will probably be to restore the living room and dining room floors.

Saturday Night continues to be a huge disappointment to me as it seems to be going nowhere.  There are a few dedicated attendees but their numbers continue to dwindle.  It is so hard to lead worship when you look out and see a bunch of stiffs standing there looking back at you.  I spent years leading worship in a “full-gospel” church where the people were so enthusiastic and thus easy to lead in worship, but this bunch seems to unconcerned as to whether we worship or not (I’m using the term “worship” in the musical sense).  It is hard to lead without any feedback from those being lead.  I returned to the Methodist Church because they offered the Saturday Night service as an alternative to a regular Sunday service but as time goes on, it has become just another service.  I also returned dead set on not getting too involved again but got pushed into first the band and then into leading the worship.  I enjoy leading worship, but not under these circumstances.  The reasons for the demise of this service are many and a lot of them are speculation on my part but the bottom line is that all those who were the backbone of this service have trickled out the door over the past few years for various reasons and there have been no new people stepping up to take their place.  I would hope that it wasn’t division caused by the enemy to stop what appeared to be a vital ministry but I also think that if those who had left did so because God was leading them to do so, then why didn’t He provide replacements?  I haven’t felt any conviction that the service needs to come to an end, but I’ve been seriously thinking that my involvement might.  I stayed too long at another church because I felt that was what God wanted me to do and I did so against the wishes of my family and I don’t feel like going through that again.  I offered to take over the worship leading in December of 2004 on a temporary basis but no one else has come forth to relieve me of that duty.  The church is trying to hire a worship “director” and expect them to lead worship for the Saturday Night service plus two Sunday morning services but that seems to have the prospects of burn-out written all over it.

Well (there’s that word again), that’s about as far as I want this to go for now.  What’s going on at your church?

Okay, it has been a while.  It was my intent to carry on the conversation from my last blog but it has been so long that the fire has gone out of that subject for now.  Maybe we can get it going sometime in the future as I'd like to have some opinions on a few things related to the church.

Work is still extremely busy for me as I try and get the Fiscal Year 2006 jobs finished up by the end of September and then determine what I need to be doing for FY07 which starts in October.  This is always a period of chaos as the corps of engineers tries to determine what has been funded and what hasn't.  It sometimes changes daily, if not more often, as they try and allocate the funds congress has given us for our work.  It is never enough to do all the work that needs done and, I fear, we will pay for it down the road as we begin to see more and more mechanical failures at our dams.  Enough on that.

The Saturday night service has stayed about the same.  We have a few holdovers and a few new people and they all seem to like the more "acoustic" sound of the worship over the loud bands of the past and I, as the worship leader, have been able to free myself from the constraints a band puts on me and feel more free to deviate from the script.  Again, where the church is going  is something I'd like to get some opinions on when I get a chance to really put some ideas into words.  I had been determined to change myself into the worship leader I thought I needed to be but one day decided to just go back to doing it the way I did it for years at other churches and that seemed to be a break through for me and for what I've been trying to do.  We actually had some spontaneous singing a couple of weeks ago.

Personally, my wife and I have been completely redoing the bathroom.  During the 4th of July week, as I mentioned last time, we removed the old tub and shower surround and installed new ones.  We also took time off the week before labor day and installed new flooring and beadboard panels on the bottom of the walls.  Since our bathroom is pretty small, I decided against replacing the built-in cupboard, which we had torn out, and instead got three unfinished oak kitchen cabinets and stacked them to make the new cupboard.  My wife has been in the process of getting the walls primed and painted when she gets a few moments and I hope to get the new vanity in sometine in the next few days.  I have the Columbus Day week scheduled off and hope to get the trim, etc, done at that time. I'm not good at doing bits and pieces here and there when I get a moment or two.  I need to have lots of time when I get involved.

Okay, what else?  I've been reading Revolution by George Barna and listening to the entire Passion catalog on my mp3 player as I travel to the job (170 miles round trip) every day.  I also listened to Kutless and now Pillar after the Passion playlist ran out.  It will probably be Sanctus Real or U2 when Pillar finishes on Monday

Be Blessed!

God IS Good!

Go Ahead: Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

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