It's not about the chocolate

Several days after my breakfast with Rich, Pastor Scott gathered all of the full time ministry staff together for an all day meeting. We spent a significant amount of our meeting in prayer and sharing what God had been doing in our lives personally and in our ministry. While God's promised that "where two or three are gathered, there I am with them" with our staff, where two or three are gathered, there's sure to be a wild and fun time. Add to that being holed up in a room all day and it's like the time I doused the charcoal with so much lighter fluid the lid to the grill caught fire. Though you may not believe it, we did have a very focused and productive day.

It was neat to see each of us participate and contribute to the discussion. And while our backgrounds are quite diverse, we span a range of ages and our approach to ministry sometimes differ, we were uniquely unified throughout the meeting. It was an exercise I thoroughly enjoyed.

As I write this, eight months later, it's been fun to recollect to that first meeting and especially to look at our original worksheets.
You can see how much we left on the cutting room floor because we felt it was implied, in an effort to keep the statement short and memorable. Actually, we figuratively left the floor covered with ideas and worksheets throughout this process - either the Elmer's was defective or only the good ideas were sticking.

With prayer interspersed in the interim, we reconvened several times after that initial meeting to see if we were comfortable with our work and the direction we were headed. Pastor Scott then shared it with the staff for comment and reaction and then the Elders. Having received very constructive feedback, but limited negative reaction, we started preparing for the February message series.

The irony of that first meeting is that it wasn't until I started composing this post that I realized that in addition to the bottled water, soda and pretzels that we were munching on during the all day meeting, there were also M&M's on the table. None of us realized it at the time that M&M's would come to the forefront several months later.

Making an M&M

I really like m&m's, especially Peanut m&m's (the plain one's are just a little too sweet). I pick my favorite NASCAR driver based on who drives the m&m's sponsored car. It might be a little bit of a stretch, but m&m's excite me, so much so that I thought it only appropriate to celebrate my 200th post by talking about them!

In the past month at Grace, M and M has a new meaning

M eeting PEOPLE where they are
M oving PEOPLE to where God wants them to be.

The new statement captures the purpose of Grace Church since it was organized back in 1970. We just finished a month-long message series dissecting what Grace Church has been and continues to be all about. If you weren't able to attend any of the services or hear the messages, you need to check them out. I keep harping on how God's doing something in our midst unlike anything I've ever seen and He just keeps adding more and more to it. Go Berean on me and check with other Grace-folk and see if it's just me.

February was a good month, but I almost forgot about the journey that started on June 20, 2006 that got us to where we are today.

Having closed on the 12.5-acre property purchase in the Fall of 2005, Pastor Scott and I had been working on creating the process we would follow to lead us in figuring out how God wanted to make use of the newly acquired property for the sake of His Kingdom. We'd recently connected with Rich, who's involved in a local ministry, helping them with strategic planning etc. and Scott asked me to meet with him. We had breakfast together on June 20, 2006.

Most of what Rich shared was a 60-minute review of my Master's program, but material that had gotten fragmented in the deep recesses of my mind. While the restaurant didn't serve any chocolate candies that melt in your mouth, not in your hand, little did I know that our breakfast would chart the course for the next eight months or the role chocolate would play down the road.

We stole the restroom from Chili's

You may have noticed that we renovated the lobby bathrooms in the past year, actually it was a year ago January that we did the work in the Alpha lobby restrooms. If you have been in the lobby restrooms, you know that we did some unique decorating schemes in those rooms. I think they turned out well, but the rooms are definitely unique. So the other day when my wife and I were having lunch at Chili's and I used the restroom, it dawned on me that the men's restroom in the Grace lobby is actually the restroom that Chili's wanted in their restaurants, but I think that we did a more effective job at catching the theme Chili's had in mind. So you need to check out our lobby restrooms, if you haven't already.

Lord, please send lots and lots of snow

It first struck me after we had lived for a few weeks in an apartment complex in Lawrenceville, NJ. The architect designed the apartments in clusters of 16 situated around a central garden-type thing. It looked like a nice, homey, apartment complex where the residents socialized regularly. Yeah, what was I thinking?!? Looks can be deceiving. At the end of each day, each of us would retreat to our cells and lock in until it was time to head out for work the next day. Farm country, at least my experience of country living, hasn't been much different.

I've gotten to talk with our neighbors only a handful of times...
-when we were all out chiseling the ice disguised as snow last week
-when the tree fell on our backyard shed last summer
-when we were shoveling snow last winter
-when we asked them if we could help with work around the house for them as part of SALT2005
No wonder God sends so much snow, it's the only chance we get to talk to our neighbors!

Most interesting was the response when we took our neighbors a breakfast pastry just before Christmas. We had close to a dozen to deliver, but much to my wife's and my surprise, they invited us in to chat!

Talking with neighbors is much of what I watched my parents do as they planted churches. In the Philippine culture, just about every block had a family run business where you could buy a soda and a snack - much like a vending machine, except it was a much more personable experience. These Sari-sari stores were a regular gathering place on the block. Want to get to know people, hang out at the Sari-sari store for a while. And that's how I watched my parents start churches. What is the Sari-sari store equivalent in Lititz?

This is elementary stuff. I see two choices: either each of us walks across the room, driveway or wherever we need to walk, OR, we join the children of the world in praying for lots and lots of snow.

The Enemy's Playbook

Gleaning from my youthful observations, both past and present, I think I've seen some trends in the way our enemy (the aforementioned roaring Lion) does his thing to thwart the progress of the Gospel. And it came to mind again during Sunday's message.

In the Philippines, I observed a culture, if not a whole nation, for which the spirit realm was accepted as reality, though feared to such extents that it held them captive. My childhood friends were literally scared to death of the ghosts and spirits that haunted the rice mill and lurked among the graves at the cemetery. It was obvious to me how the enemy used their common acceptance of the spirit realm in an attempt to hold the power of the Gospel at bay.

I contrast that with my common day observances now and it fascinates me how different a playbook the enemy uses in the US culture. The spirit realm is laughed off as child's play in our culture. But the enemy's playbook would make Bill Belichick proud. In the US I see him using our busyness to hold the Gospel at bay, among a list of other offensive/defensive schemes.

And I often see the church playing right into the enemy's plan... we, the church, simply add more busyness to people's lives. As was mentioned on Sunday, we need to resist busyness for the sake of the Gospel, even if it means not participating or our family members participating in everything everyone else is doing, whether it be rec leagues, community activities or, heaven forbid, some church events.

In order for us to walk across the room, the driveway or whatever you need to walk across, we need time in our schedules to build relationships. Which leads me to tomorrow's post...

Free Squirrely!

This is a follow-up to my January 15th post... Apparently our friendly visitor during the NFC Championship game took his/her whilrwind tour global. I'd like to think that like Free Willy, I had a part in letting that poor varmit live out his/her dream.

Skittering Stowaway

That's not called shoveling

Calling what all of us did yesterday (I pity you if you left it until today) shoveling just doesn't do it justice. I've determined that chiseling is a more appropriate term.

It was one time that I was glad I have a one car garage.

For the record

For the record, let me state publicly that I've advocated a daily siesta break of up to an hour or so in the office, but have always been rebuffed by my co-workers. They prefer to get home early than have a longer break during the day.

While environmental factors come into play, growing up in the Philippines I was accustomed to most businesses closing from 12 noon to around 2 pm for the daily siesta break. I always thought they were onto something and now there's a scientific study to support it.

You can't say I didn't try.

Get to know Judy

One of the things I appreciate about the company that we have hired to clean our facility is their relationship with us. Though the owners don’t attend our church, they have made a concerted effort to get to know not only our staff but our congregation as well. They are on a first-name basis with a lot of people. One of their staff members is Judy. She attended Grace many years ago and then stopped attending for awhile. When she joined Personal Touch Cleaning, it wasn’t long before she was back worshipping with us again. Two times a week Judy comes in and cleans the church offices, and it’s been fun for us as a staff to get to know her. To Judy, it is more than a job to clean our facility, offices, and bathrooms. It is her ministry and way to contribute to the body of Christ. She cares about our staff members and often asks how we are doing and keeps up with the different things going on in our lives. She also cares about the people we are ministering to as a church, helps out on Sunday mornings in the children’s area, and things like that. So, though she serves in a behind-the-scenes capacity and works for a company that is providing a service to the church, I appreciate all that Judy does and the role that she has at Grace.

Realtime feedback

I came across this article earlier today, wow, what a concept. I'm really curious as to how it actually worked. Was the speaker reading his text msgs throughout his talk? Did he respond to any of the msgs while he was talking? Very interesting though, I give him credit for taking the risk.

Thus far, we've only used text msgs at Grace to communicate about service information between the people on the stage and the techs supporting them on the Mezzanine. Oh, and last week I used one to pull someone out of a meeting.

Let's Go Racin'!!!

The Daytona 500 is this Sunday, time to strap in for another NASCAR season, even if at 36 races, it's too long of a season. I'm excited. To top all that, the all-chocolate front row is set, how cool is that. In the chocolate wars on the track, M&M/Mars beat out Hershey, for this round anyway.

If you want to join the Grace Church NASCAR Fantasy League, click here.
Group ID: 35122
Password: speedy

A couple of teams are already signed up:
Gilliland's Island
HurriKAHNES
GoJimmie!!!
Speed Gangsta!

Boogity, boogity, boogity!!!

Where is God Working?

The principles in Henry Blackaby and Claude King's book, Experiencing God, ring in my mind constantly and I'm always asking myself, "Where is God working?"

If you were at last Sunday's service at Grace, you got an idea that this is an exciting month at Grace and there's more to come! I'm excited about what God is doing - it's neat to see the results/answers to prayers we started praying six plus months ago. I'm excited to see all levels of our ministry doing the same thing and pointed in the same direction. After much prayer and searching for where God is working, it's fun to see God use people to take those principles and find creative ways to apply them in ways that make them stick in our minds.

With all of the excitement in Lititz, it struck me that some of the blogs I monitor on a regular basis are all excited about what God is doing in their churches, particularly pointing at their plans for tomorrow. Coincidince or is God working in unique ways across the country?
Gary Lamb - Ridge Stone Church
Perry Noble - NewSpring Church
Steven Furtick - Elevation Church

Join me in praying that God would open the eyes of all of us as to where He is working, how He is challenging us to join Him and that He would protect all of us from prowling Lion seeking whom he may devour.

Filling out child abuse clearance forms

If my seat belt analogy from yesterday didn't stick; why don't we hitchhike anymore? My impression was that early in transportation history, hitchhiking was an accepted form of getting from one place to another. When was the last time you hitchhiked or picked up a hitchhiker? Isn't the reason why we don't hitchhike comparable to the reason why we should check the criminal and child abuse histories of everyone who works with children?

The child abuse clearance form requires you to fill out every address at which you've ever lived and every person you've ever lived with. I had so many I had to send in a separate page with all of my listings. When you're parents are missionaries and move at least every four years, combined with being a boarding student in grades 4-7 and 12, on top of four years of college, the list gets quite long. If for nothing else, it was a great exercise of my brain functions as these rows of Cold Case files hadn't been accessed in decades. Here's what mine looks like:

Previous Addresses (since 1975)
1975-1976 Princeton, NJ
1976-1977 Lipa City, Batangas, Philippines
1977-1978 Karuhatan, Valenzuela, Bulacan, Philippines
1978-1980 Labo, Camarines Norte, Philippines
1980-1981 Princeton, NJ
1982-1986 Villa Carolina, Muntinglupa, Philippines
1986-1987 Havertown, PA
1987-1989 Galas, Quezon City, Philippines
1989-1990 Gapan, Nueva Ecija, Philippines
1990-1990 Cape May Court House, NJ
1990-1992 Langhorne, PA
1992-1992 Gapan, Nueva Ecija, Philippines
1992-1993 Langhorne, PA
1993-1993 Skillman, NJ
1993-1994 Langhorne, PA
1994-1994 Wallingford, PA
1994-1995 Princeton, NJ
1995-1998 Lawrenceville, NJ
1998-2007 Lititz, PA

Household Members
P. Norton
L. Norton
S. Mittlestat
L. Agdepa
E. Bagasin
J. Westfall
N. Townsend
A. Miller
A. Walker
P. Bunnell
B. Burgess
J. Van Dam
J. Hochrein
M. Brussel
E. Dolbeck
P. Licata
T. Snyder
G. Peters
R. Thompson
A. Wong
M. Young
P. Colburn
E. Norton

Why we do criminal/child abuse checks on our volunteers?

Our children's ministries (daycare, Christian school and traditional church ministries for children) have been at the core of Grace's philosophy of ministry since the beginning... if we reach the children, it will give us opportunities to build relationships with their parents. With a State-certified daycare and a Christian school, we have government standards with which we need to comply - many of which are designed to protect the children in our care. In the same way, though not government mandated, we have set standards to protect the children in all of our ministries. While their protection is in the hands of The Creator, we do take do-diligence steps for each child's safety by checking the child abuse and criminal records of the volunteers who work with minors. It's a step we feel is necessary to exercise the best stewardship over the children in our care. I was contemplating this process recently and thought of the following analogy.

In my lifetime, US vehicles have always had seat belts. I remember riding in my Opa's Chrysler's which were only equipped with lap belts, but the cars had belts. My assumption is that the first vehicles didn't have any seat belts, but that before long, either the manufacturers or the government started installing them because they provided increased safety. If I were to ride in your car, and I put on the seat belt, would you take that to mean that I didn't trust your driving skills? No, we've all accepted and it's actually law, that everyone should buckle-up when in a vehicle. Buckling-up isn't an indicator of our mistrust of the driver or of other drivers, it's a step that increases our safety.

In my thinking, the criminal and child abuse checks, though a review of private information, are very similar to my regular use of a seat belt. It's a step that increases our safety. It's not a sign of mistrust or an indicator that we question the people who are caring for children. It's a stewardship exercise that communicates that people matter.

That said, I know filling out the forms can be laborious, especially when the child abuse clearance requires you to list every person you've ever lived with. As you'll see tomorrow, I challenge anyone to come up with a longer list than the one I had.

More Giving Statement Info and Taxes

I'm no tax expert or advisor, so consult your tax advisor before you do anything. But as I was working on taxes last night, and reading the 1040 instructions and the instructions for Schedules A & B, I came across additional information related to yesterday's post. Yes, I usually do my own taxes and yes, I read the instructions; interesting reading actually. I like to try and figure out why they have us do the different calculations, where they're getting the numbers from, etc. etc. Through the course of my reading last night (the following were copied straight out of the instruction books), I discovered...

Volunteers can deduct out-of-pocket expenses and mileage
Contributions can be in cash (keep canceled checks, receipts, or other reliable written records showing the name of the organization and the date and amount given), property, or out-of-pocket expenses you paid to do volunteer work for the kinds of organizations described earlier. If you drove to and from the volunteer work, you can take the actual cost of gas and oil or 14 cents a mile. But, if the volunteer work was to provide relief related to Hurricane Katrina, the amount is 32 cents a mile. Add parking and tolls to the amount you claim under either method. But do not deduct any amounts that were repaid to you. (See 2006 Instructions for Schedules A & B (Form 1040), page A-4)

A detailed explanation of the $250 threshold
You can deduct a gift of $250 or more only if you have a statement from the charitable organization showing the information in (1) and (2) below.
1. The amount of any money contributed and a description (but not value) of any property donated.
2. Whether the organization did or did not give you any goods or services in return for your contribution. If you did receive any goods or services, a description and estimate of the value must be included. If you received only intangible religious benefits (such as admission to a religious ceremony), the organization must state this, but it does not have to describe or value the benefit. In figuring whether a gift is $250 or more, do not combine separate donations. For example, if you gave your church $25 each week for a total of $1,300, treat each $25 payment as a separate gift. If you made donations through payroll deductions, treat each deduction from each paycheck as a separate gift. See Pub. 526 if you made a separate gift of $250 or more through payroll deduction.
(See 2006 Instructions for Schedules A & B (Form 1040), page A-5)

New requirements for contributions of money
New record keeping requirements for contributions of money. For charitable contributions of money, regardless of the amount, you must maintain as a record of the contribution a bank record (such as a cancelled check) or a written record from the charity. The written record must include the name of the charity, date, and amount of the contribution.
(See 2006 Instructions for Schedules A & B (Form 1040), page A-1)


Consult your tax advisor as to how these paragraphs relate to your situation.

Year-end Giving Statements

If you have a giving envelope number, you should have received your year-end giving statement in the past week. I thought you might have some questions about the statements that you never had the chance to ask.

Why do I receive a statement? Why don't I receive statement?
Year-end giving statements are sent to (1) everyone who has a giving envelope number or (2) anyone who contributed at least $250 or more at one time (the $250 threshold is an IRS-mandated limit). If neither of those criteria were met then you did not receive a statement.

Why do I have to use giving envelopes to receive a statement?
The giving envelopes are our system for keeping track of contributions in as confidential a manner as possible. If you watched Mission Impossible, it’s somewhat similar to NOC list. We work hard to keep your private information confidential.

What if the church’s statement doesn’t agree with my personal records?
Note the discrepancies and send in the business reply envelope to our accountants, Hamilton & Musser.

Why do I have to send it to the accountants instead of talking to the church office?
Our accountants keep us accountable to processing your contributions correctly. To maintain a high standard of checks and balances, any discrepancies should first be reported to the accountants.

If I find a discrepancy with the church’s statement, does it really make a difference?
Absolutely! If we made a mistake, we need to know and to correct it. Plus, it’s important that your records be accurate for your filings with the IRS.

What happens when I report a discrepancy to the accountants?
They make note of the discrepancy and ask the church office to investigate it. In many cases, we simply made a mistake. In those cases, we ask the donor to show us proof of the contribution. If there are other issues, we contact the donor to work through the issues.

How can I help?

• If you don’t have numbered envelopes, contact the church office to request them
• Always use your numbered envelope with every contribution
• Print clearly when writing your checks and filling out the giving envelope
  
• When you use your numbered envelope be sure to write the total contribution amount on the outside of the envelope

As with anything under my responsibility, if you have other questions, please let me know... even squirrels find me approachable.

Communion - Behind the Scenes

I really enjoyed Sunday's celebration of the Bread & The Cup. Since being exposed to the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, it's always seemed odd that Communion celebrations were such a big deal (footwashing, Bread/Cup and Love Feast), but were only celebrated not even a handful of times a year. Through my upbringing, I was more accustomed to celebrating the Bread/Cup on a monthly basis. When you celebrate Communion on a monthly basis, odds are that out of the 12 times it's celebrated in a year, there's bound to be some bloopers...

I recall celebrating Communion with a group of missionaries in the Philippines, can't remember the occassion for all of us being assembled, but that's not the important part. Now, you have to realize that Welch's didn't export to the Philippines at the time and that grapes don't do well in a tropical climate. What we called grape juice, was made from some sort of extract that, other than being the color purple, hardly resembled grape juice. The Communion celebration was traditional and routine. As is the practice of some groups, we all took the elements corporately. The silence of reflection and the reverence of the moment were disrupted as all of us, in corporate unison, started choking on the juice. See, apparently, someone didn't realize or thought it might be more grape juice-like to use straight concentrate! It was hilarious to hear all of use coughing in corporate response.

One of the churches we attended for a while was Pastored by men from several different denominations and the church served a wide-breadth of people from various religious backgrounds. So when they celebrated Communion, the trays contained both grape juice and wine. The Christian School I attended required us to sign a pledge each year and one of the components of the pledge was that we would not consume alcohol. Little did I know, on a Sunday when we were a little late getting to church, thus sitting in the back of the church, did I ever consider that these two forces would come colliding together. The section in which we were seated must've been a juice section because by the time the trays reached our row, only wine was left! Needless to stay, I stuck by the pledge and only celebrated the Bread that Sunday.

Finally, I was visiting the church my college roommate attended and as the usher handed the tray of grape juice to the next row...

The whole thing dumped...

Right into the lap of the woman who was on the end of the row...

Who happened to be dressed to the nines...

In an all-white outfit.

Talk about disrupting the reverence of the moment.


And if you think that Communion preparation has not become an entire production, check out what Tim and I came across at the WFX Conference last fall. We were so fascinated by it, we had to go talk to them to find out more and we captured it on video to share just with you. Meet the Wilfred and Merlita Greenlee.

Attendance Trend

While preparing the financial report for our leaders a few weeks ago, I thought our attendance trends might be of interest. Of course, if you attend Grace on a regular basis, you've probably developed your own conclusions based on what you've observed in the Auditorium or what you've read from Pastor Scott. I'll put it in graph form, but first a couple of explanatory comments.


The following graph represents the average weekly attendance, reported by quarters. The actual weekly attendance gets a little hairy for several reasons, first, 52 data points (the Sundays in a year) is a lot of data, particularly when you want to compare historically over time. Secondly, with the changes in calendar, it gets confusing as to when Easter fell, etc. Thirdly, because church attendance varies based on the time of year, weather conditions that particular Sunday, etc.


The quarters are based on our fiscal year, so they break out as follows:
First quarter - July-September
Second quarter - October-December
Third quarter - January-March
Fourth quarter - April-June


I broke it out by quarters because annually left out detail that I thought was important, particularly, what months we experienced higher attendances than others.


What the graph indicates is weekly Sunday morning worship attendance, through week 27 has tracked 8.23% ahead of attendance through week 27 of last year.

The grey dotted line marks when Pastor Scott began his ministry at Grace and most noteable about that period is that our latest growth trend actually started before Pastor Scott arrived. That's also the period that marks when our attendance trend changed. Forecasting attendance prior to that point was easy, now, not so much. But that's okay!

So what does all this mean?

SEATING - Seats continue to be a premium in the Auditorium. Our aim is to be at or below 80% capacity, the generally accepted mark of when a room looks full. We've been right around 80% capacity in recent weeks and I don't know about you, but it looks full to me. Jay and I talked just this morning about what we're going to do about seating as we head toward Easter. Options available to us include shrinking the row widths between each row of chairs and reducing leg room, and adding rows under the Mezzanine. For now, expect to see rows under the Mezzanine in the next few weeks.

How can you help? Please fill up the rows towards the front of the Auditorium. There were some 175 empty seats in both services on Sunday, but a lot of those are in the middle of rows, a few hear and a few there, making them hard to find. Fill up the rows and the empty seats will be easier to find which will help ushers fill them up!

PARKING - Thank goodness we paved over the small soccer field this past summer! Through the fall there were a good number of empty parking spaces, but in recent weeks, they've been filling up too. All the while, cars are still parking on Arrowhead Dr.

How can you help? Recognizing that it's not always feasible, the best you can do is carpool to reduce the number of cars we have to accomodate each week. If you're single, hook up with friends/family and carpool. If you're a family with driving teenagers, come to church as a family instead of using multiple vehicles. Finally, to be guest oriented, park as far from the church entrances as possible. You'll notice that the majority of staff are parking in the far reaches of the lots; follow our lead.

I'm excited by these challenges. We're not backed into a corner, we've got choices as to how we want to solve them; a great position in which to find ourselves. And we haven't even begun to consider the more rash approaches the early church employed, i.e. lowering the lame man through the roof or people sitting in window sills.

Overseas Missionaries Don't Wear Capes

Generations of spiritual giants returning from the mission field have left the impression that missionaries are supermen. Our missionaries are made of the same stuff that you are.

-Philip Armstrong

Though I only have a vague recollection of what he looked like, no memory of any conversation with him or whatever, I did have the chance to meet Philip Armstrong when I was a young boy. I knew him as the General Director of Far Eastern Gospel Crusade (now known as SEND International) a missions organization with which my parents served and my grandparents on my Dad's side served with as well.

I came across this quote of Armstrong's recently and it captures something I've thought since returning to the US for college. I say this as a missionary kid, who only recently had lived more years in my homeland than the number of years I lived in a foreign country, and as a person who to this point has committed his live to full-time ministry. Too often we view those whom God calls to serve overseas as super-Christians or better-thans. Just because God hasn't called those who remain in the homeland, wherever that might be, doesn't make them less-thans. And interestingly, God uses strikingly similar approaches to making disciples regardless of what ocean you're closest too, so it's not like those in other countries live a Christian life that looks much different than the way we live our lives. I watched my Dad build relationships with Filipinos at the sari-sari stores at the end of the block as they grabbed the morning breakfast bread that everyone eats in the morning. And in a very similar fashion I know of many who are building relationships with the people they run into at Sheetz every morning as they pick up their morning coffee. Being the active kid that I was, I became friends with Filipino kids which eventually gave my parents an in to talk with the parents, not that much different from your kids who are in sports leagues, school plays and the like and because of car-pooling needs or parties etc., you get to know mom and dad.

Beyond the obvious, how does this impact the ministries of Grace? We need to view Missions as an extension of our ministry, not as a separate function from the rest of our ministries. Everything we do is missions. The purpose is the same: to make disciples. We're all praying that God would work through us to add more people to His Kingdom. The way all of that is carried out has a lot of similarities too. We invest in curriculum materials for our children through adult ministries, and if they don't already, I'm pretty sure the Beuggerts will too. We allocate resources to fix plumbing problems, so do the Weavers. So when you see the church budget for 2007-2008 in a few months, don't be surprised if Missions is replaced with something like Judea/Samaria/Ends of the Earth Ministries. That's really what they are, aren't they? Following our Biblical directive, it's our participation in what God is doing in the church universal.

Missionaries serving overseas are no different than the Christians who work at RR Donnelley or any other capacity. Missionaries don't wear capes, just maybe a sarong or a toga, depending on the country. What's taken me several paragraphs and a couple hundred words to express, Armstrong captured in three sentences...

You have your call: it is to God. If you accepted that call you are at divine disposal. Stop making distinctions about home and abroad. Don't let geography represent a roadblock.

-Philip Armstrong

Meet Ken

We've hired someone to fill the aforementioned Evening Building Supervisor position at Grace. A pastoral student at Lancaster Bible College, who has experience on LBC's security team and has completed AED and First Aid training. He will begin in his new role this Wednesday night, January 24. Don't let the photograph fool you, at 6'8", Ken holds the distinction of being the tallest person on staff now. Please take a moment to introduce yourself to Ken as he gets to know us.

Just to clarify, here's what Ken will and will not be doing. What he will be doing:

• unlocking rooms scheduled for use on the Master Calendar
• unlock/lock the exterior doors to monitor guest traffic
• in the event of an alarm, make sure everyone evacuates the building and be the point person for communicating with the authorities and administrative staff
• handle the first aid/temporary fixes to maintenance issues
• navigate any scheduling conflicts that may have slipped through our scheduling systems

What he will not be doing:

• caring for the setup/tear down of rooms for ministry use, including setting up chairs and tables - those details should still be coordinated with and through Elaine and Jay
• room users are still responsible for all of the details they've been carrying for to date (turning off lights, taking out the trash-if applicable, etc.) - Ken is our last check to make sure the building is tucked-in for the night, but his role does not release all of us from caring for those details
• giving access to rooms that were not requested in advance through our room request system
• letting minors in the building unattended - minors will need to have adult supervision with them at all times while in the building

Ken reports to me and will be keeping me and the Administrative staff in the loop on what transpires each night so we can use that information to troubleshoot bugs in our systems etc. As Ken and we become more comfortable with the new role, I'm sure I'll make some modifications, but that's the general direction we're taking.