Trolling blogs for information

I formally counted it up recently, I'm tracking 149 RSS feeds. The majority of those are blog sites, but ESPN and the New York Times headlines are also included. Some of the sites I track are feeds of a friend or family member's online photo albums. There's a group of them that are technology related, gossip about Apple and what their latest secret project will be, reviews of new technology products etc. I also follow several Pastors and others who serve in churches across the country. Understand, that with RSS, I'm selective of what I actually read and what I skip. But it is true, I troll 149 blogs on a regular basis.



Interesting discovery about my Administering Grace blog, excluding those who visit the main page on a regular basis, the most visited individual post on my site is Literal or Allegorical - The Book of Job generated by people who are Google searching Job Allegory Literal. I would've never expected that. Maybe I need to expand on the literal interpretation of Job further.

NEXT TIME: Good to Great Quotes

Ministry Partners: Grace Church & Camp Conquest

I had lunch recently with Mike Gehlert, Camp Director of Camp Conquest. Mike shared some encouraging information with me.

• Of the approximate 550 total registrations for the various programs of Camp Conquest, 116, roughly 20% of the registrations indicated Grace Church as their home church.


• In 2007, ninety-three individuals formally volunteered their time at the camp logging 9,488 hours of volunteer service; and that's just the hours Mike could account for.


• Camp Conquest is scheduled to host two Grace Church ministry excursions in 2008: the Women's Graceful Scrappers weekend away and the Men's Retreat.


• Four of the Camp Conquest Board Members consider Grace to be their home church.

I appreciate the ministry of Camp Conquest and the partnership that exists between Grace and the Camp. The strong connection is evident in that we don't just support the camp by sending them money, the body of believers of Grace send their children to the camp and invest their time serving at the camp. It's a wonderful partnership.

Make sure your seat is in the upright position

Without the customary safety instruction card, the steward(ess) demonstrating the proper operation of a seat belt buckle or the pilot announcing that all electrical devices be turned off... I didn't know quite what to do at the outset of today's flight (That's an exaggeration, but it sets up the rest of the post).



Jay and I had our mobile phones with us and with no reminder from pilot, we left them on during the entire flight (maybe that's why we ended up in Harrisburg... just kidding). At an altitude of 1,400 feet, circling over Grace Church, Jay's phone rang.



It was the daycare, a toilet was clogged or something like that.



And with that, Jay jumped, parachuted onto the soccer field and got right to unplugging the commode. Barring any other emergency meetings tomorrow that steal the show, I'll share about Camp Conquest.

An anxious-generating surprise

Dear Staff Members:

I am needing to call an emergency staff meeting for this Monday, March 10, beginning @ 9am around the conference table in the church office. Something has come UP that could greatly affect our upcoming 4 events (Women’s Event, Egg Hunt, Good Friday Worship, and Easter). It is important that I am able to share these details with you all at the same time.

The administrative staff from the school/daycare have not been invited to this meeting nor has any church staff member who does not work in the office as it only directly affects the church staff who work in the office on a day to day basis. As a result, this meeting is mandatory for those receiving this e-mail. If you do not normally work on Monday mornings, you do not need to come in for this meeting unless you want to. The only exception to this is Megan…if you could be there it would be greatly helpful for both receptionists to be at this meeting. I have already asked Rick Bernhardt to have the school cover the phones and doors during this time so that both Charlene and Megan can attend the meeting.

I know all of you are busy right now but I need you to set this time aside. I’m not sure how long this meeting will take so please keep the better part of that morning clear just in case. We will keep the office window closed that morning until after our meeting is done. Please do not ask me what the meeting is about in advance as that would put me in an awkward position. I honestly can’t make any announcement before Monday morning as I will not know all of the circumstances until just prior to our 9am meeting.

Thank you!
Scott


That's the message we all received last Wednesday morning. The varied reactions/responses of staff members reveals that for those who've been on staff at Grace for a decade or more, there are still tender spots from past wounds. Emergency meetings usually don't involve good news or happy surprises. I know I lost a lot of sleep over the past week as I fought to keep my mind from speculating about what could be wrong. I attempted not to conduct a full FBI analysis-parsing of each verb, font usage, let alone reading between the lines - having to write similar notices at various times, I know I don't appreciate it when a message gets dissected - but it turns out there were clues embedded in the message.

As the caravan headed south on Rt 501 this morning, the speculation mounted. "I think we're going to the airport where there will be a helicopter that will be used to drop the Easter Eggs from the sky for Saturday's Egg Hunt." I could corroborate that there were two helicopters at the airport this morning that I hadn't seen before.

I learned quickly that bosses prefer as few surprises as possible and that I don't like them either. Due to confidentiality matters, surprises are inevitable and you learn to deal with them. Turns out all of my internal turmoil was completely unnecessary. The "UP" in the original message as indeed intended as a clue. 'Course, I figured it had to be a good news emergency meeting with the tease that went out in Pastor Scott's email update on Monday morning. I guess, though it was just a 10-15 minute flight around Lititz, I'll be suffering jet lag this week from all the sleep I lost in anxious anticipation. The loss of sleep was worth the exhilaration of being in the air on a work day with my co-workers.

How cool a boss do we have that he arranged for each of us to fly over Lititz for the purpose of seeing a birds-eye view of the people we are trying to reach?

He'd actually attempted to give us a celebratory day off after Easter as well; but he hadn't realized that we get a Easter holiday anyway, rendering the day off idea moot. I hated sharing that news with him because I knew he was attempting to show appreciation to all of us.

No doubt about it, Grace is a fascinating place to work and God has assembled a unique team that takes each of our ministries and responsibilities seriously, but at the same time, we know how to have fun. I don't know many places that are given a morning off to go for an airplane ride on a Monday morning.

A Future in Flying?

I wonder if flying is in my future? There was the JAARS flight last summer which I chronicled in an earlier post and just last week I had a fascinating conversation with an American Airlines pilot who was at the school for Career Day. And today we were surprised with a short flight around Lititz. Each conversation, each flight keeps feeding this yearning I have to fly. Here's what the church looked like from around 1,400 feet...

Jodi, Charlene and Jay were in the plane during our flight. Jodi was in the co-pilot seat, Jay and I were next to each other facing the rear of the aircraft and Charlene was at the back facing us (she was the easiest to capture on camera).

Pastoral Impersonations

At a conference I attended several years ago, Ed Young, Jr. did great impersonations of Joel Osteen and Bishop Jakes. He pulled the Osteen impersonation out again at the C3 Conference a few weeks ago. It's always good to start the week on a light note!

Hacking BibleGateway.com

I've always liked a good practical joke. The challenge with practical jokes is knowing where the line of demarcation is that indicates when the joke has gone too far. I do not condone hacking into someone else's website and this crossed the line because of it's global ramifications, but there was a funny side to it.

http://mondaymorninginsight.com/index.php/site/comments/hacker_attacks_biblegatewaycom_switches_kjv_and_amplified_bible/

Imploding Churches

To my knowledge, the churches in Antioch, Jerusalem, Ephesus and the others mentioned in the New Testament, are long since gone. I wonder what led to their demise. Whatever the cause, they eventually ceased to exist.


I know of a recent church (not in our area) that blew up over how to handle an unruly child that was disruptive during the worship services. The Pastor of eight years is gone, the congregation split and the ministry has deteriorated. Like any living organism, it doesn't take much to suck the life out of a church and kill it in an instant.


In recent years, two friends of mine who Pastored churches, saw the O-rings of their ministry erode to result in a cataclismic explosion. Fortunately, they and their families have weathered the collateral damage and God's plugging them into new avenues and channels of His global work. But their experiences have made me very aware of the reality of church ministry.


Without the grace of God, the unity of the local church is susceptable to fraction and in the cases I've seen, it's often a simple little rubber O-ring that's the root cause of the major explosion, not a large issue. Thus every issue must matter and be handled with enormous amounts of prayer. And any time the unity of the church is threatened, a proportional response is necessitated.


Here's the latest illustration in my growing file on the topic.


O-ring references... see the NASA Challenger disaster


Have a great weekend!

Input statistics: Giving and Attendance

The response to the McWorship series, otherwise known as an expository study of Malachi, was overwhelming; the Super Size challenge in particular. It might be helpful to put that response in perspective.


The Super Size Sunday offering was roughly four times the amount of our regular weekly offerings; from July through the end of December, average weekly offerings are around $44,000.


Giving is tracking about 12% ahead of giving for the same period a year ago.


Attendance is tracking about 2% ahead of attendance for the same period a year ago.


The last time we saw giving growing at a higher rate than attendance was in 2004, just as we entered a strong attendance growth period. Eventually, I'm going to get around to explaining why I think that giving and attendance tracking, while important, are not the measure of a church's health and what measures I'll be using to assess the health of Grace.


NEXT TIME: Imploding Churches

Another reason to get a pickup

Putting Super-Size Sunday in context was pre-empted by unusual circumstances this afternoon...

I was transacting some paperwork with one of my co-workers when I heard Gene's voice in the lobby, "Where's Andrew, Andrew's gonna want to know this..." With curiousity piqued I met Gene at the door. "You're about to lose a light pole in the parking lot, there's a semi truck about to run it over." And such began an entertaining hour or so of my afternoon today since it was but 30 minutes before classes let out and that of course is the main entrance parents and school buses use for picking up their kids.

The rest of the story... it was the truck driver's first day. He was enroute to the Johnson & Johnson plant to pick up a load, new to the area he apparently missed their entrance and had hoped to turn around in our parking lot. In his words, "he misjudged the turn". He was on the phone with 9-1-1 when I reached him, of course, he couldn't tell them his location. While a tow truck was dispatched the Police arrived. We all stood around and looked at the situation for about 20 minutes just waiting. Then David took a look at things (he's in the white shirt)...




photos courtesy of Elaine

Even the Policemen told him his truck couldn't do it, 'course with David, you tell him something can't be done and that just increases his resolve (see Christmas Walk-Thru, Beach Blast and now At the Hop). So ended an entertaining hour of my afternoon. Who knows what will be next.

The light pole is fine and unscathed, but the berm is ready for spring planting.

NEXT TIME: Putting Super-Size Sunday in Context

Car search

We tried a Ford Crown Victoria for a weekend, a V8, rear-wheel drive beast of a car that made me feel like my Opa (he loved driving his 1967 Chrysler Imperial). Each time I looked over at Beth in the passenger seat, I'd bust out in laughter at the picture of the two of us in this boat of a vehicle. Though the kick of putting the accelerator to the floor and sensation of being thrust back into the seat was a thrill ride, I didn't want the liability of rear-wheel drive in poor weather. After looking at some Buick's and an Impala, on a whim I thought I'd look at a used Cadillac, naive as to whether it was even remotely in our price range.

We tried a 2004 Cadillac Deville for a day, never anticipating how much I'd enjoy it. My brother and I derogatorily referred to Cadillacs in our younger years as Fladilcats, but recent friends have touted their benefits and started to win me over; the test drive sealed the deal. Though less than a foot shorter than the Crown Vic, the Deville drove like a much smaller car. I was infatuated by the luxury and blinded by the emotions not only of driving such a car, but of looking at it parked in the parking lot. In the end, I pried the keys out of my grip and returned it to the dealer. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do in recent memory. Returning to the blue van was never such a let down and that thing felt like such a huge pile of sheet metal.

It's rare that I allow myself such indulgences and frankly, the Deville experience freaked me out. It was clearly beyond our needs, exceeded our price range, though it was a good deal for a used one. The feelings it generated in me were deceptive. For once I felt like I was driving a car with status, not just a four wheel transportation device. As a speaker I heard this week affirmed, our vehicles are not status symbols, there just cars to help us get from here to there. I had lost that mentality.

We ended up with a base model 2004 Impala. It runs and hopefully will take us 174,000 miles like the van did though I'd love to take a pickup 1,000,000 miles.

NEXT TIME: Putting Super-Size Sunday in context

It's out in the recycling

We owe Dan and Lynn Libby one gargantuan thank you...

The night before leaving for Dallas, I picked my Dad up with the blue van and took him to the facility he'd be staying at while I was away. The battery had drained on the vehicle, an unidentifiable electrical problem that had plagued it for the past four years, requiring a jump to get it started after the weekend, so for fear that I couldn't get it to start again, I left it running the entire hour or so that I got Dad settled. With Dad I settled, I pulled out of the parking lot to discover the van had leaked a nice sized puddle of dirty oil. She was bleeding, severe internal bleeding.

We'd anticipated that this day was drawing near and had been courting a replacement, so we weren't caught off guard. But it was clear that there wasn't much life left in the once beautiful machine that was now a blue bomb. And so, after 234,xxx miles, the blue van has made its last official voyage.

We laughed unabashedly in the face of the auto dealers who questioned whether we'd be trading in our current vehicle, with us insisting that our vehicle had absolutely no worth. It's final trip will be to the recycling yard to be turned into scrap.

It has completed it's service to us, having taken us about 100,000 miles ourselves, in addition to the 100,000 the Libby's traveled in it. Dan and Lynn sold it to us for $1 some 11 years ago. We owe them a gargantuan Thank You!

Adjusting to jet lag or the end of daylight saving time

Daylight saving time begins this Sunday at 2am - don't forget to set your clocks forward otherwise when you'd planned to attend the first service, you'll arrive just in time for Pastor Scott's last message point or two.


I dread this week. While there are lots of American's who've never travelled far enough to experience jet lag, in reality, most American's already have in the form of daylight saving time. For once, I'm going to employ the gameplan I worked up several years ago.


Beginning Tuesday morning, I'll be awakening 15 minutes earlier than my usual wake up time. For security reasons, I can't post the exact time here. Wednesday morning, I'll awak another 15 minutes earlier than I did on Tuesday. Same thing Thursday and Friday, so that by Saturday, I'll be awakening an hour earlier than normal and will have shifted to daylight saving time gradually as opposed to cold turkey.


Hey, some guys can obsess about showers others can obsess about numbers.

BTW, if you haven't checked it out yet, head over to blog.lgbc.org to read and/or post your testimony of how God has been faithful through times of pain and heartache in your life.


NEXT TIME: What happened to the blue van?

How God has been working among the Elders

There have been occasions when the hours after an Elder meeting were some of the most discouraging and frustrating hours of my week. But I'm ecstatic to say that for the past several years I've experienced the complete opposite with last night being the latest episode.


I come away from Elder meetings today inspired and motivated by the men who serve with us. Our partnership is tighter than I've seen in my decade of serving with them. Last night, I sought their feedback on a decision I have to make and to a man, each of them challenged me to take courage and boldness in following God's leading. Tim and me reflected on the moment after the meeting concluded and reminded ourselves of the number of times we've heard of or seen firsthand Elder boards that were reluctant in leadership and wishy-washy about what God was calling the church to do.


I appreciate each of them for their humility, their understanding as to what God has them to do and their passion to follow that calling each step of the way. Their recognition that their sinners saved by Grace, just like the next person and their complete reliance on Our Savior.


Like many other aspects of our ministry, our staff/Elder partnership is not the norm. I consider it a real privilege to have the kind of relationship we have with one another and feel truly blessed by it; I don't take it for granted.


So as I drove home from last night's meeting, my heart was filled with joy as I contemplated all that God is doing and my mind was excitedly filled with ideas of all the things I need to be working on next in pursuit of serving the Lord.



COMING UP NEXT: Adjusting to daylight saving time one day at a time

His Word will not return void

It started in August 2004 and now, three plus years later, it's continuing. In my bi-weekly meeting with Pastor Scott this week, we found ourselves once again reflecting on all that God is doing in our midst and the way the Holy Spirit is prompting people to respond to God's Word. It's incredible in and of itself. That it has continued at a sustained rate, if not an increasing rate, is unbelievable. Though our combined ministry experience of several decades isn't even a hash mark on God's timeline, I can't tell you the number of times we've remarked to each other about how we've never seen believers respond in the way the people of Grace have been responding.


Each exegetical study has produced fruit. Each of us examines our lives and strives, going to great lengths, to apply the lesson(s) to allow the Holy Spirit to mold us closer into the image of Christ. All fulfilling God's promise that His Word will not return void. I've just never experienced it to the extent we've seen.

COMING UP NEXT: How God has been working amongst the Elders

C3 Notes

If you want to catch the highlights of most of the speakers from last week's conference, Tony Morgan was one of several who blogged throughout the sessions. In case you're interested...



Ed Young, Jr's session 1



Ed Young, Jr's session 2



Mac Richard - something was up with this session as it started 45 minutes late, but we never heard what went down. My behind the scenes logistics curiosity would love to know.



Perry Noble



Brian Huston



Tommy Barnett



Bishop T.D. Jakes



For me, the most powerful lesson came out of one of Bishop Jake's messages. Using the account of the Last Supper, he applied it to each of our lives... how like the bread, God took us, blessed us, broke us and gave us. The light bulb went on (you could literally hear people connect the dots across the room like a wave) as Bishop walked us through the stories of Jesus, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and several other Biblical characters we all know so well and illuminated how in each instance, God took them, blessed them, broke them and gave them - with specific emphasis on how God wasn't able to fully utilize each character until they'd become completely broken.

Deployments

With close to three hours to burn once we arrived at DFW for our return flight to Harrisburg, I found myself at one of my favorite places with a lot of time on my hands. Since I was but a few years old, I've enjoyed watching airplanes. In fact, I have a memory of going to the Princeton Airport one afternoon when I was two or three. So spent the three hours I had at DFW walking the concourses and riding the SkyLink. All in all, I walked from gate B6 to B33 and then from B6 to gate D12 and rode the SkyLink close to three times around the entire DFW terminal. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

In addition to helping a couple of foreigners figure out the slightly confusing SkyLink system, I also watched a US Army unit head out for deployment. I'd never seen a unit head out on a commercial flight, so the sight of the concourse crowded with about 100 personnel in desert fatigues was impressive.

If I have my data right, two individuals connected with Grace deploy today: Larry and Barnaby. Regardless of your stance on the political side of things, be praying for all of our military personnel as they serve our country.

Please join with us in prayer

Pray with us and for us. God has and continues to apparently equip us for something we've yet to identify. Trusting that He's always at work around us and that He'll eventually lead us to a point that requires faith and action; please pray with us that God would open our eyes to where He is working and how He wants us to join Him and use us in what He's doing.

It's both an exciting and frightening position in which we find ourselves. So, continually pray!

Visions of air travel and worship juxtaposed

Hoards and hoards of people travelling thousands of thousands of miles a day.
Craft travelling at hundreds of miles an hour.
Lines and lines of travellers waiting to board airplanes and before that, waiting half dressed and barefoot to go through security check points.

As we experienced all the joys of domestic travel last week, I turned to Scott saying, "This is exactly what the Wright brothers envisioned during their 30-second glide on the beach." And yet, there are church movements today that are equally foreign when compared to that first church in Acts.

Growing up I attended churches that employed a traditional style of worship. Of course, spending several years in another culture, I was exposed to other styles and means of worship which broadened my perspective and appreciation for the universal church. And as new songs have been used in worship, I've come to appreciate the new styles that have come with them. But, the multi-sensory, experiential worship style makes me feel very old. I'm just not comfortable with it yet.

If the Wright's had known that their innovation would eventually restrict everyone to carrying only three ounces of liquids they may have scrapped their endeavors all together.

The thing is, in His omniscience, God knew His church would be where it is today and He knows where it will be tomorrow and He knew where it was over 2,000 years ago. And for some reason, God decided that where things were 2,000 years ago was the right timing for sending His Savior. Recollecting my Bible readings, I can't think of a reason why the years of silence between Malachi and Matthew had to be 400 years as opposed to 2,000 years of silence. Though it won't matter in eternity, I wonder why He chose to rebuke the religious peoples of that time period as opposed to sending His Son today or sending Him for the yet to be fulfilled second time.

Theme song and another lesson

I realize this evening that two items of note had gotten lost in, as Scott has proclaimed, my Elephant brain. Though chronologically out of order, I couldn't resist leaving these undocumented...

I was the last of our group through the enjoyable encounter every air traveler today experiences with the wonderful people at the Transportation Security Agency. And after frantically retying my shoes, shoving the laptop back in it's case, putting my baggy of liquids and gels back into my luggage, I was able to catch up with the rest of my group. The facial expression on Matt's face, a combination of embarassment and discust, conveyed that my rush was unnecessary. See, two of the nine in our group are fans of Walker Texas Ranger re-runs and all week at various times, they'll break into singing the theme song from the show. The disdain of the rest of us and their fervor where diametrically amplified when we learned that Walker himself attended one of the ministries we've crossed paths with while on this trip. So "when you're in Texas look behind you..."

Secondly, as an addendum to my last post, another lesson I picked up this week, is having the paint in the facility touched up weekly. One of the ministries we visited employees two full time staff who's sole responsibility is to go around the facility each week touching up the paint on the walls. Hadn't thought of that before.

What I learned today: Hallways and Handwashing

Twenty some years ago, I would've denied any enjoyment in learning. Grade school and undergrad were a chore for me, but now that I've had the opportunity to focus on specific areas and see the direct applicability of lessons learned, I've found learning to be very enjoyable.

Though I didn't know it at the time, much of my philosophy of learning, was crystalized in middle school when I decided that I wanted to pursue a Bible degree first to give myself a solid foundation upon which I'd build/add any other specialties. Today, I like to push myself to look for lessons to learn from a diverse range, taking those observations and lessons and passing them through the filter of my Biblical foundation and applying the dregs that remain in the filter.

Though I saw a lot of interesting things at Prestonwood today, two small details caught my eye related to our Early Childhood ministry: hallways and bathrooms.

I am adimant that the size of hallways cannot be underestimated in any facility project. They have to be designed to move a maximum amount of people in an efficient manner; the wider the better. I've seen too many churches from the 1970's era that present significant traffic flow issues because of narrow hallways. In addition to large hallways, making the children's area hallways vibrant with color creates an atmosphere of comfortable enthusiasm that's attractive. The off-white Early Childhood hallway of Grace, with some paint, can easily be transformed into a whole different atmosphere.

If you walk the daycare halls during the day, at various times you'll pass entire classes lined up by the restrooms for potty breaks. By law, employees must always have their eye on the children, with exceptions made only when their relieving themselves. Traditional bathrooms with both sinks and commodes behind closed doors present a challenge to this. The employees are required to monitor the kids when they're washing their hands at the same time watching the line of kids waiting in the hallway. At Prestonwood I saw an interesting solution to this conundrum; public handwashing stations. Only the commodes were behind closed doors for privacy. The children's sinks were outside the restroom in a small alcove off of the hallway, arranged as a shared, communal washing area. I found it to be an outside the box approach to allowing employees maximum visibility for keeping track of the children in their care.

I enjoy learning.

Take off flashbacks and psychoanalysis

As we sat in line for take off my mind flashed back to an earlier time when I plane I was riding was sitting in a similar position.

The year, 1976.
The occasion, my families' first missionary journey to the Philippines.

We'd just said our farewells to both sets of grandparents and an uncle/aunt or two, family members we wouldn't see for another four years. As we sat on the plane waiting for our turn to take off that morning, I was disturbed that unlike when leaving in a vehicle, I couldn't see my grandparents standing in the airport or that they couldn't see me.

As I shared this deja vu moment with Scott, who was seated next to me, he recalled his earliest memory. Then it came to us... there's a good chance that first farewell for me is why goodbyes are so important and emotional to me. And for him, well let's just say we may have uncovered the origin of his OCD.

Our conclusion, we're all messed up in some way shape or form.

Adventures with Pastor Scott…

As transparent as he is (see earwax illustration, shower obsession blog post, among others), I recognize that I have the privilege, or sentence, as the case may be, of seeing Scott up close and in unique situations; most recently, on our trip to Dallas.

From day one we've had to adjust to Scott's energy. Sometime we should put him up against the Energizer Bunny. One, to see Scott in a pink bunny suit would be worth it, but I'm guessing he'd outlast that furry little generator. Well, when you have to awake somewhere during the 4AM hour for a half-day long trip, you do so hoping to have a quiet two-hour ride to the airport; right? Not gonna happen with Distler along. And in those rare opportunities to catch some shut-eye in between conversation topics, you don't dare slip off into unconsciousness for fear that your name be mentioned in a less-than admirable light, and your comotose state rendering you unable to defend your honor.



During the flight once the conversation fire had dwindled to but a few embers the thought occurred to me to share one of my earphone buds with him so he could enjoy the DVD I was watching, but recalling his earwax issues I thought better of it.



I won't break too many of his confidences, but for those planning to go on the next Israel trip, I can report that Scott is beta testing the team's uniforms. He's swearing by it, economical, stylish by his standards and by his account, extremely comfortable.



Pastor's directional issues have also been well documented. Thus far we haven't gotten lost, mind you we've circled and circled our exact destination multiple times without reaching it, but we've known exactly where we were and where we wanted to be; how to get there just kept changing.



Maybe there will be more from Dallas as the week progresses, maybe not.

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.