Ministry Toolbox: Encouragement File

I'm not exactly sure where I picked up this tool, but somewhere along the way, whether it was from one of my undergrad courses or a suggestion of my college roommate, it's become one of the most valuable tools in my ministry tool box. The encouragement file.

Like a hammer, my encouragement file is nothing elaborate, just a regular manila folder. But it's contents can fuel me for months, sometimes years at a time. Since college, I've saved just about every note or communication that acknowledged some difference I had made in some one's life - notes of encouragement. I don't look at the file often, but in going through files a few weeks ago, I took a few moments to read through the file yet again. I was surprised at how I'd forgotten what was in that folder. Notes from close friends that I can't even remember the context in which they were written, but that isn't what matters, it's the messages they contain that lift my spirits. Email messages, cards, one-sided notes, some as small as a business card, they're in there, each with a message that picks me up. Granted, the file isn't overflowing.

As in a lot of other contexts, we probably don't encourage one another or build each other up as much as God, speaking through Timothy, intended. My ministry journey has at times required passing through the desert and in some cases the distance from one oasis to the next has been a long stretch. It's in those times when I've used the encouragement file to keep me going. (After my experience yesterday, so does being the Secret Reader - I happened to pass the grade 1 class in the hallway this morning and they all waved as if I was the King of England.)

My encouragement file is a key tool in my ministry toolbox and like a hammer, I strongly recommend everyone in ministry keep an encouragement file in their toolbox as well.

What is your Grace story?

I've been filling in, working evenings, for the Evening Building Supervisor this week. Ken, who has been in that role since January, is in Baltimore for the summer, so I've had to hire a summer replacement. What I've enjoyed about this week is getting to talk with people who's paths I don't normally cross.

Just last night I met someone for the first time and out of curiosity, I asked how they came to Grace (those stories always interest me). Her husband is into remote controlled airplanes and I guess was in a RC airplane club or often flew planes with someone who regularly attended Grace. After several invitations to come to Grace, the couple checked Grace out. That was about two years ago.

What is your Grace story?

Meeting CHILDREN Where They Are

I had the opportunity to be the Secret Reader for our grade 1 and grade 2 classes today; what a way to make my day! I read two books that have had a significant impact on my life: Big Joe's Trailer Truck and Curious George Gets A Medal. Though I was only scheduled to read one book, they convinced me and their teachers to go for two.

I thoroughly enjoyed having all of 30 minutes with these kids, many of whom I recognize from being in our daycare and from the Kindergarten graduation program the last two years. Nothing like this kind of an opportunity to make me even more aware of just how important a role our staff play in partnering with each child's parents in helping them train their children in the way they should go. That really hit home with one of the students who I know has been in our care since she was close to 6-weeks old. I remember the day she took her first steps...in our building. We all cheered her on!

Our staff have incredible opportunities on a daily basis to meet children where they are and move them to where God wants them to be. And as I walk the hallways, I know that can be a very challenging task at times. I do not take for granted the opportunity I have to support and encourage them in their ministry. Though just as faulty, if not less than me, I have the utmost respect and admiration for our staff.

Women Power!

A beach blast rolled in overnight and our building looks very different this morning. If you have the chance, stop by today or find an excuse to drive your spouse/daughter to the Blast tonight so you can take a peek. It's a sight to see.

I heard that the volunteer army behind this event totals some 150 women. That's amazing! There are so many facets to ministry - obviously, the primary goal of an event like this is creating opportunities and an atmosphere for people to connect and build relationships with those who are far from God. That's the main goal. But there are so many fringe benefits that occur naturally through the process. Take the 150 volunteers. This event has provided an opportunity for 150 individuals to get more connected with our ministry and in all likelihood, for relationships to be strengthened there too. Who knows how God might use those relationships in the future.

I am so excited to see people of Grace banding together to watch God work in and through them. And as this army carries out it's mission tonight, there's an even bigger army that's gaining momentum for the June 24 outreach. I'm telling you, now is the time to get involved! It appears to me that God is at work around us and if you sense that He is inviting you to join Him in what He is doing, fill out the volunteer form for the rodeo. Join us in watching how God works as we work our tails off.

Meeting PEOPLE where they are and moving people to where GOD wants them to be!

Headaches with Rewards - Multi-Use Buildings

There's no doubt about it, when handed the keys to a multi-use facility, a large bottle of Aspirin should be on the key chain. Take for example, the poor student who was slightly injured Monday morning because one of the rooms hadn't been completely returned to it's Monday-Friday to setup. But with those headaches, come a lot of rewards because of the flexibility of multi-use space.

Over Christmas, our building transformed into a winter wonderland for the Christmas Walk-Thru.
Last week, it transformed into an art gallery for the school's Creative Arts Festival.
Today, it's in the midst of transforming into a ocean side resort for this weekend's Beach Blast.
A multi-use facility with creative minds can transform into all kinds of things!

Yes, a dedicated Sanctuary space is the envy of most churches, but I think I much prefer the flexibility afforded by multi-use/multi-purpose spaces.

Today at Grace: New HVAC unit installed

The 1990 addition of our facility is approaching it's 20th birthday. We continue to see things in that area wearing out, needing replacement etc. Today at Grace, one of the roof top HVAC units is being replaced. You should see the faces of the daycare kids; I know it would've made my week to have a crane visit my daycare/school. Apparently, when the kids said there was a crane on the roof, the student teacher went out looking for a bird. Go figure.

Cheap IT Information

Several people I interact with on a regular basis often ask what the deal is with blogging. Though I haven't counted them up recently, I probably track 30+ blogs on a weekly basis. Predominantly, I'm tracking the blogs of church staff who are responsible for the computer/informational issues at churches across the country. Though I'm somewhat versed in computers, what formal computer training I had was in programming, so I'm not trained for leading/managing a network. I get a lot of cheap information, no, free information from these people who see blogging as an opportunity to exchange information. I greatly appreciate the time they put in and the knowledge they share with me. It's helped me lead our efforts to chart our path for the next five years.

Here's the list of IT bloggers I track...
Fady's Blog
Eric Busby
Chris Todd
Bryson Medlock
Brett Anderson
The Appian Way
Jeff Wilson
Terry Storch
Kyle Sagarsee
Nick Nicholaou
Brian Bailey
Scott Reichling
Stephen Wareham
Tony Dye
Jason Powell
Ed Buford

Pastor Scott has a higher gear!

Of several things I've greatly appreciated about Pastor Scott are his love of The Word and his love for lost people. Since joining our ministry, his passion for those two subjects has motivated me time after time during Sunday messages; each at a level that was higher than I'd ever experienced before. I remember during the candidating process the buzz about how driven Pastor Scott was and how we needed to be ready to run once he came on board. And believe me, we've been running ever since. But to my utter amazement, the staff discovered this past Tuesday that he has an even higher gear!

In my post-staff meeting assessment, I think we witnessed three forces colliding to form not the perfect storm, but an entire weather phenomena. As he lead us through a scripture passage, he was excited about all that it contained that his passion reached even high levels; it was so unbelievable, it was comical. At several points, in an euphoria of explaining the passage, he found one point only to put that aside because he remembered a second point he wanted to share, only to recall yet a third point he wanted to make first. Like the runway at O'Hare, he had three points lined up in succession that if he could, he would've shared simultaneously. It was, as he would say, AMAZING! His passion for the passage, the truths it contained and the direct application to our lives inspired and motivated me to seek Christ even more. So watch out, like any other motor, Pastor Scott's got an even higher gear than what we've seen to date. I wonder what got the RPM's up high enough for him to be able to shift?

I see three things (and I'm just conjecturing here) that possibly collided to put him into the next gear.

1. His love of scripture and lost people. Because the passage dealt directly with the topic of lost people, I think it resonated with him in a deep way.

2. His trip to Israel. I think the trip opened his eyes to the cultural background in a new way which in turn has given him a fresh perspective on the stories of the Bible.

3. I think he's had more time to study and with the pending addition of another Pastor to our staff, I think he'll have more time to study.

Rodeo Marquee

Though I hope he has a speedy and full recovery, afterall, this is the second time in but a short span that New Jersey has found itself Governor-less, I can't resist the following...

The marquee event at the upcoming Rodeo on June 24 will feature The Drag Racing Governors: Corzine mano-e-mano against Rendell. Oh, their State Police provided drivers can be in the vehicle with them. Odds are in Rendell's favor based on their qualifying speeds (Rendell 100; Corzine 91).

Interactive IRS

I appreciate the steps the IRS is taking to utilize the power of the internet for the tax payer's benefit. Was just able to check the status of our personal filing, pretty cool!

Maybe I've just missed it, but I wish there was a way to file electronically without having to use someone else's software or service. For now, I'm content with the PDF's they provide.

Driving the Church: Spiritually and Logistically

If you've been attending Grace or listening to our messages for the last few years, you've grown accustomed to the mantra, "Evangelism is the engine that must drive the church." I'd like to add to that statement.

Evangelism is the engine that must drive the church, spiritually.
Logistically, the church database is the engine that must drive the church.

The church database is the core system for tracking people - it's our earthly version of the Book of Life, if you will or the 2007 version of the Book of Numbers. It identifies the people in our church body, it provides channels for us to stay in touch with them, among a lot of other things.

Our database has lacked since I started here some eight years ago, but since January, we've been making huge improvements, thanks in full to Jodi's help. After serving in the Children's ministry for many years, Jodi, who's professionally trained in database programming (her service in the Children's ministry was a total Aaron/Moses type things - "God, I'm not, nor do I feel qualified to do this ministry, but if it's how You want to use me, here am I, send me), turned the Children's ministry over to other leadership in January. Though phasing out of that ministry she was interested in helping us in the office, particularly our databases. I have so appreciated having her on board so that every time I uncover a list of addresses someone has in a Word file, I can ask Jodi to go talk with them and explore if there are more efficient ways to track the data and produce the same end result. In just a few months, we've consolidated countless Word documents of address lists, address labels into our main database. We've introduced the concept of a mail merge!!! And Jodi's dug into the backend tables of the database to create links and other things to manipulate the data for our needs. It's a thing of beauty. What makes it even more cool is to see the smile on Jodi's face. Though way behind the scenes and details that don't interest many, the background work that Jodi's doing that will enable the rest of us in the office to enter and track more data all combines into the engine that must drive the church logistically.

Following the examples of Moses (The Book of Numbers) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 7:5), we too keep track of families.

Mountaintop Easter Sunrise

Unfortunately, I don't recall the actual Easter morning of the particular Holy Week I've been recounting here, but I do recall an Easter morning a few years later.

When planting churches, which is what comprised my parent's ministry, the early years usually consist of only a handful of believers, possibly even just the church planting team. We often would join with other groups of believers to celebrate Christ's resurrection.

I remember one Easter we celebrated in the province of Banaue. It's a part of the world unlike any other I've ever seen. It's in the northern part of Luzon, in the mountains; very remote and known for it's g-string wearing, beetle-juice spitting tribal people, the Ifugao, who primarily farmed rice. Rice farming necessitates flat terrain, so it's not the most conducive crop in mountainous regions. By hand, the Ifugao had carved numerous terraces into most of the entire mountain range (imagine the Shenandoah Mountains) to create rice field upon rice field. Such was the setting of an Easter sunrise service one year. We were on the top of a hill, maybe 30 of us, just our voices, no sound system, maybe a guitar or two. It was a serene environment as the sun crested over the mountains.

To celebrate the resurrected Lord, on a mountain top, at the crack of dawn, in the midst of a people group that practiced witchcraft and idol worship... it was a literal mountaintop Easter.

Holy Week - Saturday Morning

The next morning our regular playtime was interrupted by commotion on the street in front of our house as neighbors and friends gathered. We ran to our second floor window and peering between the louvers saw a group of 20-some people marching down the street. As they drew closer I was able to make out wreaths on their heads and cloths covering their heads. They were shirtless and barefoot with but a skimpy pair of shorts on. Though out of the ordinary to see a group marching down our street like that, it wasn't until they'd passed us that the horror set in.

The skin of their bare backs, which normally would've been a light brown color, was rubbed raw red, bleeding. I can't remember if I had been mesmerized trying to figure out the identities of these men - was one of them my buddy's Dad? - or what, but I guess I hadn't at first noticed the chains they were carrying. I recall my brother and I, using tube socks as a substitute, marching around the house reenacting the scene we witnessed that Saturday morning. It took my parents explanation to understand why those men felt the need to flagellate themselves.

As they marched on down the street, clinking each time the chains slashed against their back, sweating profusely under their anonymous disguises, it was a vivid, firsthand illustration of Christ's atonement for my sin - a deep theological lesson that in those few moments was comprehended even by a small first grade mind.

What I witnessed that Holy Week has resonated with me ever since. For sure, though those I observed were desperately trying to mimic Christ in His sufferings, and what I witnessed was indeed severe on a human scale, they still weren't coming close to capturing all that my Saviour endured. Though in other parts of the country others reenact actually being nailed to a cross, I never witnessed them firsthand. The despair, lack of hope and vain pursuit of atonement that entire week could be overwhelming, were it not for the mountain top, which I'll explain next time.

Here's an adult perspective on some of the same things I witnessed and some that I had forgotten.

The Holy Week I'll Never Forget

It was Holy Week, probably 1978. I think I was in the first grade at the time and we were living in a remote town on the southern half of the main island of the Philippines. The town of Labo was a farming town, not too much different than Lititz.

During that time period Roman Catholicism was ingrained in the Philippine culture. I remember how much not just Holy Week, but the whole month leading up to Easter was a big deal. Even as a first grader, I remember hearing the verbal accounts of the men who were embarked on a month-long pilgrimage carrying a cross for miles and miles. To put it in our terms, probably something like carrying a cross, on foot from Philly to Pittsburgh.

I remember the night of Good Friday. There was a procession through town, led by a band playing a dirge. Following were sights that as a young first grader, I had never pictured so vividly in my mind before, the 12 stations of the cross. Each station was in or on a wheeled float-type thing pulled by people. Just about everyone in town was out to watch the procession. And I seem to recall that the crowd as a whole was pretty emotional.

I felt uncomfortable. They looked like idols to me and I knew I wasn't supposed to worship idols, so even seeing them pass by seemed wrong. Add to that the detail of the stations and having never contemplated the magnitude of Christ's sufferings, it was a lot to take in on one night. Little did I expect what would pass by our house the next morning.

April Fool's Offering

Tomorrow I'll start a 3-post series about the Holy Week I'll Never Forget, but here's one more post from the weekend...

April Fool's was always marked on my calendar and often involved several weeks of premeditation. See, when you live in a all-boys dorm of some 15+ teenagers, it's an atmosphere ripe for joking. I remember many a morning coming to the breakfast table to be met by blue-colored milk or green eggs as someone snuck into the kitchen and gotten a hold of the food coloring.

So when the Count Team brought me the following offering envelope yesterday morning, I smiled immediately. Someone's Monopoly set is short $500.

Nelson's Beginning

I dug into the bulletin archives out of interest in what the Grace Church bulletin looked like when Bryan first started at Grace. I'm not exactly sure why, but church offices tend to keep and archive each week's bulletin. Interesting to see the change in formatting, type styles, graphics and worship in 10 years.

It's A Wonderful Life @ Grace

Our Worship Arts Director at Grace, Bryan Nelson will soon be following the yellow brick road to embark on a new ministry. In George Bailey fashion, what if God's plan didn't include Bryan Nelson crossing paths with Grace Church?

-With no Crosswalk Show, Lititz would have an additional food establishment featuring Chinese cuisine... The CrossWOK restaurant.

-Without the Ultimate Guitar Jam, over 100 guitarists would've gathered for an Electric Guitar Jam with special guest Gene Simmons that culminated in a mass guitar smashing at the end of the concert.

-Without the Brass Spectacular, the local shopping mall featured a Bras Spectacular. Maybe that was just a typo, but they did like 6 of them!

It's clear that God used Bryan "for such a time as this" in the life of Grace Church. He's led us in realizing some unique and incredible God-ordained opportunities and I'm excited to see how God uses him in Topeka. Just keep following the yellow brick road, Bryan.

Church Clean-up Day

Maybe it's revisionist history, but my perception is that in years past, churches in America benefited greatly from church clean-up days and similar volunteer armies descending upon the facility to fix things up. Maybe my perception is off base, but for a few, the church clean-up day is fading. Stubborn as I can be, we still schedule them.

This past Saturday eight adults and 12 teenagers worked the morning at Grace to spruce the facility up in preparation for this Saturday's Egg Hunt and the Easter services on April 8. While 20 people amounts to a smidgen of a percentage of our total attenders, I greatly appreciate their sacrifice to make the exterior of our church look good. They planted 576 pansies and put down more than a dump truck full of mulch. Did you notice how nice the flower beds looked yesterday?

What happened to Pastor Scott's blog?

If you are a regular reader of Pastor Scott's blog, Folks, Listen!, you noticed that we experienced some technical difficulties over the past few days. I'm not entirely sure what went down. What I do know is that we were unable to publish posts or make changes to the blog. But the change was part of a bigger issue that I've been navigating.

The host of lgbc.org recently contacted me to inform that the church website had reached a size of some 2 gigabytes of data. That's compared with the 250 megabyte limit of our current web host plan. In other words, our website was way over our limit. Working with Elaine, we've been trimming the church site of out of date information and other superfluous files, but even that didn't remove enough data to get us to the 250 megabyte level. It was then that I realized the Folks, Listen! blog was in the mix too.

When Pastor Scott launched Folks, Listen!, I was of the mindset that as the Senior Pastor's blog, it should be on the church's main website. But I'm no longer convinced that having it at that location generated any new traffic to the church website. So, with the blog taking up additional disk space, and with blogging services offering to host a blog for free, it seemed logical to move.

The move occurred much faster than I had planned, which didn't give us the option of advanced warning. If you can't find Pastor Scott's blog after all of this, here are the links.

Baptism - poll

The two-baptismal pool approach seemed to work this past Sunday, in fact, several times I felt like Pastor Scott and the worship team was realizing they had more time left in the service than they expected. Regardless of those technicalities, it was a great service.

Even the casual observer recognizes that in spite of all the attempts, most people aren't able to get fully immersed in the 30" inches of water the hot tub and inflatable pool hold. That makes me curious, do you see baptism and the significance of a full immersion as a high enough priority, that you'd encourage the church to consider a more permanent baptismal setup...

-in our current facility, recognizing that it could come at a substantial expense to retrofit existing structures?

-in any future facility, should God lead us in that direction at some point in the future?

This isn't any formal vote or study, I'm just curious for my own knowledge. I welcome your response via comments to this post.