Friday, December 30, 2005

New Year’s: The Perfect Celebration

With all the noise during New Year’s Eve, there was just no way to sleep. Once I got into Junior High and High School, staying up was more fun anyway. Once we were able to receive the Armed Forces Network (AFN), everything fell into place.

The Philippines was advanced enough to have a handful of local TV stations, but their sports programming didn’t show US events. But when we were finally able to tune in AFN, we had access to the big nationally televised events, setting up the perfect New Year’s Eve celebration. Now I’m not exactly sure of the timing here (partly because I lost track of days and times) so there may be a few inaccuracies.

The week of New Year’s usually coincided with the annual conference for all of the Philippine missionaries with our mission. That whole week I turned into a night owl, staying up until 4 or 5 in the morning watching AFN’s broadcasts of bowl games etc. and then reporting the results at breakfast the next morning to all the missionaries who had collegiate allegences but weren’t committed enough to loose sleep over it.

This was the perfect way to celebrate New Year’s. The early bowl games would come on around 10 p.m. followed by a second game that would start around midnight and at times even a third game in the early morning. Staying up, when you couldn’t sleep anyway, hanging out with friends and watching football. Perfect.

So as you fight to stay awake to see a bologna, goat or whatever else is falling on Saturday night, there’s probably a high school kid on the other side of the globe enjoying a bowl game as the clock strikes 12. Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 29, 2005

New Year’s: Where my love of NASCAR began?

As you can imagine, with that much gun powder being exploded in densely populated developments, city streets and villages, there are many injuries each year, some quite severe. The whole night of December 31 is chaos. The amount of firepower builds as the night wears on and crescendos during the hour that spans midnight. It’s in that hour that everyone unloads their full arsenal with the sound completely deafening. The dénouement continues into the wee hours of January 1 as they light the stash of firecrackers they forgot about and things like that.

In addition to all of this noise and gunpowder, if you would dare travel the streets, every few blocks you come across a burning tire – again, rooted in warding off evil spirits. There’s nothing like the sweet aroma of burning rubber – apparently, that’s where my love of NASCAR is rooted. I knew it was more than a passing interest of mine :)

The whole night is like a war zone. Though I’d never equate anything to war, out of respect for what soldiers endure in battle, the pictures of the air attack on Baghdad in 1991 reminded me of New Year’s in the Philippines. It’s not a night that you want to be out on the town. Thus far, I’ve forgotten to mention that some Police and military, in their drunken joy of entering a New Year express their jubilation by discharging their live firearms into the air and usually injure some more people. By morning of January 1, so much ammunition has been exploded that Manila is covered with a think cloud of dark smoke.

While some humans really get into this approach of celebrating the New Year, those who don’t at least have options: earplugs, leaving the country among others. Those I really felt sorry for where the dogs. With their sensitive ears, the explosions scare the dogs stiff. Our poor Boxer would be under the couch in fright all night long. We put her in the backmost room of the house, but there wasn’t much else we could do to protect her ears. After a few days, she was back to normal, but the shellshock was intense.

Here's a report of the New Year's Eve 2006 celebrations.

I never got into the firecrackers, I was too afraid I’d injure myself. I did find the perfect way to celebrate New Years.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

New Year’s: Pinoy Style

Watching a lighted ball (or if you live in Lancaster County any other sort of object. See: white rose, red rose, bologna, pickle, pretzel and goat) drop to celebrate the beginning of a New Year is passé compared to how New Year’s is celebrated in the country of my youth.

In the States, a frequent question on the days surrounding January 1 is, “Did you stay up to watch the ball drop?” In the Philippines, unless you’re deaf, you have no choice but to stay up and usher in the New Year.

Supposedly, the tradition is rooted in attempts to ward away evil spirits for the coming year – but I can’t say my friends ever referenced that purpose as they made their New Year’s preparations. Regardless of the true reason, Filipinos create bunkers of gunpowder and other small munitions in preparation for the big event. Everything I’ve seen in the US pales in comparison to the amount of firepower I’m talking about here. The Philippine arsenals pay no regard for aesthetics, it’s all about noise – after all, evil spirits won’t be scared off by pretty colors. The standard issue firecracker of choice during my days was the 5-star, gunpowder tightly rapped into a triangular-shape with a fuse protruding from one corner. Some of the more elaborate 5-star configurations included an entire belt of them strung together on the same fuse, light it and some 50+ 5-stars explode in rapid succession.

During the months of November and December, Filipinos stock their bunkers in preparation for December 31. Off and on, they’ll set a few off for the fun of it before New Year’s Eve, I guess to test things out. Once December 31 rolls around, you want to make sure you’re safe at home. Though sleeping is out of the question, there is a festive atmosphere to be enjoyed. The New Year definitely comes in with a bang.

Little did I know that my love for NASCAR may have originated in New Year's.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Christmas Dilemma Answered

After all the media hullabaloo, we appear to have answered the Christmas dilemma correctly – at least as far as Grace Church is concerned. Our three Christmas weekend services had attendances in the Auditorium (not including the early childhood kids who were in Sunday School) of the following:
     6 p.m. 12/24 – 640
     8 p.m. 12/24 – 392
     10:45 a.m. 12/25 – 359
     Total Auditorium attendance – 1,391

This is a good example of the leadership/followership relationship. Obviously, the church leaders set the course for our Christmas weekend. Pastor Scott could have decided not to have any services on Saturday night or Sunday morning for that matter. He could’ve led us in that direction. That’s the leadership side of the relationship. But good leaders are also good followers.

The followership side of the relationship is when the leader attempts to follow those they are trying to lead. In the example of Christmas weekend, the church leaders attempted to put themselves in the place of the congregation, what service(s) would the congregation most like to have. The leaders that best know those they are leading tend to be the best followers. And with Christmas weekend, we appeared to have followed and thereby led rather effectively.

With a congregation of 800+, I know our service schedule didn’t fit with everyone. That’s the tough part, we have to lead/follow based on the majority, unfortunately, in doing that, we miss some.

If our attendances continue at their current level, it wouldn’t surprise me if we offer two
Christmas Eve services to accommodate the large response, but I’m just guessing. Maybe we’ll always have a Christmas morning service too – regardless of whether Christmas falls on a Sunday or not. It will all depend on following and leading.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Christmas: Joy!

I am filled with joy…

  • as I’ve heard countless stories of how God has worked through Grace Church to bring numerous individuals one step closer to him

  • as we as a staff have had opportunity to serve shoulder-to-shoulder on big projects

  • as we as a staff are being molded into a team

  • as Pastor Scott opens the word each Sunday and each staff meeting as if the lesson is especially for me

  • as it is clear that God has sent us a wave that we’ve caught and we are riding it for all it’s worth

  • that through the birth of Christ and his eventual death and resurrection, I was offered grace. And because of His grace, I have the opportunity to offer grace to others.
May you experience His joy!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Nap Time

Like many of us look forward with eager anticipation to an upcoming vacation or Christmas, the church building looks forward to the week between Christmas and New Year's. The last week of December is the one week of the year that the building enjoys peace. The other 51 weeks of the year, there are activities going on day and night between the children, youth and adult activities, the school ministry and the daycare ministry. Other ministries take breaks a different points during the year, but because it provides childcare to families who have to work at all times, the daycare remains open but for the major holidays.

I praise God for providing us with a facility that can handle those demands. With the amount of use our building gets, it’s holding up really well.

I praise God that we have ministries that utilize the building so heavily, maximizing it’s full potential. Our investment in this building is reaping huge returns.

I think the building is ready to curl up on the sofa with a nice warm blanket and take a weeklong nap. Then again, so am I.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Christmas: Green Tights

I blogged last week about the annual staff Christmas skit we produced in Princeton. One year, the church Christmas party deadline loomed while the creative juices weren’t flowing. As a last resort, we decided to have the Sr. Pastor dress up as Santa Claus and I would be his helper elf.

My wife did a superb job of putting together an elf costume from scratch. I was completely decked out; she even created size 13 elf shoes with pointy toes and bells! The worst of it was having to wear green queen-sized pantyhose.

Now, you have to understand, being dressed up was not new to me. As a blonde-haired, blue-eye six-year-old surrounded by brown-skinned, brown-eyed Filipinos, the schoolteachers always gave me prominent parts in their lavish productions – after all, in their eyes I was a living doll. It was the opposite of Where’s Waldo, I stood out in a crowd. Their productions required me to wear makeup and the like, which I greatly disliked, but was usually bribed to accept with money or a liter of soda. But wearing green tights at the church Christmas party was a different category. Tights just don’t look good.

To top things off, that year the church Christmas party was held at a restaurant that was hosting other functions. I didn’t have the privilege of wearing this getup in the security of the church, I was out in public, changing in the restaurant bathroom and having to pass other guests on my way back to party. Fortunately, the party ended without incident and I still have the tights to this day.

Of course, Pastor Scott’s resume includes a green tights incident (see the April 9 entry) as well. With all the other zany things that we’ve done at Grace over the past year-and-a-half, green tights might make a comeback.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

ROI for an Auditorium

There’s no doubt about it, our multi-use/multi-purpose facility comes with a boat load of headaches, but the ROI (return on investment) when fully examined does make it all worth it.

Think of all that we were able to do with our facility in the past year…

  • We worshipped together with the Auditorium chairs setup in a circle with the platform in the middle

  • We increased our seating capacity for our largest Easter services ever

  • Children rode the giant swings of VBS fame

  • We hosted volleyball, basketball and floor hockey games

  • We hosted communion and foot washing

  • We brought the North Pole to Lititz

  • We hosted weddings

  • We hosted funerals

  • We had the school Christmas program

  • We had the school play

  • We had the daycare and school graduations

  • And lest I forget the daily physical education classes and school recess
That’s quite a list. If we had a fixed-seats in the Auditorium, how many of those activities would we be able to continue to do? Think of all the people we've been able to touch because we have a facility that is flexible.

Our facility is used more now than ever and the master calendar has become a master-challenge. We’re in the process of upgrading our tracking systems to try and keep up with the demand, our current system has been completely maxed-out. These are all positive signs. In their book, When Not to Build, Ray Bowman and Eddy Hall capture the essence of the function of a church building, “If the church’s mission is to minister to people in Christ’s name, church buildings can have only one legitimate function: to serve as tools to help church members better fulfill that mission.” In my evaluation, we are doing pretty good in that department. Though we want to continue to be good stewards of our facility, we are less handcuffed by walls, paint colors, bricks and mortar. We are less concerned about staining carpets if in return we are ministering to people.

Using our multi-use/multi-purpose Auditorium as a tool produces eternal returns that far outweigh the headaches that it creates. Based on how God has used our current Auditorium, I can only imagine how God may choose to use the next tool if it is similarly geared to serve in a multi-use/multi-purpose capacity.

Monday, December 19, 2005

The Solstice is Coming and My Goose is Getting Fat

Don't let this detract from your celebrating the birth of Christ this season, but there is another celebration to be had in a different context.

This week marks the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight for the northern hemisphere. There will be 9 hours and 19 minutes of daylight in Lititz on December 22. From here on out we will be gaining a few minutes of daylight every day until June 20 when we'll top off at some 15 hours of daylight.

Here’s a tip so you won’t be caught by a trick question… if you are ever asked what days are the shortest and longest days of the year, you need to clarify whether they are asking about daylight hours or hours in the day. In areas that observe daylight savings time, the longest and shortest days in terms of hours are the days you spring forward and fall back. Meanwhile, the winter/summer solstices are the shortest/longest days of daylight of the year.

I don't enjoy arriving at work just as the sun's rising and getting home at dusk, so I celebrate and enjoy counting up the added minutes of daylight each day.

http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/lancaster-pennsylvania.html
http://www.almanac.com/rise/

Friday, December 16, 2005

Christmas: Diesel Van

One of the Christmas traditions at the church where I served as Administrator, was an all-church Christmas party. The highlight of the party was the staff skit. We were blessed to have a creative Associate Pastor and an artistic Senior Pastor, who when combining their efforts could produce some great work. It's important that I set the atmosphere.

As with a lot of things in church ministry, the Christmas party would be on the calendar months in advance, but the planning was last minute. The organized, non-procrastinators would begin reminding the staff that we needed to start thinking about the staff skit a month or so before the party, but their warnings and urgings fell on to the floor with no response. The day of the party would roll around and all hands would be on deck - the entire day devoted solely to creating, editing and practicing the skit. The atmosphere in the office was electric with the buzz of the pending deadline, the natural stagefright before a performance and the fear of writer's block with the deadline looming so closely. Rushing out the door with the final script in hand, we'd race to gather our families and head to the party. Our spot in the program would roll around and the skit would come off as if we'd been rehearsing for weeks.

My final Christmas on staff followed this same routine. The day of the party we decided to make a parity on The Sound of Music, taking the well-known songs and writing lyrics based on events at the church. Each of us would sing a song as a solo and my solo was to the tune Edeleweiss with the following lyrics:

Diesel van, diesel van
every Sunday you choke me
rusty and old, forever cold
this is a nightmare, please poke me

When Ford makes a van it will stick around

stick around forever

Diesel van, diesel van,
why didn't you leave with Wayne Wever

The skit received rave reviews and was a smashing success. I even have a copy of it on tape, though none of the record labels picked it up. But the show ranks right up their with the previous classics. Next week I'll tell you about the skit that required me to wear green pantyhose.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

The inherent potential of a church-sponsored school

I've thought for a long time that our school ministry has inherent potential that we haven't realized yet. It's a little uncomfortable to put into these terms, but from some perspectives, Grace Church is a medium-sized business with a multi-million dollar budget. The resources that come along with that type of business creates a world of educational possibilities.

Think about all the resources we have to offer in the building:
A fully functional office - administrative functions
A fully functional computer network - computer tech support and network administration
Building maintenance - electric, plumbing, HVAC among the other building systems
A fully functional accounting office
A plethora of ministry opportunities

We can use our day-to-day operations to educate kids. We haven't tapped that potential as much as I'd like. One recent project gave me renewed hope.

It was clear that the project could be more efficient if we had a mathematical formula. Though I love numbers and studied computer science for a while, math isn't my greatest strength. I sought assistance from the school math teacher. We talked through the problem and the solution I was seeking and the teacher said they would work the problem and get back to me. A few days later I was handed a solution (the formula pictured is not the actual formula). My schedule turned upside down at the time, so I didn't have time to test or work with it, so it sat on my desk for a few weeks. Then the teacher contacted me again and said that one of her students had streamlined the formula. I finally found time to work with it and found a bug or two which gave me the opportunity to work directly with the teacher and the student. In the end we came up with a formula that solved the problem and one that I'll be able to use quite frequently. In addition, a couple of consultants I know were aware of what I was trying to do and were very interested in the solution as they face similar problems on a regular basis.

I was thrilled to have a real time, practical problem that we could use as a teaching opportunity. I think there has to be a world of other things like this that we can leverage for educational purposes, giving our students the benefit of seeing their solutions applied in real situations.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Christmas: Hot Wings roasting on an open fire...

One of my Christmas memories has little to do with Christmas...

My parent's first assignment as missionaries in the Philippines placed our family in the remote town of Labo on the southern end of the main island. I was in first grade. That December, as a way to build relationships with the community, my parents were giving out Christmas cookies. While Mom & Dad were walking the few blocks to deliver cookies to the Post Office staff, I went across the street to play with my Filipino friends. By most accounts, if you couldn't see my skin color, you would've thought I was one of the natives. I spoke the language fluently, went to Filipino public school and had a group of Filipino friends.

One of our neighbors across the street, was a blacksmith. His shop was in front of his house. The forge was originally hand-cranked and I used to have fun cranking it for a while when I'd stop by. I happened to stop by the blacksmith's to discover that the forge was used for more than just blacksmithing - the men were preparing the Filipino rendition of hot wings. The "wings" were normally consumed with alcoholic beverage and reserved for the men, but there wasn't any of that around at the time. My parents taught me to be a polite guest, so I couldn't refuse the offer of having a taste of the "wings." So while Mom & Dad were building relationships handing out cookies, I was having "hot wings" cooked on a blacksmith's forge. One of many unique experiences.

In case you're curious, it tasted like chicken.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Transition Reflection

I've had the privilege over the past 3-4 years to watch and participate in our church's leadership transition. Now that the transition phase is fading, I wanted to take an opportunity to share my perspective.

My observations will focus on Pastor Young and Pastor Distler. Please understand, that while I respect both men and want to acknowledge the great way in which they have lead us, in no way do I want to supersede the God's work. I cannot express or completely identify, how much praise is due to God. I've never seen Him lead in such clear, and special ways as He has led our church through these last 3-4 years. Praise God! In addition to a tangible sign of His sovereignty, it is also an affirmation of the power of prayer. Soon after Pastor Young announced his retirement plan, we began praying off and on in the office for our future leader and his family. I know many others were praying too. The credit God deserves cannot be expressed adequately.

I admire and respect Pastor Young's leadership through the transition. When I interviewed for this job, I directly asked him if he had a retirement plan. In 1998, he didn't, but when he finally did have a plan, he shared it with the congregation two years in advance. The foresight to give the church two years to prepare for his departure laid a firm foundation. As the search process was organized, Pastor Young backed away and allowed the Elders to operate. On several occasions when Elder meeting discussions would turn to transition issues, Pastor Young would excuse himself quietly. Being the first time we had ever faced replacing a Senior Pastor, Pastor Young found the right balance of giving appropriate advice about how to create the process and then backing away and letting the process be carried out without his influence. I'm not sure any of us will ever know how difficult it was for him to leave those meetings and to let go. At his insistence, Dr. Young also made sure that he wasn't in town when any of the candidate(s) were visiting our church. I also respect Dr. Young for continuing to lead to his last days as our Senior Pastor. During his last few months he tackled reorganizing the board that oversees the daycare and school ministries, not a small initiative. He used his remaining influence to prepare a large part of our ministry for future growth. By declaring his retirement early and the work he led us through during the ensuing two years, Dr. Young prepared us to accept a new Senior Pastor. We were as prepared as we could be. As in a relay, he ran his leg to the best of his ability, left all he had on the track and gave a perfect handoff.

I had an instant connection with Pastor Scott. I had the opportunity to meet with him one-on-one for 30 minutes several weeks before he was introduced to the congregation. I've never had a meeting like it. We both knew that we would work well together, we just knew it. It was clear our philosophies are closely aligned and obvious that our strengths and weaknesses would compliment each other. Had it been feasible, I think we would've started working right then. The excitement in the office was hard to contain. With a three month gap between Pastor Young's last day and Pastor Scott's first day, Scott sent us multiple email messages orienting us to his style of leadership, setting some of his philosophy of ministry in place and preparing us for his arrival.

I've been impressed with Pastor Scott's desire to get to know Dr. Young, to honor him and his concern for the Young family that remained in Lititz. The congregation never go to see it due to technical difficulties, but on the Sunday when the Youngs officially returned to Grace after their year-long hiatus, Pastor Scott had taped a video message (he was out of town), In addition to welcoming them back, Pastor Scott shared about the relationship the two of them now had, that Dr. Young and his wife had asked Scott to be their pastor and that Scott was thrilled that they wanted to retain their membership. I've also been impressed with the Young's desire to retain their connections with Grace. The love for the church is obvious. It was neat to sit under the teaching of Dr. Young again on Thanksgiving weekend. To me, that was the culmination of the transition.

The exchange of the baton is a critical moment in the race, often determining the success or failure of the team. At Grace, the exchange was superb. The exchange occurred in stride, the handoff was firm and the momentum of the first leg carried through to the second.

I praise God for the way He used both of these men to affect a transition process that has not only maintained the ministry of Grace, but has it ready to join God wherever He chooses to work next.

Monday, December 12, 2005

I only like Christmas surprises

I don't like surprises, especially first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, when you work in infrastructure areas, managing systems on which others rely to do their work, you have to deal with surprises. So my normal morning routine was again interrupted with a surprise when I opened the door to the office this morning - one of our computer network servers had a problem. This is the perfect week for a network problem: the school Christmas program is tonight and uses computers, the school is scheduled to process grades today using computers, the Christmas walk-thru is this weekend among our regular tasks. No pressure or anything. So I donned my fire helmet and went to work to put out another fire. I don't like surprises like that. I think the only surprises I like are the kind that come on Christmas morning.

I can hear Santa on the phone with me Christmas morning, "Andrew, uh, the network is down." That's the kind of surprise I like, the kind that only come on Christmas.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Grace Church holy of holies - part 2

The second holy of holies at Grace Church is the church office. The door to the church office can only be opened with a key, limiting access to the office and a small percentage of the congregation has the opportunity to enter the church office. Why is the office area restricted?

The layout is not people friendly - The church office layout is designed for function; getting office work done. The design does incorporate any area for receiving office guests or anything that remotely resembles a reception area. The floor space in the outer office area holds several permanent workstations that all face the wall; communicating that the space is task-oriented, not people oriented. I've analyzed it to pieces to try and find a cheap way to redesign the space to receive guests and serve people, but I haven't found a workable solution.

The open layout makes everything accessible to everyone - The floor plan is so open, there are no physical elements to control people traffic. Think about the CopyMax store, there's equipment in the general area that customers can access, but there's other equipment behind the counter that only employees can access. The church office isn't laid out in that manner, once in the office, a person has access to all of the equipment. Serving the needs of multiple ministries and hundreds of people requires a level of control. The layout of the office does not provide that ability.

Confidential and sensitive information - As the brain center for our facility, the office houses different types of information. It is difficult to protect this information within the open floor plan.

Here are some of the elements in my dream to renovate the church office. I'd like to see a balanced floor plan that adequately serves the two audiences of a church office: the employees who use the space Monday-Friday and the volunteers who use the space on Wednesday nights, Sunday mornings and sporadically during the week. The space requires a reception area for receiving people into the office as well as a general office area that ministry leaders can use to support their ministries. On the flip side, the office needs an employees only work area and an indirect way to limit access to the ministry staff offices so all guests can be appropriately screened. To try and accomplish those objectives with the current layout would require a lot of work to address numerous issues.

What's behind that locked door?
In addition to the general office area, there are seven individual offices, a break room, a men's and women's restroom, two storage rooms and a conference room. The staff will tell you that the area is one of the colder spots in the building (in fact, I think we tripped a circuit breaker yesterday because so many staff members were using personal heaters).

The conference room is used for staff meetings, the monthly Elder Executive Committee meetings, the bi-monthly Elder Board meetings, and a lot of other meetings as well as for the occasional staff lunch or social. The conference room is typically where the bridal party prepares for weddings and we even had a wedding in the conference room!

The individual offices serve in multiple capacities as well: workstations, nap areas, auxiliary storage rooms, computer data center and tree graveyards (because of all the paper we use). One of the offices is a lighthouse shrine, one is dedicated to Penn State and the Steelers, another might as well be a music shop and one is a train room.

The office area is one I hope to renovate at some point. I dream of using the space to be more welcoming to our guests, to be more user friendly to our ministry leaders/volunteers and more conducive to facilitating teamwork among our staff.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Christmas Walk-Thru is a Team Effort

On the surface, the upcoming Christmas Walk-Thru may look like an outreach organized and carried out solely by the Worship Arts ministry. But I'm thrilled to reveal that behind the scenes it is an all-out team effort. Indirectly, a majority of the Grace Church ministries are contributing to the effort in different capacities. It's been encouraging to see volunteers and paid staff alike, pitching in, solving problems for the sake of this church-wide outreach. It's exciting to be a part of an effort like this.

And while we aren't ready to start publicizing anything yet, early indications are that we as a team are very interested in creating more outreach opportunities like the Christmas Walk-Thru in 2006. Pastor Scott led an exciting brainstorm meeting earlier this week to begin developing outreach concepts for 2006 as a follow-up to the success of The Road to Grace initiative in 2005.

I'm so excited.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

College Bowls

I think this past weekend could not have gone any better for Penn State. Being ranked number 3 with the current BCS system is the most precarious positions, just ask the 2004 Cal team among a list of others. Fortunately, USC and Texas are clearly a cut above the rest and were able to go undefeated on the season. If they had lost a game there would be some uncertainty in College Football once again. Thankfully, USC and Texas did their jobs.
There were others that were claiming rights to the number 3 ranking prior to this weekend - LSU and Virginia Tech among them. Each with a loss on their record, they had a legitimate argument to be ranked 3rd. Fortunately, both teams lost over the weekend, leaving Penn State as the clear number 3.

And finally, the bowl matchups play to Penn State's favor - at least based on rankings. A Penn State/Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl would have been enticing, but being matched against Florida State, ranked 22nd in the country, on paper looks like a nice matchup. The pessimist that I am, I'm still nervous as to whether they'll pull out a win. (If you look back, I expressed serious doubts on October 4).

I heard a great quote by Jim Rome in response to those who are celebrating the BCS system for pitting the number 1 and number 2 teams in the country together... "Saying that 2005 proves that the BCS system works is like saying a broken clock is right two times a day."

One last thought, do you think if we send Pastor Scott to the Fiesta Bowl that Ohio State will lose it's third game of the season?

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Why Grace Church rarely cancels Sunday Services for Snow

One of Grace Church's reputations is that we rarely cancel Sunday Services for snow storms. I think we have an interesting approach to snowstorms, though it's often misunderstood.

First and foremost, based on past attendance, there is a segment of our congregation that want to worship on Sunday morning. Whether they're crazy to be out on the roads or maybe they live close enough to walk to church, it's clear there is a group of our congregation that shows up in spite of the weather. If there's a group that wants to worship, we want to give them that opportunity.

From our experience, other churches have similar groups. When their church cancels and we still meet, some of them worship with us that Sunday simply because we are open. We have no intention of "stealing" attenders from other churches, but we think a snowy Sunday presents some unique ministry opportunities for us to serve the church universal.

Combined with that, most of our staff live within a few miles of the church, so it's not difficult for us to get here.

I can't stress enough that we trust and we need every attender to use common judgment on whether it is safe for them to be traveling. Our congregation is spread widely enough that we can't determine the safety conditions for each attender. While we aren't supposed to give up worshipping together, missing a Sunday or two because of the weather is understandable. Just because we don't cancel services, doesn't mean we expect everyone to be at church. Our expectation is actually to the contrary...

We expect a smaller crowd on a snowy Sunday. With that comes a unique worship atmosphere unlike our regular services. We recognize that Sunday School teachers, childcare workers and all of the others that support a regular service may be unable to get to the church, so we take a casual approach. We throw the normal plans out the window and work with what we have. Children can worship in the Auditorium with their families and we can sing without instruments or song words, each of us in our flannel shirts and snow boots. The volunteers who support Sunday morning services should not feel pressured to get to the church if we don't cancel. We'll flex with what we have/who shows-up and have fun in the process.

I should stress that during really bad weather, dress appropriately if you are coming to church. We can't always keep the sidewalks and parking lot clear if a ton of snow is falling, so dress appropriately, wear your boots and leave the patent leather shoes at home.

We will rarely cancel Sunday services the night or day before and here's why... Nothing against Doug Allen or any other Meteorologist, but their track record shows that they aren't able to exactly predict the weather. Therefore, we want to delay the decision until we have a much better idea of what the weather will be.

How can you find out if services are cancelled? Listen to WDAC 94.5 FM or WJTL 90.3 FM on Sunday morning. Our cancellation will be announced on those stations. If you have to, you can call the church (626.2155) and press option 6 for the cancellation notices - be advised that the phone system can handle a limited number of calls, if it is overwhelmed you will be cutoff. Listening to the radio is your best bet.

So the next time you wake up on a Sunday morning and Grace Church is still meeting for worship and you deem it safe to go out, pull on your snow gear and worship with a few of the frozen chosen at Grace!

Monday, December 05, 2005

My Tannenbomb

Though I have my share of typos, the typo in the title is on purpose... Thank goodness I have a day job! For some reason, I don't get along well with Christmas tree lights. Every year, it takes me forever to string the lights on the tree. This past Saturday, we started decorating the tree around 12 noon. The tree wasn't lit until about midnight. Granted, we weren't working on it non-stop, but we didn't accomplish anything else during the day. Oh, at that was just the lights. The ornaments, garland, etc. went up Sunday evening. So I think the tree is more appropriately called a Tannenbomb.

Speaking of holiday decorations, the large inflatable lawn ornaments are apparently a hit with some Christmas decorators. I don't get them. I've tried to imagine the corporate brainstorm meeting where this concept was hatched... hours into the deliberation, the employees feeling the pressure of the most recent economic downturn and after a day long deliberation with little results they hit the jackpot, Smith blurts out "I know, why don't we make a big inflatable snow globe that people can put on their lawns!"

Then there's the ensuing scene, the family is shopping at their local all-in-one mart and seeing the inflatable item exclaims, "That will go perfectly with the Christmas lights on our house!" I don't get it. The best part about the inflatable decorations is seeing them deflated like a melted snowman when I go to work each morning.

One other Christmas Tree note, Marlin W. figured out that the reason Pastor Scott couldn't get the chainsaw to work was because the one pictured on his blog is electric.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Overanalyzing Where the Best Seat is in the Auditorium

I'm an analyst, it's part of my personality make-up and probably evident from my blog entries. If it hasn't been evident, this should make it blatantly apparent. Let me disect the location of the best seat in the Grace Church Auditorium.

I've identified at least five criteria to consider when selecting a seat in the Auditorium: lighting, temperature, accoustics, sight and aisle.

Lighting - Since we use incandescent lights in the room to give it a softer feel, lighting can be a challenge sometimes when I look at my Bible during services. If lighting is of high concern, look at the ceiling before you sit down and find a seat that is a few feet directly behind a light. By sitting behind the light, the rays should fall in front of you on your Bible. If your seat is directly underneath or behind a light, your body will cast a shadow over your Bible creating a human eclipse.

Temperature - I've written previously about the temperature settings in the Auditorium, but there may be some other steps you can try. If you feel a draft, look at the ceiling and identify where the air vents are located. The ceiling vents are designed to distribute the air away from the vent itself, so my theory is that if you sit directly beneath a vent you should have less of a draft. The room is so large that I'm not sure you'll notice a difference, but if it's really a concern, it's worth a try. On the flip side, if you don't like stagnant air try to sit between air vents.

Accoustics - The Auditorium is equipped with two rows of speakers that are parrallel to the rows of seats, one row in front of the stage and one row around the middle of the room. In terms of the sound amplified through the sound system, the quietest seats in the building are the first 1-3 rows of seats at the very front of the room. It depends on how the chairs were setup, but the majority of the time, those rows are in front of all the speakers, so the sound waves from the system do not reach those seats whatsoever. If you're uncomfortable sitting up front, sit directly underneath or just in front of the second row of speakers. If you prefer things loud, sit just a few rows behind the speakers where they should be pointing right at you, you'll be in the direct line of fire of the sound waves coming from the system. If you are hearing impaired, we have listening devices for your use each Sunday morning; ask an usher for assistance.

Sight - There's a little boy who's in the service every now and then who has the best view of the stage than anyone I've observed - he sits on his Dad's shoulders (Dad happens to be about 6'8"). If you don't have a friend who is 6'8" and will let you sit on their shoulders, try sitting closer to the front of the room. During the 9 a.m. service, there are usually seats available up front, you'll have to arrive a little early as the front seats are usually taken. The screens are a big help too. And of course, sit behind someone who is less tall. Maybe we should have stilts available in addition to the listening devices?

Aisle - Back when we were flying to and from the Philippines, especially once my legs were longer, I never quite figured out which airline seats were the most ideal - the window or the aisle. The same goes in the Auditorium.

My Seat - I generally try to sit near the rear of the room close to the aisle, that way if I need to leave the room I can do so without interrupting a lot of people. If it weren't for that, I'd prefer to closer to the front so that as the congregation sings, I can hear people singing behind me.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

How I like to start the Christmas Season

I started a new Christmas tradition three years ago that gets the Christmas holiday off to a great start every time. My wife sings with the Ephrata Cloister Chorus and every Christmas the Chorus puts on a short Christmas program in early December.

The program follows the traditional Lessons in Carols order of worship with the Cloister Chorus singing some of the carols along with frequent audience participation. If you haven't heard the music of the Cloister, they sing a cappela in hushed, almost whisper voices, so the music is very soft. Some of the carols are in English and a few are in German, which adds to the ambiance. (Silent Night has a powerful affect when sung in German and it makes all those years of high school German worthwhile).

The program is great, but the setting makes it even better. The program is held in the Cloister meeting room, the Zahl. The sidewalks throughout the Cloister are lit with candle lanterns and all the buildings have candles in the windows. Because the program is popular you have to wait in line in the crisp December air. Of course, it's not much warmer when you get in the Zahl since it's not heated, but that just adds to the atmosphere.

I appreciate the program for it's simplicity. In the midst of the craziness and commercialism that overshadows Christmas, to worship the babe in the manger in the most simplistic setting is just the way I like to get the holiday season started.

Check out Christmas at the Cloister December 12 and 13; tickets are required.