All in a day's work - actually only 1 hr's worth

I'll get to some of our contingency plans, but first these messages...

It's often hard to explain what all is involved in church ministry, but the last hour is an interesting snapshot of what a day can entail. In just 1 hour...

I've talked with Meredith Jorgensen of WGAL on details of how Grace Church has helped Melissa Leisey and Laura Spotts.

I've helped put up a bulletin board in the main lobby.

I've communicated to our front desk personnel how to handle inquiries from people wanting to help Melissa and Laura out.

I've coordianted what account will be used and how we'll track the funds that will come in.


Meanwhile...

Jay and a whole wedding party are getting the Auditorium ready for a wedding tomorrow.

The weekly volunteer team is in stuffing Sunday's bulletin.

Classes continue at Lititz Christian as usual.

Daycare continues at MorningStar like any other day.



And I've only been in the office for an hour.

Crisis Management

Knowing that the students are safe an no lives have been lost, I took some time this evening to learn a little bit about Union University. I was intrigued by their use of the web for information flow as they navigate the crisis.

1. I hope that I would be equally open in disseminating information in my responsibilities.

2. It's a good reminder that multiple avenues for communication need to be available. Mobile phone towers, landlines, internet connections, etc. can be destroyed. For that matter, even if they weren't, if someone's mobile phone charger was left in their now destroyed room, their mobile phone's battery is eventually going to run out rendering that avenue ineffective.

3. A coordinated response with strong leadership is critical.


While I'll never believe our contingency planning is complete (there will always be another contingency we haven't considered), we do have some general contingency plans in place at Grace which I'll share next time.

There's no difference between bulletins and missionary slideshows

Missionary slideshows are more and more a thing of the past, but when they were common place, I'd heard someone say that missionary slideshows were more for the missionary than they were for the group watching the slideshow. In many cases, the group watching the slideshow had little connection with those pictured in the slides, the faces in the pictures could've been photoshopped out of a National Geographic for all they knew. To the missionary, however, they'd invested their life into those people creating a deep bond. So while the audience, I'm sure appreciated seeing the pictures and hearing about the ministry, it probably meant more to the missionary. I've realized in recent months that bulletins (both the Sunday bulletin and bulletin boards) have a lot of similarities with slideshows.

Among church office circles, the Sunday bulletin is often viewed as one of the most ineffective channels of communication though for some reason it's the default channel utilized in many churches. If people read the Sunday bulletin, it's rare that they remember to respond to the items that caught their interest when they read it during the worship service. At least, that's the perception in the offices I've worked in. Bulletin boards run a close second.

My epiphany in recent months is that the Sunday bulletin or bulletin board is of high interest to the ministry or person who submitted the information for that publication. The group who requested a bulletin announcement for their upcoming excursion, flips through the bulletin to see their announcement printed. The ministry that requested a bulletin board to highlight their summer ministry week, looks to see the bulletin board. So even though it may not be the most effective communication method, it's important to those groups because they want to see their interest promoted in print. That's as far as I've gotten in my breakdown; I'm still extrapolating further conclusions as to where this leads and the impact it has on our communication methods.

Late addition - I found this correlating post today

A sanctuary for 25,000 people

During the course of another trip to my Dad's neurologist in Philadelphia, I had the chance to ponder the forethought that went into the famed Pennsylvania Railroad 30th Street Station. Granted, the Pennsy constructed the edifice at a time when railroad traffic was near it's peak, but having been constructed in 1934, the station has met the daily volume of passengers, some 25,000 daily, that pass through it's hallowed halls. To my knowledge, this has been accomplished over the past 74 years without any expansion program. Each time I'm in the station I marvel at the design. To anticipate the need for so much open space, someone apparently figured, planned for and banked on a lot of people lining to board numerous trains in regular succession. And the impressive statement of the massive ceiling and the roman columns; just exquisite architecture. And while to the daily commuters it's likely just a station, to a Pennsylvania Railroad fan like myself, it's a sanctuary.

I wonder if it is at all possible to create a worship sanctuary along the same lines. A structure that is designed with enough forethought to serve the needs of a congregation for 75 years. Or do church organisms, in harvest rich environments especially, naturally outgrow spaces?

I'm still mulling the answer to that, but I do know that the 30th Street Station is one of numerous examples of why the Pennsy is renowned as "The Standard Railroad of the World."

Opportunities & Threats to Grace Church

A strategic planning tool is assessing an organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, commonly referred to as a SWOT analysis. The strengths and weaknesses are easy enough to understand, but I find organizations struggle to differentiate strengths from opportunities and weaknesses from threats. In short...

Strengths/Weaknesses focus on the internal characteristics that currently make up the organization

Opportunities/Threats focus on the external factors that could impact the organization

There's a difference in the internal/external and a difference in timing - current/potential. Let me share some of my opportunity/threat analysis of the ministries at Grace that may help clarify the differences. Items listed are not prioritized in anyway.

Threats

Downsizing at the Johnson & Johnson plant in Lititz - the ongoing downsizing and the potential for even more job losses at the Johnson & Johnson plant in Lititz is a threat to our daycare ministry as several families who are employed at the plant bring their kids to our daycare because we're less than a mile away from the plant. The potential loss of those daycare customers is a threat to the future of our daycare.

Warwick and Manheim School Districts continuing to provide a conservative education - So long as the Warwick and Manheim School Districts provide a conservative education (recognizing that's a relative concept) the difference between a Christian education and a public education will remain less noticeable and thus a threat to our Christian school ministry. It's a double-edged concept because this sounds like I'd want the school districts to shift and I don't. But I can't rule out that as parents weigh the options available for educating their children and compare the costs of a Christian education against a free public education at Warwick/Manheim, the differences are not as stark as they are in other parts of the country.

Satellite churches coming to Lancaster - I can't imagine it won't be long before a church or churches establish satellite locations in our area giving families and individuals the option of going to a church where they get to hear nationally-known Pastors on a weekly basis.

The local economy - If, as mentioned previously, Johnson & Johnson continues to downsize the Lititz plant, and if other area businesses follow suit, it will negatively impact the local economy. A drop in the local economy presents a threat to all of our ministries as it will inevitably affect our finances. Fewer families will be able to make the sacrifice for a Christian education causing school enrollment to decline and with less income in the local area, I would anticipate Church giving to decline too.

Future facility expansion - While I dream of us expanding our facilities in the coming years, such projects have been known to divide a church. I'd be negligent to not state that our dream of future expansion could be a potential threat to our ministry.

Opportunities

772 relocated to West Lincoln Ave - The Township/County's consideration of relocating Route 772 to pass right in front of the church is a potential opportunity, possibly sending more traffic and people past the church and giving us a chance to make our presence and existence known. Just think of more traffic having passed by during the Rodeo last June.

Regional or Community Church - we're positioned geographically in such a way that we have the option of choosing whether we want to configure our ministries to serve our local community or to serve the broader region.

Diversity - I don't have consensus data to back this up, but my hunch is that our area is becoming more diverse and will continue to do so in the coming years giving us an opportunity to reach more people.

Draw families together - our culture is naturally spreading families apart with numerous activities. The church has an opportunity to unite families by structuring our ministries to involve family members together.

North Lititz gathering place - Lancaster and some points south of Lancaster provide gathering opportunities... Park City, Penn Cinema etc. But in Lititz itself and north, there aren't many gathering places. It's a role Grace Church has an opportunity to play.

Wedding Chapel ministry - with the recent renovations to the Chapel we can once again provide a service to the community in hosting weddings.



By no means a comprehensive list nor official, just my attempt to show how a list of opportunities and threats differs from a list of strengths and weaknesses.

Instead of a new building, I'd rather see a successful restoration project

As a relatively new homeowner without good handyman skills (I can't hang curtains without turning the drywall into Swiss cheese - it's painful), I appreciate watching the masters on This Old House restore old houses.


Maybe because of the facility challenges faced at the first church I served in, early on I had a desire to be a part of a facility expansion. I've held that hope, but more than being a part of a facility expansion project, at this point, I think I'd rather see a full restoration project.

Throughout my journey as a Christian, like an expedition to summit Mt Everest, I've passed the lives of men and women who didn't make it, their corpses laying along the side of the path. Lives spiritually destroyed in one way or another, ones who've lost credibility and respect. It's sobering and frankly scares me. I have a good idea of what I'm capable of and that but for the grace of God, I could be next. According to Scripture, this is not an accurate illustration, no life is exempt from God's grace, but I haven't had the privilege of seeing it play out firsthand.

Restoration is a tough task, if that wasn't evidenced by how few actually succeed. The issues that lead up to the need for restoration are complex in and of themselves. Add to that the restoration dynamics, usually multiple parties involved, there's typically some sort of public disclosure and a need on all sides to dedicate significant effort... it is very, very complicated. Not having witnessed a successful restoration that I can recall in my lifetime, it's easy to hear restoration-talk and interpret it solely as lip-service, but I have to fight those cynical thoughts.

I don't comprehend how it's supposed to work, trust is such a valuable, yet immeasurable commodity, that, once lost seems, in my insignificant human mind to be impossible to reestablish. But I cling to Scripture's promises and hope that some day I have the opportunity to see it exemplified. Wouldn't it be amazing to see an equal number of restorations in the American church as there are expansion projects?

See you a Mickey G's on Sunday

The Worship Design Team has rolled out another catchy way to package the next message series. Don't let the packaging fool you though, just cause it's a culturally relevant wrapper that's easy for us to remember, doesn't necessarily mean the content's like a watered down drink from the soda fountain.

But in a whole different context, out of nowhere I think we stumbled upon the next wave that's going to spread across churches. For the past, boy, I don't know when it started, so for the sake of this post... several years, gourmet coffee bars seem to be the in thing at churches. I've been asked countless times over the past several years as to whether Grace will take the coffee plunge. Though there are a ton of practical reasons, there's one response I enjoy sharing just for the fun of it.

The coffee-craze has been around for a while and instead of joining the dance years late as yet another follower, I'd rather find and pursue the next thing our culture will associate with casual social gatherings. To date I haven't come up with much more than an ice creamery akin to Cold Stone. That was until today.

Various fast food menu items adorn the main lobby doors, leading one of our guests to the building this Friday morning to excitedly exclaim, "Are you guys getting a McDonald's!" That's it, a Mickey D's! The next church craze.

This is actually a great microcosm of target audiences. Those who come to a service on a Sunday morning understand why there are McDonald's posters in the main lobby or why there are Happy Birthday balloons around the front desk. But to the non-Sunday guest who visit during the week these things have no context other than our front desk personnel, Charlene and Megan.

I felt for them the entire month they were asked over and over by every different guest, "Oh, is it your birthday today?" The target audience of Sunday mornings gets the message, but there are other audiences that receive the message. And, like the man who laughs last, they don't get it.

Pride and hurt feelings can be pretty overwhelming emotions

Sometime in 2007 I discovered, well, re-discovered, that you can borrow books for FREE at the local library. What a concept! I'm often too lazy or preoccupied with watching sports to take time to read. And to load my shelves with books that I only want to read once and don't desire to read again; I just have other things I'd rather invest in.

But the library, wow, all those books - any of which you can borrow and in many cases if they don't have it, you can reserve it from one of the other libraries in the network, is tremendous. I love to walk the aisles just scanning the titles. I probably sound like a moron, but libraries are non-existent in the 3rd world. Yeah, our research papers necessitated my visiting the East German and West German embassies to get the information to compare their economies. Okay, it's no longer in question... my moronic state that is. As someone recently proclaimed as they walked into my office, "You're a bizarre individual!" I digress.

I recently completed Tony Dungy's Quiet Strength; a fascinating account of his life with a behind-the-scenes look at life in the NFL. I enjoyed it immensely and though I've only heard a interview or two of his, I could hear Tony's voice reading the book to me as I read. The one quote that really caught my attention was "...pride and hurt feelings can be pretty overwhelming emotions."

In a way only Tony can achieve, it's stated so matter of fact-ly with an even-keeled approach in the midst of chaos. And from my experience, it's dead-on. A good reminder for me as I often have to see beyond the initial symptoms to try and assess the root cause of problems. I hope I continue to develop just a small aspect of the quiet strength Tony Dungy exudes.

US Television reception is changing in just over a year

For my US readers, you may have heard that television broadcasts are slated to change in just over a year. The good news is you don't have to run out and buy a flat screen HDTV to receive the new digital broadcasts, though it would be nice.

A quick aside here, hi-definition TV has been the rave of the past few years with viewers marvelling at the crisp quality of the enhanced pictures, but I had to laugh when I heard a sports-talk show host lamenting that the Christmas Mass from the Vatican this year was only broadcast in standard definition. He apparently had looked forward to seeing the church in the crispness and clarity of HD. A strong testament to how much better the picture must be.

You don't have to purchase a new TV set, you just need a converter box (they're not available as of yet, but they're coming soon). For some reason the government feels responsible to cover the cost of up to two boxes per household; an indicator of how much they anticipate they'll make off the newly freed-up frequencies maybe?!? You can go to this website to sign-up for your coupons and this site explains things a little bit.

I just signed up for mine.

My Personal 2007 Highlight

It's unclear when exactly I first heard the story, but off and on throughout my life it's clear the impact of that first time has spanned close to 30 years. Once again, the story was the highlight of my 2007, but before I get to that, we have to go back to the first time I remember it influencing my life.

My personal recollection begins in the mid-1980s when my grandparents visited us over Christmas in the Philippines. Only seeing your grandparents one out of every five years makes any opportunity to see them a HUGE deal. The "over the river and through the woods..." just doesn't do it justice when there are literally thousands of miles of separation across oceans and continents making river and forests a quick jaunt across a State line. So when Oma and Opa informed us that they'd be coming to visit for Christmas, it was an anticipated Christmas unlike any other in my life to this point and a Christmas we'd never forget.

We had an absolutely wonderful several weeks with them. In addition to celebrating Christmas, they brought with them many US treats including apples, a Butterball turkey and presents. Throughout their stay we spent lots of time with Oma and Opa reading books, playing Coleco Head-to-Head Football (in college mode mind you, Opa didn't like the pros because they played on Sundays) and travelling with them to various parts of the country sight seeing. Why He chose us, I'll never know, but my brother and I were the last grandkids to play with Opa, for, some time before their scheduled return to the US, he passed away. But one of the projects Opa and I worked on together before he left this earth is the first I can point to the story's impact on my life.

That Christmas my grandparents gave me several balsa wood airplane kits and Opa and I had spent the days after Christmas reading the directions, identifying the correct pieces, cutting them out of the panels and assembling the models (It's like I did it yesterday because I've been working on one with my Dad since July). One of the models Opa and I built was a replica of one of the small Piper airplanes and when it came time to decorate the model, I knew it had to be bright yellow just like Nate's.

Fast forward just short of 30 years to July, 2007, spin the globe about halfway around and locate Smoketown, Pennsylvania. That's where I attended a Wycliffe Family Day on a summer Sunday afternoon this past year. Having gone to school and dormed with the kids of parents who were involved with translating Scripture into native tongues or were flying planes and helicopters into jungle airstrips and even some of those kids now involved in the work themselves; I knew of the ministry of Wycliffe firsthand. The draw to this event was my Dad wanted to fly in an airplane and I convinced him that we wouldn't find a cheaper flight than a $15 ride around the airspace of Lancaster County. Though I knew about it beforehand, for it received top billing on the press releases, I didn't expect the impact the yellow plane would once again have on me.

As we found our parking space, there it was tied down in the grass, N5156H, this time in a life size version, but still a replica of course, for the real one was shredded to pieces on an island beach on the Curaray River decades ago. Amazingly, the actual airframe was discovered in 1994 and is on display at the headquarters of MAF. Though I had seen the movie with the entire Grace Church staff in 2005, on a whim I had just read the book last Spring; my eyes tearing regularly as I turned the pages learning even more about all that God's been doing among the Waodani.

And once again, the story which I first heard as a blue-eyed blonde-haired kid was surfacing in a rush from the deep recesses of my memory. I got to meet Steve Saint, Nate's son that day, shake his hand and talk briefly with him. I'm guessing, based on the response he receives worldwide and the prominence of End of the Spear, that the story impacts many people in similar ways that it has impacted me.

I felt heart tugs that afternoon that I haven't felt in a while and off and on since, I've contemplated and conversed with God as to what He's trying to tell me. Here some six months later, I'm still trying to listen intently through the distractions of daily living and the hustle and bustle, but that day opened the door to an unexplored room or at least one I haven't explored recently. For now, the exploration continues until He leads me to a point that requires faith and action.

And so my highlight for 2007 was the yellow plane. I'd built a replica with Opa years ago and now I'm building another one with my Dad... well, trying to. I'm having trouble identifying the different pieces on the balsa panels. Go figure. What God has in store for 2008 and beyond is yet to be discovered. But whatever it involves, He's always at work around us and He'll be inviting me to join me in what He's going to do. I look forward to it. Happy New Year!

Photo by Peter Norton

Grace Church - 2007 in review

I enjoy all the nostalgia that permeates the media outlets this time of year - Person and Sportspeople of the year editions, the year in review and best-of montages - it all gives me an opportunity to reflect on all that's transpired over the past twelve months. Capturing the events of a year was our main task when I worked on our high school yearbook and one of several lessons I learned from my yearbook classes, ingrained into my mind by our teacher/advisor, was to highlight what made the particular year stand out from all the others.

In years past, December-January meant Annual Report time where, like a dentist, we painfully extracted reports from each ministry area. The Annual Report has gone the way of the old 8-Tracks and that cheering you hear is the noise of ministry leaders across Lititz celebrating. In it's place take this as my 2007 Grace Church Yearbook or Annual Report.

By the what-set-this-year-apart criteria, 2007 will go down as the year of the Rodeo at Grace. It consumed much of our time and energy in planning for it; I don't think we'd spent that much time planning an event in the history of our church and in people-power terms, it consumed enormous amounts of volunteer energy. No doubt, that was the one moment that captures how 2007 was different at Grace Church than any other year.

On Sunday's we considered... How Great is Our God? To You... From God, From the WHALE to the World, Angelic Instant Messengers, Summer Heat, iBook, Real Family, Lost, Just Add Water, Vision Month, and we started the year with Back to the Future.

The largest number of people at one time took the step of baptism at Grace Church in 2007 and we celebrated Communion on a Sunday morning.

And while we said goodbye to former co-workers (Crouse, Nelson, Snows, Brightbill), we welcomed Tim & Susan Auld, Matt McElravy, Lindsey Wilson, Lisa Weidman and Megan Wilkerson.

A year ago, while I was working in the office between Christmas and New Year's, the office was in disarray due to re-carpeting. This year it's in disarray because of repainting. Usually you'd paint before re-carpeting, but we got a deal on buying the carpet in bulk that I couldn't turn down. The office area hadn't been touched since it's original construction in 1989/1990. We got a full 17 years out of the original layout and decor and I spent 10 years planning in some way shape or form, planning the current makeover.

Our Sunday worship attendance continues growing, though at more manageable rates than we've experienced in the past three years - we've grown in attendance by around 3.5% over last year. Even more incredibly, while we challenged the congregation with an income budget increase of 10%, which we knew would be a a bit of a stretch, thus far, giving is up by some 12% over last year.

All in all, 2007 has been a positive year of ministry at Grace. And while a lot of effort and planning goes into many of the things I've highlighted, we're just the puppets carrying out the plans and directives of our Master Puppeteer. He guides our every action, plan and thought and is The One who receives all the glory.

And while I've been privileged to have a small part in what God has accomplished through the ministry of Grace, I have yet to list my personal highlight of the year; that will be my topic next time.

Madame Tussauds in Lititz

Approximately 100 chairs have wax on them from the candlelight services earlier this week, with about 30 of them judged to be severe. Nathan spent most of yesterday with an iron and paper towels dabbing up the wax off of the 30 worst. In most cases the wax dripped onto the backs of chairs as guests held the candle in front of them as they sang carols.

Maybe we should send the most-waxed chair to Madame Tussauds.

Wax on / Wax off

One of the downsides to a candlelight service is the side effects of the candle wax. Wax drips on the chairs and the floor and presents a post candlelight-service clean up challenge. In the past, our Senior Pastor would expound on the proper candle-lighting procedures, so much so that it's part of our folklore. We've also tried only having the candles lit for the signing of Silent Night to keep the burn times to a minimum. Even with those efforts, there was always wax to be cleaned up after the service. This year neither of those public service announcements were employed and whether it's a true cause and effect relationship we'll never know, but there's a lot of wax to be cleaned up this week. In fact, much of Jay's day today, if not most of this week, will likely be devoted to wax cleanup.

We contemplated for just a bit the use of glow-sticks in place of the candles, but that just didn't feel right. And as I marvelled at the sight of 800+ people in the Auditorium singing out the Christmas Carols with candles lit, I wondered if the atmosphere would be enhanced if we held the candlelight services outside. A thought to ponder for future celebrations, I guess.

Or maybe we'll devote our next Digging Deeper elective to proper instruction on candle-lighting and burning and fly the guest speaker in from Arizona.

A World Transformed - Part 2

Though not a quote one other principle caught my attention from the Bush Administration (41st), his attention to building relationships. The President detailed how throughout his political career, he worked to build relationships with foreign leaders and specifically, establishing them away from the conference tables and outside of the office. He used Camp David and Kennebunkport extensively as casual, relaxed settings to establish a comfortable atmosphere to enhance open dialog with world leaders. The President understood that if he had a strong bond with the key leaders of the world those ties would stand the test of each crisis that would arise. He would be able to take them back to their casual exchange of ideas, in some cases, years prior to remind them of the mutual trust and respect they'd have for each other. Brilliant!

I also got a chuckle that like Reagan almost did to a small cottage prior to one of his watershed meetings with Gorbachev, Bush too had a run in with starting a log fire in the fireplace, though his was in the Situation Room, set off the fire alarm which in turn had the Secret Service busting into the room with weapons drawn. We're all human.

A World Transformed

Prior to vacation a while back, I took time to walk the aisles in the Lititz Public Library scanning the titles and came across A World Transformed. I enjoy reading and learning about the behind-the-scenes perspectives of events and things I can relate to, like the coup-de-tat in the Philippines in 1989.

Scowcroft and the President detailed the meetings and diplomatic challenges in how the US chose to respond to the political crisis. While they were doing their thing, I was living it on the otherside of the globe. Since our boarding school overlooked Manila, we were in relative safety, but also had a peanut-gallery view of the action. We saw the smoke from the fire that ensued as a result on the airport attack and the rumblings of tank artillery lulled us to sleep at night. We prayed a lot that week for our friends, classmates and teachers, some of whom lived within less than a mile of the action... fortunately, no one was injured. My most serene recollection was, with school closed, a group of us were on campus playing a softball game while a war was being carried out but just several miles away and as we focused on catching fly balls US Air Force F-4 Phantom's were circling overhead providing air cover. Planes that Scowcroft and the President had authorized to be there.

One quote from the book caught my attention. Though I don't remember the specific conflict, the principle applies to any... That evening also reinforced one lesson for me - never believe the first descriptions of a crisis. Amost invariably, early reports are erroneous or garbled, and making decisions based on them could lead to serious mistakes. The difficulty is that there is nothing else to go on, and inaction is rarely a feasible option - one of the major problems of managing a crisis.Brent Scowcroft - p.453-454A World Transformed - President Bush & Scowcroft

It's a principle for me to employ as we face crises at Grace and one I wish the media outlets would accept and apply to their reporting!

What's the connection with the CAR?

Why orphans in the CAR? First and foremost, we believe God has opened our eyes to see that it's an area where He is working, He's invited us to join Him in what He's doing and He's brought us as leadership and as a local fellowship to the point of requiring faith and action. So we're making the local body aware of where we think God is working to see if the church body senses the same thing and shares our passion and faith to take action and join. That's the succinct answer, but there are ancillary reasons...

Having not grown up in the Grace Brethren Fellowship, I've been surprised by some facts that many GBC'ers don't seem to be aware of, one of which surrounds the Central African Republic (CAR). The largest concentration of Grace Brethren members worldwide is found in the CAR and not by just a close margin, I don't have the data, but I know they out pace any other country by the thousands, if not the tens of thousands. So that's one connection between Grace Church and the CAR.

Secondly, Pastor Scott and I have been talking, spurred by the passion of Greg and Rebekah, about the plight of orphans for the better part of a year. Scripture (James) is explicit that the church is to care for widow's who's family is unable to provide for them and for orphans. We've been aware of our calling to widows and strive to fulfill that responsibility, but we've been negligent in our responsibility toward orphans. This appears to be a natural place to start.

Thirdly, the work the Grace Brethren Fellowship is doing in the CAR is church-based and looking to address the needs through church-sponsored schools. Hmmmm, sounds similar to the Grace Church/Lititz Christian School setup. While I believe Matthew 28 to set the purpose/mandate of the local church, I believe Acts 1:8 to describe the approach. While the CAR is as close to the "ends of the earth" as I can think of, a church-sponsored school is as close to a Samarian-type ministry as I can think of. Samaria being similar, yet different from Judea. A church-sponsored school in Lititz partnering with church-sponsored schools in the CAR. The ministry opportunities that this provides are exciting to contemplate - mission trips for church groups, school students, school sports teams, you name it!

You can participate in the Birthday Gift for Jesus by marking such on the Special Line of your giving envelope, on the memo line of your check or by placing cash in an envelope labeled with your name and Birthday Gift for Jesus.

What about the Cambodians?

I'm not sure how long we've been doing the Birthday Gift for Jesus at Grace, but it's been at least 10 years, probably more. For the past nine years we've used the Gift to support three Cambodian national missionary families for a full year's support plus additional projects related to their church planting efforts in Battambang and surrounding areas in Cambodia. This year, we're using the Gift to support at least three church-sponsored schools designed to educate, clothe and feed 150 of the 200,000 some orphans in the Central African Republic (CAR). I want to dissect this in total, first, we'll start with the Cambodians, are we no longer supporting them?

Nope, starting with the 2007-08 budget, we moved our support of the Cambodians into the annual budget. We're sending monies to them on a monthly basis to allow their ministry to continue. We still support three families of Cambodian nationals - one or two of them have changed because they left the ministry for other pursuits etc., but we're still very active in joining God in what He's doing in the Battambang region.

Through Mike and Joan McCracken, our ties and investment in the Cambodian ministry remains very committed. If you have a desire to participate further in that extension of the Grace Church ministry, let me know, talk to the Mike and Joan or talk to Pastor Scott.

We see us using this approach, the Birthday Gift for Jesus to launch future endeavors to join God where He's working. After a few years, assuming the work is on going and we sense the congregation is connected and invested in the ministry, we'll fold the regular support into the general operating budget and use the Birthday Gift for Jesus to launch another new outreach.

Next I'll answer, so, why the CAR? Why orphans?

Christmas Prodcution Mid-West Tour

By now you've probably heard that for the first time in probably close to a decade, Grace Church won't be producing a Christmas program of some sort. This year, we're emphasizing the Christmas Eve Services. Of course, the past two Christmas' featured a Walk-Thru.

Knowing that we weren't planning to do a Walk-Thru this year, when asked, we agreed to loan many of the sets and decorations to the Grace Brethren Church in Ashland, OH. At least, I think that's the church, but I can't find any mention of it on their website. We loaned the sets for them to produce their own version of the Walk-Thru this Christmas. Maybe since I've yet to experience the Walk-Thru (I helped behind the scenes when we did it) I'll travel west to catch their production. For that matter, you can make it a full mid-west road trip and catch a light show in New Branson otherwise known as Topeka, Kansas.

And for those afraid to make the trek in the uncertain winter-weather, our Christmas Eve Candlelight Services are Monday, December 24 at 5:30 and 7pm.

Driving in circles

Having learned to drive where the shoulder is best used as a passing lane, stopping at red lights is optional and right-of-way is determined more by who is first to blow their horn or flick their high beams... I'm not the expert on the rules of the road. That said, I was born in the land of traffic circles otherwise known as New Jersey.

New Jersey-bred homosapiens, from birth, are forced to adapt and survive in a traffic-circle world and so it's almost part of our DNA. Unfortunately, this is not true for their neighbors across the river whose namesake is William Penn (nor for our friends from across the boarder, but you'll have to ask Brother Tim to tell his story). Even more unfortunate, someone in government decided a traffic circle be placed north and east of the Lancaster airport. And I'm further convinced that this circle is likely THE ONLY CIRCLE within 200 square miles, and possibly even the only such cunundrum in Pennsylvania.

I haven't bothered to look up in the Driver's Manual the proper standards for navigating a traffic circle, so don't quote me on this, but judging by the Yield signs at every entrance to the circle, all vehicles IN the circle have the right of way. All vehicles wishing to enter the circle must yield to the traffic in the circle. In otherwords, should I choose to drive around the circle incessantly, all traffic would have to yield to me. And, yes, I've done that at least once. This traffic pattern is lost on Pennsylvanians. The circle throws them for a loop, yielding to traffic waiting to enter the circle, yielding to traffic leaving the circle, yielding for the sake of yielding. Oh, and once in the circle, it's at least courteous, if not necessary, to signal when you're going to exit the circle.

And so it is, somedays up to four times a day, the little blue van that could is the only witness to a lesson on driving in circles. To the outside observer the driver's lips are moving, but the sound and message is lost on the intended audience.

I love working with passionate people

I really enjoy working with people who are passionate about what they do. Several people assisted with chair setup in the Auditorium the other Saturday morning at 8 a.m. As the chairs started to get setup, as is usually the case, bulletins and other leftovers from the last service were strewn about the seats, hymnal racks, etc. so I asked two of the folks out to help setup to go about and collect the trash. I was impressed by one individual who exhibited passion for the task he was assigned.

Literally crawling through the rows of chairs, Nicolas covered a good part of the Auditorium looking high and low for trash around the chairs. He passion to get all of the trash inspired me. Over the years I've walked through each row, I've touched each chair, I've prayed for the lives that each chair would hold, but I've never crawled on my hands and knees to make sure there wasn't any trash tucked in a crevice. I love working with people who have that kind of passion.

Even though he's only 5 years old, Nicolas can be on my team anytime.

Maintenance personnel maintain more than buildings

The little blue van that could did it to me again. On the way to make a Dr. appointment I had my schedule timed just right. I arrived at the day services center on schedule to pick up my Dad, it appeared we'd arrive in Denver, PA with a few minutes to spare. Within seconds everything turned.



While attempting to close the van door, instead of closing, I was shocked to be holding the door in my hands, disconnected from the vehicle and unable to close. The thing just jumped right off it's track. In a bizarre twist, one of the staff was just exiting the facility and with the authority of Mr. Goodwrench explained exactly what I would need to do to reattach the door (I wasn't going anywhere until it was reattached).



Within a few minutes the day serices center's version of Jay Hall, Carl appeared and after 20 minutes, the door was reattached and we were on our way. Similar scenarios play out at Grace too. A car won't start, someone has a flat tire, keys got locked in a car, you name it and in many cases, Jay is called upon to help. As with Carl's help in my situation, it's apparently an unwritten expectation of facility/maintenance personnel. And while I didn't expect it, I greatly appreciated Carl's help and his willingness to bail me out.

I guess I need to add AAA to Jay's job description.

Pinoy Thanksgiving

While many American holidays are shared around the world (Christmas, New Years), there are of course many that are specific just to the U.S. So, growing up in the Philippines, Thanksgiving was always an interesting time of year. The Philippines doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but with a large missionary presence in the country and families who were trying to raise their kids in a different culture yet still maintaining their American heritage, everybody tried to celebrate Thanksgiving in some shape or form. Turkeys aren't real prevalent in the Philippines, so having turkey as the main course is rare and how can you celebrate Turkey Day without a turkey? There aren't cranberries either. Since it wasn't a national holiday, we always had school and a regular schedule on Thanksgiving Day. Actually, the years we were in boarding school, we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving with my parents.

Thanksgiving was a dorm celebration. You have to understand that the boarding school arrangements entailed us living in a rather large house with some 20 other boarding students, set up in a kind of family arrangement. There were us boarding students with a family who was responsible for our care and took care of planning the meals and planning the activities for us. They were responsible for disciplining us, things like that too, filling all of the parental roles. So, we had a family arrangement; it wasn't our own family, but it was out dorm family. When you put 20 guys in their preteens to teens, living under one roof, you go through a lot of food and we were on a modest budget. We weren't starving to death, but we also enjoyed eating. Thanksgiving Dinner was our annual Super Bowl of dining.

There's a whole preparation to this because you've got 20 kids whom you will be fighting with over food and you want to get the most food you can out of the meal. So, Thanksgiving turned out to be quite the event. As in any institutional mass food-producing context, we were constantly grumbling about the quality of the food and it was the brunt of many jokes as is college dorm food, as is school lunch food, you name it. Like it's football based cousin, the pre-feast preparation and hype starts to build in the week or two leading up to the feast with us kids employing different philosophies of getting our stomachs prepared to digest as much food as possible. Now you had a couple different pre-feast methodologies.

One, you had the groups that felt that getting yourself as hungry as possible was going to be the best method to consuming as much food as you could on Thanksgiving. So that would be the group that would gradually start reducing their intake the week before Thanksgiving Day, with the mindset that they would be so hungry come Thanksgiving Day that they could consume the most amount of turkey and everything else. I'll explain how we got turkeys in a minute. The second group felt that in order to consume the most of amount of food, their stomachs needed to be as large as possible, and so they would begin increasing the amount of food they were eating day to day with the thought that that would expand their stomachs and by Thanksgiving their stomachs would have expanded to a larger size capable of eating more food. Then you had the camp that just went about things as normal; they were no fun.

Thanksgiving day, again, would be a typical day. Go to school, no special day off or anything and get home, you'd have the meal with all 20 of us. The neat thing was the lengths to which the school and dorm parents would go to provide us with as traditional a Thanksgiving as possible. There were times where through connections with military personnel (our government taxes at work), we were able to get turkeys. At some point they did find a source for turkeys, though they were quite expensive and not in high abundance. I think we were able to have turkey just about every Thanksgiving. A lot of the sources would come through military connections with the air and naval bases in the Philippines or just spending extra to get the imported specialities for the Thanksgiving. As Abraham Lincoln had dreamed it would be, we'd all feast to our hearts content, bordering on gluttony and celebrate the holiday together. And of course, then, the next three days have turkey sandwiches for lunch and enjoy the best part: leftovers

But I think the most turkey-fun I've had in my lifetime was during college when I took a Butterball with me as one of my two pieces of luggage on a return trip to the Philippines. The best part was seeing the bird go through the x-ray machine.

Thanks to Charlene for enduring the challenge of transcribing this post through Windows Media Player.

Cloister Christmas Concerts - December 10 & 11

The Ephrata Cloister Christmas Concerts are scheduled for December 10 & 11 with services at 6:30, 7:45 and 9 both nights. Tickets are $4. If you aren't familiar with these unique Christmas events, I've written about them in previous years.

Deja Vu

As I drove away it was deja vu except this time I was on the opposite side.


The deja vu moments started when the new care facility informed me that all of Dad's wardrobe would need to be identified with his initials. I'd been this before, but it was my clothes that needed name labels for me to be in boarding school. When you do upwards of 15 boys laundry once a week you have to have some system for keeping Jon's clothes separate from Sam's. In addition to name labels, each student was assigned a number that was theirs until they graduated; my laundry number was 20. I was so ingrained in this and also saw it as an easy way to keep socks paired for life (you know, like ducks), I continued the practice through college - with my white socks at least. So rushing to label Dad's wardrobe just hours before dropping him off triggered the flashbacks.


With him settled-in, all of the paperwork complete and his medications turned over to the nursing staff, it was time to go. It's not like this was the first time, we've been through this three to four times now, but this was different.


I felt guilty leaving him this time. Would he receive the care he needed, when he needed it? Would he enjoy his time there? Would he make friends? We've never talked about it, but I'm guessing I went through emotions my parents went through the day they drove away after dropping us off at the dorm for boarding school. I can only hope that on the other side, Dad was enjoying himself as much as I was so many years ago. Deja Vu.

Searching for respite care

When my wife and I go on vacation, we've been fortunate that some local elder-care facilities have respite care rooms that Dad can stay in. Much to our surprise as we planned for our upcoming time away, the facility we had been using ceased to offer respite stay, so at the last minute we were searching for a new facility.


Assessing facilities for their ability to care for a loved one is a trying task. Things that crossed my mind included the cleanliness of the facility, friendliness of the staff with whom I'm meeting and the variety of services they have to offer... that was about it. When you break it down, there's not a whole lot to go on.


I've been in a couple of facilities more than once and frankly, they eerily resemble each other. Typically, the facilities are nicely furnished with multiple lobby gathering areas decked out in couches and small conversational spaces, but I rarely see them in use other than when the residents are anxiously awaiting the opening of the food line for the next meal. Residents appear to spend a lot of time isolated in their individual rooms, are we really that anti-social a culture? Is the investment in lobby spaces and plush couches purely for the impression it sends to first time guests - a plush cushiony white wash - that says "we're friendly"?


Ultimately, you have to reach a decision point, with mostly perceptions upon which to decide. My decision was about a care facility, I wonder if people choose a daycare or a Christian school on similar criteria?


Consciously or not, from what I've read, our perceptions play a role in all decision making. You can't remove that from the equation. But can we provide additional information to help decision makers get below the surface? I love the example of a business acquaintance who I've invited to Grace who wanted to review the church doctrinal statement as part of his consideration.

I picked a care facility, not realizing the deja vu that would ensue...

Bias against sales people

One of my greatest challenges is how I represent the church when a salesperson comes calling. I have very little time for sales people, in fact, it's a flat out bias. See from my perspective, if the product requires selling, it's not good enough for me. I figure I have what I need or what I want and don't need to be convinced otherwise. If I have questions about something I'm considering, the sales person should be there to provide the answers. The products I want to purchase should be so good they sell themselves and don't need a sales presentation. The moment I sense a sales job, my warning mechanisms kick-in. I assume, unfairly, that all salespeople oversell and under deliver. Completely unfair to the salesperson. My personal preference is to undersell and over deliver.

This bias grossly clouds my interaction with salespeople who contact the church. While they're looking for a sale, only recently did I realize that every contact was a testimony for Christ. I regret that in the long-distance telemarketing days I played with sales calls like a cat plays with a caught mouse. One time, I turned the tables on the sales caller and I instead tried to sell them on the long distance carrier I was using.

I was always aware that I didn't have the time of day for a sales call, but it's only recently that I clarified that it's an out and out bias.

Church billboard ads

Several high profiles churches have used billboard advertising to highlight upcoming message series which appear to have successfully increased attendance numbers and raise a lightning rod for criticism at the same time. The first church billboard I remember was in the mid 1990s. It was a billboard on I-95 that read something along the lines of "Jesus hated church too, but He didn't use it as an excuse not to worship... www.tenth.org".

Carving squash - a 3rd world Halloween

We prepared dinner in virtual darkness last night - the person who designed this unit had the bright idea to put the kitchen at the front of the house (the front door opens into the kitchen). That's all well and good for 364 days a year, but it can create a challenge on October 31.

I'm not into Halloween, for a couple of reasons.
1. I can think of a lot of other ways to spend money than buying candy to hand out to the kids in the neighborhood.

2. With so much emphasis on the dark side of Halloween, I just can't celebrate, joke or mock - whatever you want to call it - about that.

When you grow up in the 3rd world where the spirit world is accepted as a reality and you don't have to go far to see it firsthand you know dressing up or watching others dress up as ghosts, goblins and the like is not something to be messed with. I find it odd that our culture makes such a big celebration of Halloween, yet generally refuses to accept the existence of the spirit world. I'm more and more convinced that the Evil One uses our inside-outness on this to keep our culture in the dark. Viewing it as a holiday to play dress up like firemen, Cinderella etc. is one thing, but I know too well the spirit world isn't something with which to mess around.

Plus, since pumpkins didn't grow in the Philippines, it was a challenge to carve a squash and the locals looked at us like we were morons.

The minivan achieves classic car status

Our blue Plymouth Voyager turns 20 this year... it's a 1987 model. It now qualifies for a classic car license plate - in some circles at least.

The machine has served us well over the past decade or so and with 231,000 miles on it and counting, we've put it to good use. We only paid $1 for the vehicle, friends of ours in Princeton who were upgrading or something, essentially gave it to us. We were a one-car family at the time and with me having a 30-minute commute scheduling was kinda tricky. The blessings of a two-car family for the past 10 years have been plentiful, but it's also created it's own share of memories...


There was the time we were headed with family to take in the HersheyPark Christmas Candylane, heading over to my in-laws in Akron, we headed east on Newport Road and as we climbed the small knoll just beyond Sheetz and the Warwick Center, the transmission dropped out of gear and the engine had nothing to power.


There was the time I ran it out of gas - that was my fault.

It's had a problem starting for the past few winters. It was uncommon to see me in the church parking lot leaning under the front bumper swinging a hammer at the starter in an attempt to trigger the starter bristles - at least that's what my mechanic father-in-law said it would do.

It was without a review-view mirror since last winter, something I didn't view as a big deal, but other drivers who know me commented about it; apparently it was noticeable.

The passenger window hasn't functioned in several years. At first it was stuck about 1/8 of the way down - you definitely wanted to keep your coat on during the winter and having to scrape the frost off the outside and inside of the windshield got kind of old after a while. After repairing it a year ago, or so we thought, I had the door in pieces last week and finally resorting to wedging a 1x4 in the door to hold the window all the way up; I'm betting that winter is going to arrive eventually and it will be severe when it does.


Most recently, it's chosen to strike on cold and or damp mornings. After much coaxing it comes to life and off we go. That was until Thursday morning. Oh, it eventually went, but as I returned from Lititz having dropped Dad off at his day program, it just stopped and wouldn't resuscitate. We'll see how much more life is left in that thing.


I'd love to see a cost comparison analysis of a vehicle against a horse and buggy. My hypothesis is that when all factors are considered, they both cost about the same. I'd love to test that hypothesis. Should you see a road apple trail from my house to Grace Church, you'll know what went down.

Network problems while doing 1,000 miles an hour

I just happened, by mere chance, to catch the launch of the latest Space Shuttle mission yesterday. I've always been intrigued and/or haunted by our space program. As a 3rd grader, when I heard that Young and Crippen, the crew of the first Shuttle mission would be awakening at 4am to begin preparing for launch, without alarm or whatever, I awoke at 4am. I followed that launch and mission as much as I could. Years later, I had nightmares and trouble sleeping for a few weeks after the Challenger disaster.

While some enjoy working to the background noise of Christian radio or other music, when a mission is underway, I enjoy listening to NASA TV. For the second time while listening to their broadcast, I've heard, in real time, astronauts, orbiting several hundred miles above the earth, having computer problems. It gives me a sick sense of relief... I'm not the only one who struggles with network connectivity etc.

The best was a couple of missions ago when the astronaut was heard to say, "After getting the blue screen of death a few times..." That was the best.

My place in this world

Laying in the backyard, starring into the blue sky, watching the wispy clouds go by I pondered my insignificance in this universe.

Isaiah 40:26
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

I find such opportunities for contemplation rare, so I enjoy them all the more. The best part was sharing the moment with my 4-year old niece as we counted the leaves falling off the trees slowly helicoptering to the ground. A wonderful afternoon.

Literal or Allegorical - The Book of Job

The summer after my Junior year of Bible College, I had the opportunity to do an internship at the church that a year later would hire me as Administrator. In addition to doing a month-long study on prayer they asked me to lead their Thru the Bible Sunday School class for adults. The class consisted of several men with seminary degrees in addition to some of the more respected people in the church - and there I was, a Bible College student, whom many in the class had known as a toddler, facilitating their Sunday School class. The first book I was asked to "teach" was the Book of Job.

The crux of the study of Job is one's approach to it's interpretation, whether to take the book as a literal account of what Job experienced or as a allegory, a mere story. I devoted most, if not all of our first week of the study to covering these matters and explaining why we interpret it as a literal story.

In week two, we started into the text, verse by verse until someone, who had missed the first week, shared comments about how the book was just a story not a literal account. Unfortunately, I think this individual had a reputation for stirring things up, so within seconds I had a unhealthy exchange on my hands. The conservatively educated seminarians were jumping all over the individual about how erroneous their views were. Recognizing that the purpose of the class was not to debate the proper hermeneutic for interpreting the Book of Job, and that I was in no way qualified to handle such a matter with the individuals involved, we moved on, I let the Senior Pastor know about it the following day and let he and the Elders take it from there.

From my perspective, I'm convinced the individual was raising the view because it was all they had ever heard or been taught. Unfortunately, others in the class viewed it as an attempt to introduce errant teaching into the church. In the end, I think it all worked out, but it was a firsthand example of the importance of hermeneutics.

That should be the last post on hermeneutics for a while.

Bible College Charade

It was around 8:30 a.m., Dr. Gordon Ceperley was well into his Genesis lecture a third of the way into the semester when we were interrupted by the College Registrar, who, standing at the door asked for Mr. Neutic to step out of the classroom for a moment...

First of all, Dr. Ceperley knew his Old Testament. More precisely, he knew Genesis like the back of his hand. He lectured to us using just his Bible; no notes, no illustrations. In fact, while the syllabus laid out that we'd cover Genesis through Joshua over the course of the semester, Cep spent all but the last week or two solely in Genesis. I was privileged to have the opportunity to benefit from his wealth of knowledge about the Torah was expansive. Truth is, I was a third generation Cep pupil, my grandparents and parents were both students of his during their college years.

Now, you have to understand that Cep didn't pay much attention to the administrative details of his classes. So when he would pass out exams, he didn't account for extra copies etc. A classmate of mine, Wes, took advantage of the loophole and began taking an exam for himself and a second exam for his invisible friend. And after about a third of the semester had passed and several exams had been turned in, the Registrar came to class to seek payment from this un-enrolled student. There stood the Registrar that morning, "Would Mister Neutic, Mister Herman Neutic, please step outside for a moment."

Such is the humor among Bible college freshmen.
What I found most humorous about this charade was that Herman outperformed Wes on the exams.

A Business Manager's thoughts on tongues

Coinciding with our current Sunday series on Spiritual Gifts, Pastor Scott spent the majority of our staff meeting yesterday delving deeper into the tongues issue with the staff. As he led us in the study, several thoughts crossed my mind...

1. Grace Church's doctrinal position is based on a strict literal interpretation of scripture. I often assume that's understood, but often find that differing opinions/interpretations trace back to a difference in hermeneutics.

2. As we looked at the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, I saw some sort of relationship between the Day of Pentecost and the Tower of Babel. I don't recall reading of hearing anyone drawing any conclusions from the relationship. Here are my raw observations:

Genesis 11 -
one people
one language
one location
fear of being scattered over the face of the whole earth
wishing to make a name for themselves
the LORD came down to see the city and the tower
LORD confused their language so they wouldn't understand one another's speech
LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth

Acts 2 -
disciples were all in one location
"...and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
the Holy Spirit filled each disciple
the commotion of the noise caused people assemble
every nation under heaven was represented
each one hearing them (the disciples) speak in their own language/dialect
Holy Spirit allowed each person to hear in their birth tongue "the mighty deeds of God"
Spirit allowed them to speak in other languages

Language was central in both events and both scenarios involve a dispersion.
Genesis 11 is a physical dispersion of people while Acts 2 is a spiritual and physical dispersion of the local church.

There were significant forces of power involved in both accounts. The people power exhibited in Genesis 11, based on the scriptural account, was incredibly powerful "...and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them" (Genesis 11:6). I noted in my Bible some time ago, what could believers accomplish if we did not allow Satan to drive us apart? That small section of verse 6 amazes me. On the other side, the power of the Holy Spirit, exhibited in Acts 2 was a powerful force.

Side note: it's interesting, now several thousand years later, that Genesis 11:4 is still true of mankind today, "...let us build for ourselves... a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name..."

That's all I've got so far. No doubt it's raw and I have yet to extract anything further than these observations.

3. Before the Bible was completed, the Gospel message needed to validated or in Business Manager terms, notarized. Through Jesus' ministry and the early ministry of the Apostles, the primary purpose of signs and wonders was to notarized Jesus, His message and the message of the Apostles. Today, the Bible is our notary. Which takes us very close to being back at point number 1 listed above.

Bring your Box Tops and Soup Labels to Grace

You can help the Grace Education Ministries by bringing Box Tops and Soup Labels to the church. Each Box Top and soup label earns money for our education ministries. They are great programs (both our educational ministries and the box top/soup label programs).


Of course, there was a time when you needed to send in the entire box top. Now, you just need to clip out a small square of the box top. Oh, but it's not always on the box top. On Kleenex tissues, you're actually sending in a piece of the box BOTTOM. And Cottonelle toilet paper isn't even packaged in a BOX!

That's what happens we you hold a strict literal hermeneutic.

Contacting missionaries in the new millenium

I remember my parents and brother sitting around a cassette recorder with a microphone recording tapes to send to grandparents in the US... awaiting the latest aerogramme from Grandma or Oma... urgent messages with stops interspersed coming via telegram... and in the most rare of occassions, sitting by a phone waiting countless of hours to get a line and even then, the connection was so poor you thought you could hear the schools of fish inevitably swimming around the wire that was likely traversing the ocean floor. Such were the overseas communication channels of the past.


In this day, those channels have been replaced primary by email, more dependable phone connections and the internet. I find I have to consciously remember that today's technologies bring our overseas contacts closer than ever and to take advantage of them.


I'm initiating at least montly communication attempts between our church staff and the families we support in faraway lands. Two weeks ago we tried the Weaver's, they were out that day, so we were only able to leave a voicemail message. Friday, we rang the Becker's and were able to talk with them for close to 30 minutes. Next, we'll attempt to connect with the Beuggert's.

This past Sunday, the Next Tier ABF talked with Mike and Joan who are in Cambodia right now. They had a conference call with the whole class that apparently went very well. So whether it's an ABF, the Missions Team or some other where two-or-three are gathered, don't miss out on the opportunity to connect and encourage others.


If you haven't discovered it yet, the internet based communication progam, Skype, is a very user friendly and reliable system. It's been around for a while, so I'm behind the curve having just activated it in the past two weeks, but it's been very effective thus far. Calls between Skype users (I've seen as many as 9 million of them online at one time) are free. I connected with a college friend who's serving in Paraguay on Wednesday. The line was clear as day, as if he was only in Ephrata. In fact, I have contacts in Lancaster County, who for bizarre reasons I don't understand, have to pay a toll call to call me at home. I hope to get them Skyping with me.


We need to maximize today's technologies to maintain, if not deepen, our relationships with our missionary families.

Is it time to accept ATM cards?

Close to 7-8 years ago was the first time I was asked to consider some type of giving outside of the traditional cash/check being placed in the offering plate. The worshipful act of giving has gotten a bad reputation, sometimes overshadowed by desperate pleas to make ends meet, rather than emphasizing it in proportion with the amount of emphasis we place on prayer, signing and other elements of worship. And like them, there's something to be said for doing it corporately instead of in seclusion. Like prayer and signing, there's a place for giving in solitude. I have some intense sessions of prayer in quiet seclusion with no one around and I've belted out hymns, choruses and other sounds in the confines of my blue van that brought the roof lining down - literally. But I'm convinced that God's uniquely created corporate worship to be something special and that goes for giving too. That's been my hang up. Allowing ATM/Debit/Credit card giving opens us up to allowing giving outside of the corporate worship.

The corporate worship issue is my biggest problem with the idea. Secondarily, I'm uncomfortable opening up the possibility that someone can charge their gift to a credit card. I question the financial practice of putting a gift to God on credit. And if you use a cash back or rewards card, would the gifts to the church count toward your cash back/rewards points? This just opens up too many issues, maybe my analysis paralysis has kicked in again.

I'm well aware of the increased convenience to all of us. Goodness, I've heard countless stories of how churches actually receive more money once they make the switch. But it's not about the money, it's about your life and your relationship with Our Saviour.

But, when more and more establishments accept plastic the pressure to adapt is building. Did you ever imagine McDonald's would take cards? I myself rarely carry cash. I'm sure there are many people for whom their check to Grace Church is the only check they write each month.

So, if you attend Grace on a regular basis, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Locating the Lost & Found

The merger of entities that weren't separate in the first place - I'm so appreciative of the ground we've covered at Grace in the past two years, but it really is comical when you look in the rear view mirror. We were one entity to begin with, Grace Church with Early Childhood, Children's, Youth, Adult, Deacon and Missions ministries as well as daycare and Christian School ministries. But to just about everyone we operated and appeared to be independent, separated-at-birth relatives. We had 3 of everything - a very strict application of the Trinity in every aspect of what we did. Three receptionists, three lunch rooms, three, three, three, even three different lost and founds - ALL IN ONE BUILDING!!! And so, for the past two years and still on going, we've merged that which wasn't separated in the first place. And with it we now have one single lost and found.

The lost and found, in case you're looking for something you think you've lost at Grace Church, is located off of the ABF/Sunday School hallway intersection. It's the maintenance room that's across from the library and also across from the water fountain at the intersection.

We've cracked down on hallway clutter this school year, so hallways are being cleared nightly of coats hanging on coat racks, as well as books and other items left out that shouldn't be. We want the building to have a positive appearance 24x7, so you may need to check the lost and found more often. Now you know where it is.

Fightin' Phils Memories and Scars

I view much of my childhood in 4-year increments, divided by one year stays in the US for home service. The one-year stays tend to blend together for some reason, so I identify them by major events of that particular year.
1990-91: Manuel Noriega turned himself in
1985-86: Challenger Disaster
1980-81: Phillies won the World Series

The fervor of the past week has brought the memories of the 1980 Phillies to the forefront of my mind once again.

In grade 3 at the time, I don't recall much of the playoff run. I think I was usually in bed by the time the games were getting interesting. I recall struggling to fall asleep during one of the World Series games because I was so curious as to what was happening in the game, but that's the extent of what I recollect firsthand. Though I don't think I watched or listened to many of the games that season, several, if not many of the calls of the game are permanently etched in my mind.

Just before we returned to Philippines, a family friend gave me a cassette tape that told the story of the 1980's Phillies with actual game audio interpersed throughout. With baseball not being a sport heard of in the Philippines at the time that tape was my connection to the sport. I listened and played the tape constantly, on par with the frequency my nephews today watch a Veggie-tale or Bob The Builder episode. That much repitition has a tendency to etch itself into memory. In my teen years I must've lost the tape or recorded over it; one way or another it's gone. I've even searched without success for the album on the internet.

The last time the Phillies won the Eastern Division, I was in college. The scar of Joe Carter's home run is still there. Of course, our new Pastor Tim, the Canuck that he is, found himself on the winning end that year.

Will it be new memories or scars that will be created in the coming days?

Thank you for calling Grace Ministries, how can I help you?

If you haven't experienced it already, the next time you call Grace Church, you'll be greeted on the phone with, "Thank you for calling Grace Ministries, how can I help you?" As part of the merger that really isn't a merger, we've consolidated the phone answering duties to one position. That means Charlene and Megan answer all phone calls that come to our facility - daycare calls, school calls and church calls. Last time I checked, we average just over 100 income phone calls a day. To emphasize our being one ministry, it seemed logical to refer to all that we do as Grace Ministries.

Anticipating your next call, Charlene and Megan await the opportunity to greet you with, "Thank you for calling Grace Ministries, how can I help you?"

Free WIFI in and around Lititz, PA

A staff member and I were conversing the other day about free WIFI areas suitable for working out of the office. They were thinking of heading down to Panera Bread toward Lancaster. But I shared of WIFI locations I had learned of in and around Lititz. Do you know of others?

Giant Food Store at the Shoppes of Kissel Hill - They've put in a adequately decorated indoor/outdoor cafe that serves Bucks County Coffee, has nice seating areas that appear comfortable and a picturesque fire place.

Brick House Cafe two blocks north of the square in Manheim - a relatively new coffee shop that serves sandwiches and wraps, has a hodge-podge of indoor seating with a second floor seating as well, in addition to a small serene outdoor seating area.

Starbucks at the Shoppes of Kissel Hill - I'm assuming they offer WIFI as 'Bucks has the reputation for offering it at every store, but I can't say I've confirmed it. Their seating area leaves a lot to be desired, especially needing more seats, but I bet you could be in Saladworks and still get a signal. Not that Saladworks is a cozier environment.

Elementary Hallway at Grace Church - Yeah, we've actually offered free WIFI in the elementary classroom hallway since 2000. The signal doesn't reach too far beyond that hallway, but for what it's worth, it's there.

Those are the WIFI hot spots that I know of, can you think of others?

Bringing pets to Grace Church

Did you see the Golden Retriever in church a few weeks ago? One of the families in our body is training a dog to be a seeing-eye dog and asked for permission to bring the dog with the to church for exposure to people.

With a daycare and school, and the potential allergies of the children in our care, we have to be cognizant of the animals that enter our facility. Anytime you wish to bring an animal into our building, we ask that you seek approval from Rick Bernhardt, Pastor Scott or myself. This should not be misconstrued as an anti-animal stance. We are very fond of animals and feel they play a vital part in the education of children so long as the allergen concerns of each child are addressed in advance... thus the need to request in advance prior to bringing your animal to the building.

A mug, 32 packets of gelatin, 1 pack of lime jello

Should you happen to forget a common item in my office, you never know where it might end up...

Tuesday's with Lenny: Ephrata Fair

Dad must've heard an add on WDAC for an upcoming fair or something which prompted him to request that we check one out. If you've never found it, the Pennsylvania State Association of County Fairs is a great website for finding fair dates. In fact, until only recently, I insisted that the local fairs be listed on the master calendar at church due to the impact fairs have on week-night ministry attendance.

We headed out to the Ephrata Fair this evening right after leaving work. Beth and I had checked the fair out several years ago, so this wasn't my first experience. I'm really intrigued at the cultural similarities though physically they're miles apart - Fiesta in the farming town I grew up in the Philippines and the fairs of Lancaster County are eerily similar. Then again, Roots Country Market is almost exactly identical to the town market of Labo; Labo's just has a better fish section... smells worse and has more flies than Roots. Other than that, you could click and drag one market or fair from one country and drop it in the other and you'd see very few differences. So we headed to Ephrata for Fiesta...

Dad and I walked as much of the fair as we could discover. We happened upon the Cornerstone Mennonite Church booth. I was well on my way to keep walking by, but Dad stopped to talk. See, close to 30 years ago he participated in a similar type of church outreach at the Princeton Shopping Center handing out copies of the New Testament. About eight years later Dad was at Washington Bible College recruiting future missionaries and had a conversation with an individual who, upon being asked how he came to know Christ, shared a story about accepting Christ when talking with a group that was handing out New Testaments at the Princeton Shopping Center. The guy returned from his dorm room with the New Testament he received that day with the church's name imprinted on the back. The whole point of this is, Dad stopped at every church booth we passed Tuesday night, Cornerstone, the Bereans and the Gideons to share this story with them. He saw an opportunity to encourage them and seized it. Dad's abilities are limited, but it's not keeping him from constantly on the look for where God is working and how he can become a part of what God's up to. All the while I've got my head on a swivel to identify the nearest restroom and contemplating other matters...

The children's rides amuse me. I was so tempted to ask one of the operators how frequently their ride is inspected and what organization certifies them. As I watched little kids plunging up and down, riding in circles or teens on the ferris wheel, I'm checking my mobile phone and identifying the nearest cross street, at the ready to dial 9-1-1 and state the position of the accident.

And what's with the fish?!? You'd think PETA would be flipping out over the cruelty to those gilly-scaled creatures crammed in itty-bitty living spaces with vibrantly colored water.

Oh, and I'd love to see the financial statements of the whole deal. Like how much income do all of the game booths generate? And the operators, do they have a day job? What about the electric, I noticed the trunk lines running across streets etc.; how much electric does a fair consume?

I haven't frequented the area fairs enough to observe whether the same stands move from one fair to the next or whether you get different rides and food stands at each or not.

I enjoyed myself, finally getting the pulled-pork bbq sandwich I missed out on at the Rodeo. We sat by a ATM machine that apparently had an appetite having eaten the ATM cards of 4-5 people in a row. The day the fair starts taking cards is the day we'll start accepting cards at Grace. Actually, I'll come back to that topic in an upcoming post.

Dad faired well. Like clockwork, his medications slumped just after dinner time, but trooper that he is, he chose to press on and not miss out on the festivities. Food is amazing motivation. On our way out, we passed the U.S. Marines booth. Dad stopped there too to thank the Marine for his service to our country and his already three tours in Iraq. I hope I'm as tenacious in seeking out ways to encourage others in spite of the hand I'm dealt.

Tuesday's with Lenny

On Tuesday nights during the school year, Beth has rehearsal with the Ephrata Cloister Chorus, so except for when I have an Elder Executive Committee meeting to attend, I often spend Tuesday nights with my Dad.

Growing up, Dad and I didn't have the closest of Father/Son relationships and heading off to boarding school when I entered grade 4 didn't help. I can't imagine how difficult that was for my parents. Until that fateful Sunday night, one of my Dad's traditions with his two sons was to tell us purple squirrel stories. It was only when my parents dropped us off at the dorm that afternoon that it dawned on me that the purple squirrel tradition would end. Lovingly, Dad spend the better part of an hour walking around the yard, recording installments for us to listen to each night on a tape recorder. I don't know to this day whether that was premeditated or not. Sadly, we only listened to one or two episodes; it just didn't fit in with the dorm schedule and I let other interests invade my time. Never would I have guess that 20+ years later, we'd be where we are today.

Since Dad's moved in with us, coming up on 3 years ago now, I've had a lot of opportunities to share new experiences with him as we've traveled to doctor appointments, worked on getting his business matters in order and also pursued items of interest. He's not the man I knew growing up, the shell is the same, but his capacities are but a fragment of what was. Even so, we're able to experience things together and weld a relationship together.

And so many Tuesday's during the school year, Dad and I are doing something together. Last night, we took in the Ephrata Fair - more about that next time...

A silhouette against The Son

I don't consider myself a morning person, but I find the crack of dawn to be one of the most beautiful times of the day. I just marvel at the spectacularity of God and His creation. As I took a moment to ponder daybreak this morning the normally vibrant and colorful plants, trees and fowl were degraded to mere silhouettes, unique in their own right, but devoid of their wonder, overpowered by the magnificence of the rising sun. It dawned on me that we too will be eclipsed and a mere silhouette in the glory of the Risen Son!

Is our love for God evident in everything?

"When you do not pay your bills, you're marketing. When you do not cut your grass, you're marketing. ...You are shaping perception in the hearts and minds of your members and your target community..." Richard L. Reising

We're pretty good at paying our bills on time, and we're doing our best to keep the grass mowed, but I admit the exterior of our property doesn't reflect how much we love God and His people. If you'd like to help us in that cause, contact me.

Do you call Him LORD or Lord?

Ever notice when reading your Bible that you see Lord printed in all uppercase or small caps sometimes? As we print the Bible passage for the bulletin each week, we try to maintain the exact same printing as you'll find in your published Bible and that regularly means manually adjusting Lord using the small caps font feature in our publishing software. The English alphabet/language (who am I to be dissecting English?) doesn't convey the nuances of the Hebrew language like Hebrew text does; for one, English has fewer names for God than Hebrew does.

One minor tidbit I picked up in Bible College is that anytime you see LORD in all caps/small caps, it's specifically referring to YHWH or YAHWEH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton. From the Preface to the New International Version, "...the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering that name as "LORD" in capital letters to distinguish it from Adonai, another Hebrew word rendered "Lord," for which small letters are used.

The profs in Bible College also stressed that anytime we referenced to the books with numbers that we specifically use numerical numbers and NOT roman numerals such as 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings as opposed to I and II Samuel and I and II Kings. Though why this was stressed I'm still trying to figure out. Until I do, I won't require such usages in the Sunday bulletin, but we do attempt to faithfully reproduce the scripture text as accurately as possible.

Strengths & Weaknesses

I've been thinking about my strengths and weaknesses. I've looked to improve the areas that I've considered to be my weaknesses. In school, the classes in which I received lower grades were the classes I focused on more deliberately in my studies. In sports, the weaknesses of my soccer game have been the areas I've worked on. I've been challenged to look at that in reverse - focus on extending my strengths. The theory is that I have weaknesses because I'm not good at them. Concede that, cut the losses and invest my energies in the areas where I'm good. I've been chewing on this paradigm shift for a while; it's intriguing.

I don't like the light this perspective casts on our weaknesses. It's biased toward strengths, as if that's the only good each of us has to offer to God and His world. From a human mindset, sure, that make sense, but we don't operate in a human-mindset controlled world. Our weaknesses are equally powerful - that sounds hilarious, but as I've thought about so many Bible characters (Aaron, Moses, the disciples, among so many), I see characters with weaknesses that God specifically selected to exploit for His use. God called upon men who were self-proclaimed poor public speakers to speak to His nation. He called upon fishermen to record His message for all mankind.

Yes, I think there's tremendous value in me looking for ways in which God might be challenging me to offer my strengths to further His Kingdom in new and different ways. And yes, to look to do the same for those I oversee. But, even though it goes against rational thinking, to use weaknesses as the sole reason for not giving anyone the opportunity to participate just doesn't sit right with me.

People fascinate me

It all started at a seminar I attended recently, I've been thinking every now and then about the things that I love doing and the things I loathe doing. My wife and I were picking up some groceries the other day and ran into an acquaintance from church. We conversed for several minutes, catching up on what was happening in the person's life... new job, new school, kid growing up etc. I walked away feeling encouraged and uplifted. I was hardly the topic of the discussion, in fact, I'm not even sure they asked how my wife and I were doing, but I came away excited.

People just fascinate me. I enjoy hearing their stories, where they've been, where they're going and what's going on in their lives. My encouragement stems from seeing firsthand evidence of how God is working in their lives.

I love people.