Monday, October 23, 2006

Pastor Appreciation Month

October has been designated as Pastor Appreciation Month and one of many things I appreciate about my Pastor and boss, Scott, is his passion for the ministry of the universal church. I figured this picture was a fair rebuttal to the grandma photo of me that he posted last week. Through the two plus years that we've served together, a couple of the messages he's preached have really resonated with me and the mini-library is growing. A couple of times a year he feels led to speak on and exegete scripture's definition of the role of the church, its foundation, its purpose and how it applies to us today. Maybe it's just my ears, my observations, but he seems to find a different gear when he discusses the role of the church. Like Scott, I'm passionate about the local church.

Since birth, my life have been intertwined with the local church. My Dad served an Assistant Pastor during the first 3-4 years of my life and for the 22 years following that, my parents served as church planting missionaries. I went to Bible College because I knew I wanted a Biblical education as my foundation before pursuing anything else. One of the courses in my studies devoted an entire semester to understanding what scripture says about the local church and from the first day to the last, the study hit a nerve. Even with all of that background and involvement with the local church, at the end of college, I still had no clue as to where God was going to lead me. Out of the blue, the local church I had attended for the previous two years, offered me an administrative position and I've been serving in the local church ever since.

The thing I appreciate about Pastor Scott's messages on the local church is his ability to capture what I believe "with every fiber of my being" and communicate them in easy to understand terms. And I appreciate his enthusiasm and passion, it gets me fired up to get back to work! I find the messages so inspirational, I listen to them often to remind me of our focus, to rekindle my passion, to lift me up and to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Tomorrow, I'll share my Scott Distler playlist.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Just 7 Short

In case you missed it, I made Scott's blog yesterday. I should note that I chose that particular hat on my own without any persuasion or influence - the game may have been more interesting if we were forced to wear particular hats, but we weren't - freedom of choice.

What's really interesting is that yesterday's entry on Scott's blog fell 7 visits short of setting the all-time high mark for visits to his blog in one day. Apparently people like to see me in funny hats.

I've become adept at hiding aspects of my personality. In college, most thought I was a 4.0 student and a brainiac - mostly because I wore glasses and carried a notebook computer with me to class. What they didn't know is that when Dr. Ceperley would go on tangents about the Tohu and Bohu as we studied Genesis, I'd start playing Tetris. Not the best game, but it's what my computer could handle at the time while allowing to quickly switch back to notetaking. Oh, and the truth is, my undergrad GPA was more in the 2.0-3.0 range.

Being a Business Manager does help matters as the title and position carry a stigma of being the gestapo, the person who declines requests, says no and doesn't know how to have fun. In the past several months, I've had co-workers tell me that they didn't think I'd find the humor in the funny email that was being passed around. And at another time a different co-worker exclaimed, "I didn't know you knew how to have fun!"

I'm having fun, may be more fun than you realize.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Emergency 911 at Grace Church

On Sunday a person collapsed during the middle of the worship service. The congregation was standing singing the first several verses of How Great Thou Art when I noticed Matt running toward the back of the Auditorium a few aisles over from where I was seated. I instantly figured something was wrong. I proceeded to leave my seat to make sure appropriate help was being given and if there was anything I could contribute. Since I happened to be sitting in front of an attender who works in the medical field I grabbed them by the arm (yes, I literally grabbed them and pulled them down the aisle, not sure why, but I did) and pointed them to the person in distress. While it was clear plenty of medical attention was being given to the individual, I went to make sure 911 was being called. I then waited in the driveway to meet the EMTs, with so many different entrances to our facility, we like to help them quickly identify where they need to go.

Back in the Auditorium, the service was proceeding as normal. We don't draw attention to these kinds of situations for the most part - so long as the individuals are getting appropriate care, there's not much else we can do, but keep worshipping. When the medical staff have had a chance to assess the situation and feel the patient is stabilized, they usually try to move them out of the Auditorium as quickly and discreetly as possible. This past incident, that wasn't possible, so care continued while we awaited the EMTs.

The EMTs arrived just as Pastor Scott was beginning his message. You may have wondered why he read so many verses in the scripture reading during the service, it was partly to give the EMTs time to move the patient out of the room without attracting any more attention. Before long, the patient was on their way to the hospital for further treatment and care. I'm happy to report they are recovering and they aren't experiencing anything life threatening.

We're blessed at Grace with a good number of attenders who are medical professionals who have loved ones and friends who have an amazing ability to summon them in a moments notice when medical emergencies occur. As the EMTs wheeled the patient out of the Auditorium this past week, I counted something like eight Grace attenders who had been caring for the patient while they waited for the ambulance. Our response and systems will always benefit from improvement, but by the grace of God in each emergency that's occurred to date... medical professionals have reached the patient within seconds to begin care, the injured received appropriate first aid and each patient has made a full recovery.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Lititz/Warwick Joint Strategic Plan

Last week the Lititz/Warwick joint comprehensive strategic plan updated the public on their work and the status of the plan and what they've accomplished so far. It's a guide that both Lititz Borough and Warwick Township use in the direction of the area, roughly in five year increments; the plan was last updated in 1999. Many of the advancements we have experienced in the region can been traced back to components of the plan where through various studies and analysis, needs were identified and decisions were made to address issues in a cooperative effort. The Warwick Recreation Commission is a prime example of one of the things that came directly from the strategic plan. So as they've looked at the next 5 years, it should be of interest to us to see where our community is headed and what role we can play as a church in helping them further their causes.

Churches can often be viewed as merely resource consumers in a community since they are tax exempt organizations and don't contribute to the economics of a region. That however is a gross misconception when you consider all the resources that churches contribute to a community and I think it's one of the areas in which Grace Church excels. When you think about our daycare with over 100 children and our K-12 Christian school with just under 300 children; those are all kids that were we not in existence, the community would have to be providing services for them in some way, shape or form. It would be close to 300 more school students that the school district would have to be able to absorb... things of that nature. Of course, there's also the religious services that we provide and the counseling, the benevolence, of course the use of our facility. We have many outside groups that use our facility on a regular basis.

So we are an integral part to the community and therefore we want to be in line with the strategies and goals that the community is setting and trying to partner with them to meet the needs that they've identified. What was interesting from last week's meeting was they've had great success with the recreation initiatives that they identified in 1999 and that's coming together well. That's an area where, because of the resources we have, Grace Church needs to be a player. To date, we've participated. I was on the initial committee that explored how that recreation commission would be set up. I think we need to look seriously at becoming a partner now that it has been created and having representation on the group and again, partnering with them through that commission. With that success, they are now looking to build on that from a social perspective and looking to create a committee to follow the same path in regards to the social activities in the region. Again, this is an area that we are already providing services and I think it would be very wise for us to have involvement and partner with them as they look to now coordinate and facilitate in that arena.

There wasn't anything really groundbreaking on the land development side. They are firmly committed to preserving the agricultural heritage of the region and therefore are not making changes to open the floodgate for serious amounts of growth and development. That's an issue that impacts our future, particularly since Grace Church's location is just outside the urban growth boundary. It's also important because the main tract of the Grace Church property is in a residential zone and our secondary property is in agricultural zone. We understand the concerns that the region has for preserving the agricultural heritage. We support it and so we're looking to partner with them on how that desire can be aligned with what we anticipate to be our future growth. There's many other elements to the plan, not a whole lot of things that interested me, but it is significant enough that either due to our interest in Grace Church or our involvement in the community as residents of Warwick Twp and Lititz Borough, we need to participate in this process. On Monday, December 4, at 7 pm at the Warwick Middle School is the next formal meeting regarding the document and the plan. It will be a public hearing where the public can make comments. I would encourage all of us to attend and to participate.

Lititz/Warwick Joint Strategic Plan website

Friday, October 13, 2006

A Picture Directory with No Pictures

Hopefully, you're experience with this year's Picture Directory has been favorable, but the reports I'm receiving indicate that a lot, if not the majority of people at Grace have had less than favorable experiences. It's unfortunate and worthy of some explanation.

After using the same directory company for years (maybe even the history of the church) I decided to look at some other companies for two reasons. First, I had heard some reports of dissatisfaction with the way families had been organized for their picture, that the quality wasn't good. Second, the company's approach required a tremendous amount of administrative support by volunteers and paid staff.

We looked at several companies and checked references before selecting the company that we've used this year. While everything came back positive, our experience has been the complete opposite.

Here's where we are today... I spoke with the Vice President of the Church Directory division yesterday, outlining each of the problems and frustrations we've encountered. I explained to him that we're completely dissatisfied and asked him to do whatever it take to correct the problem. He assured me that our experience is not the way they like to do business, and that he was unaware of the problems we've been having. He said he needed to investigate the issues I reported, after which he would return my call with a plan of action to turn things around.

While to date, the company has not delivered the product and services they advertised, I feel terrible about the frustration and inconvinience they created for those whom I serve. For that I apologize. I will keep you posted on how the project progresses.