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.

Why an Evening Building Supervisor?

A 96,000 sq ft building, like the one we're blessed with at Grace, is full of all kinds of systems... electrical, plumbing, data network, fire alarm, security alarm, etc., etc. To have groups in the building without any staff on site who know, at least a little bit, about how the systems work, has always been a risk. We've taken that risk for at least the eight years I've been at Grace. When I came to Grace, the Facility person at the time carried a pager and that was the main avenue for contacting him in emergencies. It was clear to me that we needed something more to cover our facility needs, so we soon switched to a mobile phone. All along, I knew I was taking a risk that something could happen in the building while groups were meeting and there wouldn't be any staff representatives in the building to help the out (fire alarm goes off, someone has a medical emergency, or a toilet overflows). We stayed in this arrangement for more than eight years, mostly because we had other priorities that needed to be addressed for the sake of the entire ministry and we felt that it was worth the risk. That was then.

In the past couple of years, building usage has increased dramatically. We ran a report on building use this past Fall and from August-December, excluding holidays, the building was in use every night Monday-Friday except for something like one night. There are more and more groups using our facility, and with that, there are more and more people in the building during evening hours. I'm excited about this growth, we've always talked about how we want our facility in use, and the more it gets used, the better.

With the increase in use, Pastor Scott and I identified last Spring that our building usage was creating too high a risk for us not to have a staff person on-site. We saw a need for a position that would be responsible for monitoring the building systems and that would place a paid staff person in the building in case of emergencies. I chose the title of Evening Building Supervisor for the position because while it features a security component, it's responsibilities extend into problem solving any room use misunderstandings, troubleshooting first-aid type stuff for our building systems, making sure the building is evacuated in 3 minutes or under in the event of a fire alarm and responding to potential medical emergencies. If there's a problem in the building, it's the position that should be contacted first.

While only part-time (providing coverage Monday-Friday) we recognize that we are still taking a risk on weekends. Based on current sporadic building use on Saturdays, I can't justify paying someone to be there all day. On Sunday mornings, with so many staff in the building, I'm not as concerned about the building coverage, one of us is usually available to respond to emergencies. So I have no plans to change the way we do things or the roles staff have on Sundays.

With the Evening Building Supervisor position, we've taken a huge step in reducing our level of risk during the evenings Monday-Friday.

Squirrely

I've been fascinated with squirrels for years, but the closest thing to a squirrel in the Philippines is a rat and they just aren't as cute. So, when I was in the States, I relished all squirrel encounters.

Though I'm still not sure why, my Dad would tell my brother and I squirrel stories each night before bed. Actually, purple squirrel stories. Ironically, the purple squirrel's adventures would closely mirror whatever we had done that particular day. I lived for the latest installment of the purple squirrel's adventures - you can even ask my Dad for confirmation.

I also remember a book about a family of flying squirrels and being captivated with a four-legged animal that could actually fly!

There's even a myth that Princeton, NJ is one of the few places that has black squirrels.

Plus, my Middle School soccer coach raised two baby squirrels as pets.

So you'd think, when a squirrel decided to join me in watching last nights Patriots/Chargers playoff game, that I'd relish the encounter. Though professionally trained to respond to fire and security alarms and maintain calm in crisis situations, throw a squirrel in a room with me and I completely lose it - or lost it as the case may be.

But there's more mystery to this than meets the eye. Our house is situated in a development with only a few trees. Few trees, means few, if any squirrels. I've seen more rabits than squirrels. So where in the world our unexpected guest came from has me stumped. Conspiracy theories are already surfacing... it was smuggled in from my in-laws hiding in the hood of our car.

Secondly, how in the world did it get into the house?!? When we purchased this humble abode, I failed to see the section on the disclosure statement that reported that it's actually a dual-family dwelling - one human, one rodent. I'm accustomed to the bi-annual mouse hunting season and those fun little Mickeys running laps between the floorboards, but a squirrel is a different animal.

While I employed interrogation methods I picked up from Jack Bauer, all they did was make the thing burrow further into the arm rest of our coach. Here's how it went down...

I had heard some rustling in the ceiling/floor above, but didn't think much of it. That was until Beth headed upstairs and the next thing I new, I heard pitter-patter steps bounding across the basement carpet headed for the couch. I didn't see the whites of its eyes, but I saw enough to get my heart rate up. Seeing all 6'2" of me arise off the couch, the poor critter did a 180 and made a b-line for the sliding glass door. Unfortunately for both of us, the door was closed. Ever seen a bird fly into a big picture window? Yeah, that. Freaked out, I would be too if I was in his fur, it crawled up into and burrowed itself in the armrest of the couch. Cutting to the escape, we removed the section of the coach, parked it in the garage with the door cracked open and left it be. It was gone by morning, disappearing just as he had arrived, no clue as to where it went or how it got there.

3 things you can do with TiVo

As my cousin eloquently and accurately identified in a post a while back, TiVo has struggled to gain viewers and in many ways, it can probably be attributed to people not understanding all of the benefits of the TiVo unit. Being a recent TiVo-tee, I thought I'd help the cause with my list of things you can do with TiVo:

• You can watch a 3+ hour football game in the span of an hour. That's how I watched most of the college bowl games and the NFL Wildcard and playoff games.
• Though I knew coverage of Penn State's bowl game began at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day, I figured there would be 30+ minutes of pre-game coverage. But because I'd left the TV on ESPN earlier in the day, when I turned the game on at 11:30, only to discover that the game was well into the first quarter, I asked TiVo to record it for me which allowed me to watch the game in it's entirety. On top of that, using fast forward, I was able to watch the whole game and catch up with the live telecast before the game ended.
• You can pause commercials so you can actually read the fine print in the ads. A recent Southwest Airlines cheap fares ad caught my attention, but I was curious as to what was in the fine print.
• The pause feature is also extremely helpful when a squirrel decides to join you in your living room to watch the game, you can pause the game and not miss a single second while you practice good hospitality and host the surprise guest.

Reflecting on Bowls

Since I've been on the inactive list most of this week (strep throat), I've had the chance to catch up on the Bowl Bashes, putting the TiVo our friends gave us last month (thanks J & J) to great use. A few things that were missed in the TV coverage:

Outback Bowl: Penn State vs Tennessee

You know me and my interest in referees... the head referee in this year's Outback Bowl, Jerry McGinn, also called the 2006 FedEx Orange Bowl that featured PSU as well.

Oh, and was Paterno actually coaching or was he just a fan?

Sugar Bowl: Notre Dame vs LSU

For whatever reason, I always like to see the Fighting Irish lose and to see their golden domed-helmets tarnished makes it even better. Did anyone notice how close the LSU offensive huddles were to the line of scrimmage. From our days of playing pick-up, you always held the huddle out of hearing distance of the defense. I'm surprised Charlie “the wizard” Weiss didn't take advantage. I mean, even watching the game from my couch, it didn't take me long to figure out that when Jamarcus Russell would step back, and signal to his wide receivers with both hands raised, that he was checking off to a run play. But each of the four or so times he checked to it, LSU ran with success.

And did you catch who the guy was standing next to LSU coach Les Miles at the trophy presentation? That was the Chancellor of LSU, one Sean O'Keefe. Last I saw him, he was in NASA apparel answering questions about the Space Shuttle burning up on reentry. Hopefully LSU has deeper pockets, are more committed to their cause and have a more specific purpose, vision and strategy than his previous employer. At least their football program is strong.

Finally, since I've been misinformed in recent weeks, let me set the record straight. The 2007 Bowl Bash, while still following the BCS format we've grown accustomed to, is slightly different than previous years. The National Championship game is all it's own this year. The past four or five years the Championship game rotated among the big four: Fiesta, Rose, Sugar and Orange. While some thought the Fiesta was the Championship, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl featured the amazing Boise State/Oklahoma trickery filled treat. This year, the championship game is it's own game. To challenge the average sports fan, Tostitos decided to mix things up for us, sponsoring, not just their traditional sponsorship, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, but they also sponsored the entire Tostitos Bowl Bash and finally the Tostitos BCS National Championship. Now that that's cleared up, we'll have to see about Pastor Scott's beloved Buckeyes Monday night.

Hopefully, I'm back to work by then.

Wisemen spotted again!

According to Pastor Scott, on Christmas morning in Pueblo, Colorado no less, he discovered the baby Jesus, wrapped in newspaper lying in the foot of his stocking - contrary to the wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger bit. The accounts that I've read always emphasized that the star was in the East, but apparently it was in the West this year.

In addition to the baby Jesus, the Wisemen were sighted in Sunday morning. Since the Wisemen actually visited Jesus some two year's later, I think they found a modern way to move ahead two years... the Back to the Future Time Machine.

Security at Grace

The conclusions we reached to solve our security dilemna at Grace is to provide open access for the church side of the operation because we thought it was important that not only the congregation, but people coming to the church for assistance and those types of things, would have access and wouldn't be locked out. Kind of following in the historical tradition of the church, and providing a place of assylum, a place of refuge, a place where you could get help. For those reasons, the church side will remain open and accessible.

But because of the changes in the daycares and schools across our country, and the concern for the safety of the children, the daycare/school areas will have a higher level of security. It will be more inconvenient to access those parts of the building. You'll see in the coming weeks more of the logistics of how we'll carry this out. We've had to put in some new things inside the building to create different perimeters to go with those concepts, but overall I think our next step will be an improvement and continue taking us in the right direction to keeping the children for whom we're responsible safe and securing the building.

More Nativity Sightings

Though he has not visual evidence, Pastor Scott claims he answered the doorbell at his home last night, only to find the wise men standing on his doorstep. Apparently their travels have taken them outside the premises of Grace Church and meeting people where they are.

A first for the Administering Grace blog, Eric Lewis, Seconday Principal for our Christian School ministry, filed the following report on additional nativity sightings today...


BABY JESUS FOUND!!
Nativity characters and exclusive photos!

The Buzz around town was the missing Baby Jesus from the office Nativity scene and the whereabouts of the three, maybe four, “wise men” and their entourage. These wise men have been spotted at rather surprising locations. According to unnamed sources, one office staff was entering the ladies restroom when one of the wise men “jumped” out of the stall!

Well, the Buzz is pleased to announce that many questions have been answered concerning the lifestyles of these Nativity characters when they are not posing for pictures.



Bull’s cousin, Donkey, grabs a few extra hours working security at the LCS office.



This photo is of Mary going “head first” into the candy jar!!

In a surprising file photo from Wise Man “Myrrh’s” college days pranking some of his professors!

One of the angel’s is caught scrolling through Janet’s rolodex, but quickly resumes the pose of innocence. What numbers would Janet have that the angels are looking for??

Wise Man “Frankincense” has an off-season hobby of scuba diving shipwrecks in the Caribbean. Evidently, “Frank” has also played as an extra in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy.

“Bull” worked his way through college as a telemarketer for a 24- hour Wicker Warehouse in Nazareth.

Where will we find them next?

Deacon's add Benevolent Ministry

I'm excited about a new addition to our deacon ministry that is starting to come online. Obviously, the role of a deacon and the ministry of our deacons is quite broad. In addition to helping the needy, they are a very important touch with our ministry. They are charged with caring for our people, getting to know the people on their list, and things of that nature. Often though, the perception of the role of the deacon is that they focus solely on helping people with financial assistance. I often felt that that robbed them of the full magnitude of their role. So recently, the deacons have developed a new component addressing the benevolent needs of people and they have set up a subgroup of the deacons that is responsible for the benevolent side of the ministry. This group will field all requests per need and work with a budget to administer and care for those needs. They have set up criteria to help them add some objectivity to explaining why we help one individual and not another, or why we help people at different levels, things of that nature. So if you are in a position of need, you will find that there is a new process that is being used, and I'm excited about it. I think it adds strength to our ministry and it is a better process to help people out.

Desecrating the Nativity

After Pastor Scott's message on Sunday, O, Little Town of Bethelehem, mysterious things started happening to the nativity in the church office.


The baby Jesus has been missing most of the week, there have been a few sightings and I was fortunate enough to capture Him in his manger for this picture.

And after Scott's comments about the wisemen, they've been journeying all around the 501 W Lincoln property. I managed to catch snapshots of a few of them on their journey.






You might want to ask ADT to alarm the nativity in your house or on your lawn.

A Warwick Christmas - The End

A Warwick Christmas - Part 2

More houses decked out in Christmas decor... Just wait 'til you see these inflated!

Christmas: The Bumps

Young missionary families face all sorts of fears as they embark on their journey to a foreign land, fears of foreign diseases. So it was with my parents and as our launch date approached, my brother and I were pricked and prodded with vaccines and shots to help our immune systems prepare for the disease ridden jungles. Nevertheless, vaccines and shots cannot protect against everything, so before we left the US, anytime my Mom would hear of a child who had been diagnosed with the measles, mumps or chicken pox, she would rush my brother and I over to the house for a play date. Amazingly, neither of us ever contracted those viruses.

In retrospect, those health concerns were laughable. I regularly drank water out of the tap (a cardinal sin in remote areas, all drinking water was supposed to be boiled a minimum of 10 minutes to kill all the flotsam and jetsam) and dined off and on with my friend’s families. How I never contracted ameba, dysentery or any of the other diseases that put the fear of God in the adult missionaries, I’ll never know. Though, I often wonder if my large appetite is because I’m eating for two. Anyway, back to the program…

Having survived the Philippines relatively healthy and returned to the US to discover that it was possible to have cuts and abrasions that didn’t get infected; I figured I was in the clear. Maybe I had an uber-immune system, able to fend off anything. Then the bumps appeared.

It was my third month as Business Manager at Grace, the middle of December. I was in the midst of the steep learning curve and trying to fit in with my co-workers. I distinctly remember going to get the mail one workday afternoon and feeling extra chilly when I got back to the office. I finished out the day, went home and headed for bed. I was exhausted. The next morning I noticed little bumps on my arms. I think I called in sick that day and eventually went to the family doctor. After the visit, I was asked to leave through the back door.

Thinking this could not be that big of a deal, I didn’t bother to pick up the prescribed pain medication, after all, I had survived every other disease; I could handle this. I was about to be humiliated like never before in my life. I itched so badly that night, I was ready to peel my skin off like an orange peel. Fortunately, I had picked up some Aveeno, but that only provided temporary relief when I was completely in the solution. I ran around the house trying to find a straw to use as a snorkel, but that didn’t prove to be effective. By now it was pushing 3 a.m. I hadn’t slept a wink. In desperation I cooked up a batch of oatmeal and plastered my arms, I was going to try anything to reduce the itching. I barely survived the sleepless night, asked my wife to fill the prescription first thing in the morning and stayed drugged up for the remaining 2-3 weeks.

A veteran of the foreign missionary field and having been exposed to the virus several times, I succumbed to chicken pox in Lititz, PA. I presumably picked it up from our school or daycare ministries – one of the occupational hazards of working at Grace. Fortunately, the virus had passed by the time Christmas rolled around. I still haven’t had the mumps or measles and having had chicken pox, I’m now on the list for shingles. It was definitely one of the most bizarre Christmas seasons I have ever had and a time in my life I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

What I'm Like When I'm In the Zone

I greatly appreciate those who, after performing in various rooms for the Walk-Thru, came to the Auditorium to setup chairs for Sunday morning's service. Those who did got a glimpse of what I'm like when I'm in the zone. The hour of day - 9pm, combined with a diminishing workforce and anticipating a higher-than-usual attendance due to the Christmas season all collided to put me in the zone.

I was haulin' the mail pulling out stacks of chairs and intensely trying to get as many chairs setup in the Auditorium (in spite of the North Pole atmosphere). We squeezed in 743 chairs, 600 of which were used during the 9am service and 553 used at the 10:45 service. Our goal is 80% capacity, so I'm glad we pushed ourselves to find as much room as possible.

Thanks especially to Sherrie P's idea, we added enough seats to push us up to 80% capacity.

A Warwick Christmas - Part 1

The next two weeks, the Sunday messages will focus on the little town of Bethlehem with applications to the little town of Lititz. I have no idea what the Worship Design Team has planned for these services, but as I take my daily trip to work via Landis Homes, I pass so many varied Christmas displays that I thought they were worth sharing with the world.

Following are 3 shots of the same thing; I've been trying to figure out what it's supposed to be for several weeks.

Watch for more photos in coming posts.

If Someone Had Only Had a Camera

This past Monday I was covering for Jay while he was out of the office. If someone had only had a camera they could've captured me in my normal work attire, dress shirt, slacks, tie and loafers...

1. Moping and santizing the floor after a child had been sick

2. Mopping up after a toilet overflowed

3. Climbing a ladder propped against the outside of the building to talk to the guy from the roofing company.

Though often inconvinient, the value in filling in for Jay is to see just how many different things he does in a day's work.

What I Love About Grace

As I stated in a post a few days ago, we needed help with chair setup last Saturday. I knew five people had contacted the office, stating they would help out. Much to my surprise, a total of nine guys showed up Saturday to help out and in the span of just over an hour or so, we had the room setup and ready for church. I enjoyed working with Jack Y., Cliff M., John B., Jerry W., Doug F., Andy S., Jim B., Rick G. and Bryan N., many of whom stuck around to help with other aspects of the preparations even though they didn't have to. While the chair setup is a labor intensive task, it's a way for people to be a part of the Sunday morning ministry team.

On top of that, as I went to check one of our computer network servers, I passed Pearl working diligently in one of the classrooms cleaning the desks. She'd noticed they could use a thorough cleaning a while back, so she came armed with 409 cleaning solution and put some elbow grease into it.

I appreciate the people who invest so much time and effort, above and beyond their full time (sometimes even over-time, if not double-time) jobs to be a part of this organism we refer to as Grace Church. That's what I love about Grace.

The Christmas Season has Officially begun

Well, it's officially started for me at least... I made it to Monday night's Christmast at the Cloister program. In talking with friends about the program in advance, I kept getting quisical looks when I'd say, "it's a Lesson in Carols", so I decided to record the program.

You can listen to recording through these links:
Streaming audio / Downloadable audio in mp3

Not wanting to be conspicuous, I recorded it on my Sony CLIE holding it as steadily as possible between my knees for the full 43 minutes. The quality is sub-standard, but it should give you an idea of the content of a Lessons in Carols service (apparently a full service has 9 lessons). I think I was pretty effective at keeping the noise interference down except for in between songs. I was afraid my hand would go numb, so I would move around after each piece. It's hardest to hear the Reverend read the scripture passages and his prayers. Here are the passages he's reading from:

First Lesson - Isaiah 11:1-5
Second Lesson - Micah 2:1-5
Third Lesson - Luke 2:1-7
Fourth Lesson - Luke 2:8-16
Fifth Lesson - Matthew 2:1-11

I purposely didn't sing hardly at all so my voice didn't wreck the recording. I did catch the final service at 9pm Tuesday night and sang to my heart's content. Let the Christmas Season begin!

Analyzing Change to Death

Since reading, Who Moved My Cheese, I've contemplated things that haven't changed, yet still survived. You could say I've been working as Hem & Haw's defense attorney, trying to build their case. Not that I'm opposed to change, I just find it hard to believe that The Creator is the only unchanging thing or being that's survived without changing. Thus far, I haven't come up with much to help my cause.

On the contrary, I just keep coming across stuff for the plaintiff. Take my cousin's recent blog entry (he's worked in Silicon Valley for years for such notable companies as Yahoo! and now Google). His post echoes the mantra in which I'm trying to poke holes: innovate to keep meeting what people expect or die.

Contrast that with this short article from Wired. Yes, the items mentioned have had competition from improved products, but we seem to be content with the originals. Kinda like how I don't bother with the "better mousetraps".

Why the fuss over all this? It's an argument that still in the developmental phase, but the concept I'm pursuing is finding a balance between what a church needs to change in order to stay relevant to the people it's trying to reach, yet, protecting and not changing other aspects of the church. I'm still chewing on how to delineate between the two and define what's changeable and what's not. I picked up several years ago the distinction between preferences and principles, which is a key element, but I think there's more.

Eternal Value

One of the things I love about working at a church is the eternal value of what we do. The eternal value means that were are not always going to see the fruit of our labors. This can be discouraging at times. While we are doing everything we can to be a friendly church, a church where people feel welcome and at home, a staff that cares about those who are part of our body, the one comment I keep making to Pastor Scott is that we keep preaching the gospel. I believe we have been doing a very effective job of sticking to a strong literal interpretation of scripture with deep exegesis and delivering it in methods that are relevant to and connects with those in our services. As long as we keep doing that, we can hold to God’s promise that His Word will not return void. While we may not see the returns in our life times, we can trust and believe that God’s promises are true and that He will use His Word to accomplish His purposes in His time. And there is no greater thing I can think of trying to achieve in the work He has called me to and the work He has called each of us on staff to. It is great to have that confidence.

A Post-It Defense

Speaking of Township meetings, as the Business Manager of Grace Church and the Administrator of Westerly Road Church, I have had the opportunity and actually it has been one of my responsibilities to interface with the local township. It has been an interesting contrast between dealing with Warwick Township in Lancaster County and Princeton Township in New Jersey.

My experiences in Princeton became quite memorable. To get the full context of the scenario in Princeton Township, you have to understand the history of Westerly Road Church. Westerly is a church that was started in the 1950s. It actually came into existence through the work and vision of two sisters and a brother. These three siblings owned several parcels of land that abutted each other, each of them living in houses that were on this land. They owned a fourth lot that was undeveloped at the time. Through a series of events, they felt led of the Lord to build a church on the undeveloped piece which was in their backyards. Interesting side note: they found a church building in a catalog, ordered it, the building arrived on a train, was trucked over to the site, and a building was born.

Back to the story . . . so you have a church building in the middle of a neighborhood. In the 1950s, zoning regulations were extremely lax so there wasn’t much concern for development, etc. There wasn’t much record of public opposition from members of the community. So in the middle of this little residential neighborhood, you have a church. The building was relatively small but it wasn’t long before additions were being added. Fast forward 30-40 years and the siblings have passed on and the Princeton community has become quite liberal being a college town and there is much opposition to the church. What were originally the sibling’s homes have been converted into a missionary house, a parsonage, and the third one was converted to a church office. My office was once a bedroom.

The relationship between the church and it’s immediate neighbors grew very, very cold over the span of time and in the mid to late 1990s one of the neighbors filed a complaint with the township that the house that had been converted to the church office was being used improperly against the zoning regulations. They were essentially trying to kick the church office out of the house. They wanted to see that property returned to residential use. Now the church had gone through the appropriate approval process but the documentation that the township had was not crystal clear. So a hearing ensued with the township, many meetings, the church sought legal counsel and it became quite a contentious issue. As it turned out the township official that gave the approval had a reputation for doing things subjectively and also a reputation for not keeping the best of records. As fate would have it, that individual had passed away a year or two before the complaint was filed.

So everyone was in a predicament on how to solve this because you have a group using the building that was under the understanding that they had been given permission to use this building. The township acknowledged that the official that gave the permission had a reputation for being subjective but wasn’t around to confirm or deny what the agreement was. My role in all of this was fact-finding, digging through files. I get a kick out of looking through historical documents and like I did at Grace when I first arrived, spending time digging through archives gleaning the history and what the church has been through. So, as we are going through this, I am digging through any file I can think of that might be related to our use of the office. I found the construction permit document, the certificate of occupancy, some notes and meeting minutes discussing the issue, etc. I also went through the township’s records where I would eventually find the crux of our argument and the deciding factor in our meeting with the township.

So, the township held a public meeting, our legal counsel is there leading our discussion and participation in the meeting. The meeting room is packed. Anything that involved the church always drew out the entire neighborhood surrounding the church. We, in turn, would challenge our entire congregation to show up. So we have 200 people squeezed in this tiny room, people sitting on the floor and lining the walls, every seat filled, with a thick tension as angry neighbors are squeezed in next to church members. And as the discussion of the meeting is going back and forth, finally the lawyer calls me forward. I oathed-in pledgeding to tell the truth etc. and asked what I discovered in the township records. So, I convey for the public record that I discovered on one of the documents in the township records was a Post-It note with a short but brief scribble along the lines of, “I’m okay with this.”

I’ve always thought it was intriguing that one little post-it note from some time in the 1980s would play a key role in our defense. Anyone could’ve pulled that file and removed that note without anyone knowing. The 3M glue could’ve gone dry for that matter! But in God’s sovereignty, that little 2”x2” Post-It had glue that was so strong, it held an entire defense.

Joint Strategic Comp Plan - Public Hearing

I attended the public hearing last night on the Joint Strategic Comprehensive Plan. Much to the encouragement of the steering committee, township/borough officials and everyone that's worked on the project for the past year, there were more than 50 people in attendance. The presentation was the same as the one I attended just over a month ago, but the public comments were entered into the record at this meeting.

Grace Church submitted a letter to the Steering Committee with our comments a few weeks back and they entered that into the record. We were very impressed with the plan, but felt while steps were continuing to be taken to preserve the agricultural heritage of the area, the religious heritage was being forgotten. As part of the fabric of the community and as providers of more and more civic services to the community, the role of churches in the region has to be a consideration. The feedback to our comments has been positive and it was good to see at least three other Grace attenders at the public hearing.

Fortunately, I took a camera along with me and I snapped a couple of shots of maps that pertain to our location.


Map #1 - New roads being considered



This graphic shows future roads that are being considered. I added the yellow X which indicates the 501 W Lincoln property and the yellow O which represents the property we own across the street. Extending Arrowhead Dr should be a favorable addition (if it is actually implemented) to the church because it will give us an access to the other property.

Map #2 - Traffic study in 2005

Average daily traffic in 2005 that drove by the church on W Lincoln Ave was 5,390 a day. That compares to 16,000 a day on 501 North of Lititz.

Map #3 - Traffic study

Comparing 501 North of Lititz with 501 South of Lititz, 16,000 a day north of town, 22,160 a day, south of town.

Map #4 - traffic study

About 10,000 a day take Newport Rd heading East towards Rothsville.

This information is of interest to Grace for advertising purposes and for the potential relocation of Route 772. But I now realize that I didn't pay attention to the volume on 772, so I guess I'll have to go back to the Twp to look at the map again. The maps (there are like 9 or 10 others not pictured here) and the draft plan are available at the Twp and Borough buildings.

In my next post, I'll share some of my more memorable Township meeting memories and why Post-It's, a simple 2" x 2" piece of paper can become so important.

Christmas at the Cloister

As December is now upon us, I just wanted to remind everyone that the Cloister Christmas program is coming up on December 11 and 12. Performances are at 6:30, 7:45, and 9:00 pm and tickets can be purchased through the Ephrata Cloister by mail only. I find it to be one of the best ways to start the Christmas season.

Help needed, chair setup on December 9

The chairs in the Auditorium need to be specially arranged on Saturday, December 9 for our Sunday service on the 10th. While Adult Bible Fellowship classes (ABF’s) are usually scheduled to help with Auditorium chair setup, an ABF is not assigned this week. In addition, with the school Christmas program scheduled for Friday, December 8, all of the chairs will have to be taken down and then reset in this special arrangement. We could use your help on Saturday morning, December 9th to set up chairs. Please contact me if you can help us out. We really need you!