Volunteer shoppers needed

Okay, so if you're looking to get involved at Grace, this might be just the opportunity you are looking for... we need shoppers. If you like to shop and if you're like me, love to buy in bulk, here's the opportunity.

Seeking the best deal for supplies for our daycare, school and Sunday/Wednesday ministries, we often purchase large quantities from Wal-Mart, BJ's Wholesale Club and Costco. Thing is it takes two people to get the stuff because we purchase so much. To date we've been using paid staff, who normally are caring for children or working in one of the offices, so we have to cover them when they're out shopping. It's pure shopping, so anyone who can drive a van and life bulk quantities of drinks and other grocery supplies can do it. We'd supply the shopping list, so your role would be to pull it off the shelf. We'd need you to go shopping about once a month or so.

If you're interested, let me know.

Apples (computers that is) are tempting

Though I've been a PC-guy for years, I am more and more tempted to defect to the Apple-side. So the following quote hit my funny bone...

Chris Pirillo: "The box said Requires Windows 95 or better. So I installed OS X."

An outsiders perspective on church

Having the privilege of growing up in a Christian family, I've attended church since birth. My Dad was an Assistant Pastor when I was born and not long after that became a missionary planting churches. So, understanding what it's like for someone to attend church for the very first time is difficult for me. That's why I found this post interesting... http://www.davidfoster.tv/?p=286

Daycare inspection results

Thanks to those of you who prayed for the daycare staff during last week's inspection. Our staff came through with flying colors and did a tremendous job. During the inspection the inspector often visits each room and while expecting the daycare workers to be caring for the children, the inspector starts rattling off questions along the lines of, "What temperature should the referigerator be?" or something of the sort. To help the daycare workers, two of the administrators went with the inspector to each room and helped care for the kids so the daycare workers could concentrate on answering the questions.

The visit went well. We did receive one citation because an EPI pen wasn't in the box packaging. Our track record has been so exemplary that we take even one citation like that pretty hard. But as with other inspectors, they always leave saying how high the quality of care our center provides to the children. If you see anyone who works with the daycare, be sure to thank them for their hard work and for maintaining a good testimony with the State.

In my next post I'll disect last week's financial audit.

What's in a daycare inspection?

This week is the annual State inspection of the daycare ministry. Being State certified gives our center credibility with the families who entrust the care of their children to use. That makes the annual inspection crucial.

While the inspection is normally a one-day gauntlet, we've been notified that this year's will be a two-day review. Inspection consists of a inspector from the State reviewing every detail about our center. They review each child's file with the office staff for emergency numbers, proper record keeping among many other State requirements. They spend a lot of time interviewing the office staff about the daycare program and their compliance with standards. They review our fire drill records, making sure that we hold a drill at least every 60 days (we practice every 30) and that we evacuate all the children in under three minutes (every scheduled drill is timed). They review our evacuation procedures. They review our security process. They scrutinize our daycare staff for proper and current certification in CPR/Fire/First Aid training. They review all the necessary child abuse and criminal checks and educational requirements depending on the responsibilities of each staff person. And that's just the stuff that's reviewed in the office and I didn't even cover all of it!

Then they walk through the entire daycare wing. They observe the staff caring for the kids in real time. While caring for kids, the inspector will fire roulette questions at the staff who HAVE to know the answer on the spot. They review the cleanliness of each room, whether everything is in it's place. They give their personal assessment as to whether our rooms are designed for the ultimate safety of each child. They make sure all the proper emergency information is posted in each room. Everything is open game for questioning and scrutiny. They review the kitchen, the food preparation too.

Then they go outside and give the same thorough review to our outdoor play areas. There are State mandates for the depth of mulch on the playground in addition to all kinds of other details.
You probably get the picture. It's a very intense, stressful time.

With the passionate staff God has blessed us with, our track record in these reviews is exemplary. Of course, that puts pressure to maintain that same high standard. Be praying for Tammy and her staff as they go through the 2007 inspection.

Monopoly: to play or not to play?

Grace Church has ended up in the unenviable position of being surrounded by houses. Years ago, what is now the development that lines what we would call the back of the church property, was a field. From what I hear, we had a chance to purchase it, but at that stage of Grace's life we weren't positioned to do so. The houses that front the church on West Lincoln have been there since the 1970s.

I noticed in the past few weeks that the large house next to the Chapel parking lot is on the market. Over the past 6-8 years all but maybe one of the houses that line West Lincoln have gone on the market. Each time a house went on the market the Elders weighed the pros/cons of purchasing it.

To date, they've decided, and I support, not buying the properties. The land is of most value to us. Additional land would give us more green space to build out other parts of the property. The houses create a visual block to our property from West Lincoln, reducing our visibility. In a lot of respects we'd probably prefer to level the houses. Of course, paying market rates for 5+ residential properties is going to run upwards of $1M in today's market - that's a lot of money for but an aggregate of a couple of acres. That's why we haven't pursued them.

Each time I see one of those houses go on the market, I remind myself why we've decided not to pursue them.

What's Happening Now?

The general sentiment seems to be that with the Rodeo complete, the church office has entered reclusion. In reality, the opposite has occurred. We're knee deep in getting ready for the upcoming academic year and trying to keep up with growing ministries. It's a 24x7 challenge. Here's my attempt to quantify it...

The school, daycare and children's ministries are growing. We're working on re-arranging room usage to free up space for additional math classes, the afterschool program and for more Sunday School and Wednesday night programs. That all begins a domino affect on other groups that use our facility. Groups that had been using the Fellowship Hall throughout the year, beginning at 5pm, are having to push their start times back because we need the room through 5:30. The Worship Arts ministry rehearsals are moving to a different night of the week. Sunday morning Adult Bible Fellowships are being moved around so the Children's Ministry can use some of the larger rooms in the building. We're also rescheduling the outside groups that use our building as well. It's a very complicated tango that's being expertly choreographed by our Master Calendar master, Elaine.

We're also taking a hard look at the Children's Wing, reevaluating our usage of the space in that area and looking for more efficient ways to use it to further the direction of the Children's Ministry. For years we've accepted the space as is, but we're now recognizing that in some ways it's inhibiting the ministry.

We've added additional staff this summer including a Pastor, several support positions, an assistant in the Athletic Department plus an Elementary PE Teacher. Of course, as new positions, we didn't have offices for them, so we're busy creating and equipping new offices.

We're reassessing our insurance policies

We're putting in some new interior doors to further isolate our children's areas from the main lobby and gymnasium during school/daycare hours to continue to increase our security measures. If we reach our goal, it should hardly be noticeable on Sundays and Wednesday nights.

We're replacing several rooftop HVAC units - the building is showing it's age.

The annual State daycare white-glove inspection is this week.

We're rethinking our computer network log-in accounts, especially for students. Classes endured long delays logging into our system last year so we're trying to correct that.

I'm working on upgrading our data storage system, we filled that last one up over the span of 18 months - it's getting harder and harder to keep up with the demand for data storage.

I'm working with Betsy, our computer teacher and a couple of IT guys that I've gotten to know who attend Grace to create a strategic roadmap for our IT department for the next 3-5 years to keep our IT stuff up to snuff.

We're considering changing the normal seating configuration in the Auditorium for Sunday mornings.

The Concept Development Team meets for the first time this week. We've been wanting to get that launched for the past two years and are finally getting it off the pad. This is the group that will first devote it's attention to the property across the street and ultimately help us nail down the conceptual direction we'll propose in terms of future expansion.

I realized recently that our web page is due for a content makeover, so we've put that on the to do list, too.

And on top of everything, the financial audit begins today and will continue most of this week.

Getting in good with the alumni department

Being a Grace Brethren Church, you might expect our staff have a strong Grace College representation. There are a few. Seeing as our Senior Pastor graduated from Liberty, you might expect our staff to consist of several Liberty grads. While we don't, five out of last year's Senior class are headed to Lynchburg in the fall.

Though none of my doing, the number of PCB/PBU grads on staff has increased from three when I started 9+ years ago to six, by my count, as of this week.

New feature on LGBC.ORG

In conjunction with the iBook message series and specifically the Bible reading challenge, we're rolling out an interactive forum on LGBC.ORG this weekend. It's designed to give the Grace Church body an opportunity to share what they're learning or thinking about as they read the different portions of scripture. It's also a forum in which the body can ask questions to which our Pastoral staff can respond. I've been working with TCW, our tech support company, over the past few weeks to get it set up.

I'm excited to be able to use the internet for this kind of an application. The challenge is the internet is accessible by everyone under the sun and our target for this application is those who are connected with the ministries of Grace Church. We're gonna try to control that by moderating the comments.

On each day's scripture passage you'll be able to post your thoughts, questions, comments, etc. about the passage. Others will be able to respond with threading so you can see who's responding to what.

You can watch for it at blog.lgbc.org

Help Wanted: Flower Gardens

We could use help keeping the church flowers beds and bushes looking nice and presentable. Flower beds were formally assigned to ABF classes for them to plant and care for over the summer months. However, since few ABFs actually meet over the summer that system didn't really coincide with their schedule or the built-in accountability. So we're trying to come up with a new system to keep our property looking nice.

I wonder if the system they used at my first elementary school is still in place? I attended Labo Elementary School for grades 1 and 2 - in the boondocks of Southern Luzon. Like many other grade school students after the first day of school I brought home a grocery list of items that I needed for the school year. My parents were a little concerned that the list included a sickle. See the daily morning routine for the entire school included the following:
Morning assembly on the soccer field to sign the national anthem and morning calisthenics
Cutting the grass with sickles and tending to the garden and grounds around our classroom
Oh, and each Friday afternoon we cleared the classroom floor and got out the brooms, floor wax and coconut husks as all the students cleaned the floor!

So if you're looking to help out at the church and enjoy yard work, give me a call or send me an email. Last week, Aimee spent a couple of hours on two consecutive days on the office side and I really appreciate her work.

If you have suggestions of new systems I can consider to replace the now defunct ABF flower garden system, leave a comment.

Help rename LGBC.ORG

I've wanted for quite some time to replace our LGBC.ORG web address with an address that's more connected with our ministry. Our current address is an acronym for Lititz Grace Brethren Church, and while it's still one of many nicknames people use to refer to the body of believers that meet at 501 W Lincoln Ave, I think it's finally becoming less prevalent. As a result, I'm looking to get a new web address. Unfortunately, most, if not all of the logical ones are already taken, so I need your creative help. I welcome your suggestions and thank you in advance.

Celebrating Holidays Overseas

Sue Weaver, who along with the rest of the Weaver family, Grace Church sent to France as missionaries back in the 1980s, shared the realities of celebrating holidays overseas in her Xanga yesterday.

Is the building sacred?

I have to give credit to all that were involved in the design/layout of the building projects at Grace. For more than 30 years the walls/rooms/hallways that they conceived have served the needs of the ministries of Grace. They planned with foresight and a joining God in what He is/is-going-to-do mentality that ended up with spaces able to accommodate a lot more people than were being served at the time of construction. I hope to emulate their ability to plan for future growth.

With 30+ years of ministry under our belts, with God using our ministry to reach more and more people, with the changes in our culture, and with an aging building, we're having to evaluate our facility. Rooms that we've become accustomed to being the same for many of those 30 years, some of you recall riding your tricycle down the aisle in the midst of construction, are being used in entirely different ways that what they were originally.

If you look back there are ways that we've adjusted our ministry. With few large rooms and strict policies to protect the Auditorium carpet, our church rarely hosted all-church social functions. But that's changed in the last several years. We've had several all-church potluck dinners. That's just one example.

In all of this, I'm seeing a greater demand for more multi-use, multi-purpose rooms with mid-sized floor space. The schedule pressure for use of the Fellowship Hall and the Youth Room, our two current rooms that fit that description is intense.

The new sense of commoraderie and cooperation among staff and ministries has been integral to making the ministry schedule pressures work to this point. We're exhausting our current resources forcing us to look for new ways to stay up with demand. The good news is we have the floor space, it just isn't configured efficiently.

This summer we are reevaluating room assignments/room use around our facility and have ideas of way to reassign spaces for maximum efficiency with the way ministries are wanting to use the building in 2007-2008. We are also identifying spaces that with a little bit of renovation/reconfiguring can open up more opportunities for our ministries.

I want our building to be a tool that ministries can use efficiently. Our ability to use it to meet people where they are and move people to where God wants them to be is more sacred than the walls themselves.

This Might be a Dumb Question

A radio program I often listen to has a weekly segment entitled This Might be a Dumb Question. The host asks callers to call in with things they've always wondered, but never asked. Each call begins with the phrase, "This might be a dumb question, but..."

I wonder what questions people who regularly attend or are connected with the ministry of Grace Church have? It may seem like a dumb question, but I'm sincerely interested in trying to answer what I can. Here's a list of some of the questions I've answered in the past:

This might be a dumb question...

• but why can't I use the church kitchen?
• how in the world did we come up with the idea of doing a rodeo?
• but what are the benefits of a multi-purpose building?
• but is baptism so important that we should spend extra money for a full baptismal?
• but why do we baptize people in a hot tub?
• but how did we arrive with the concept of meeting people/moving people?
• but why do I have to have clearances to volunteer to work with kids?
• but what happens if someone collapses during a church service?
• but why do we use giving envelopes?
• but how do I start a ministry at Grace?
• but what happens at a Grace Church staff meeting?
• but why does Grace Church rarely cancel Sunday services because of weather?
• but why am I too cold in the Auditorium?

If you regularly attend or are connected with the ministry of Grace Church, I'd like to know what questions you have by posting a comment.

Rodeo Photos

In addition to an article, the Lititz Record has posted 236 photos of last Sunday's Rodeo.

Ministry Plan for 2007-2008

On June 17, Pastor Scott, John Kegarise (Elder Chairman) and myself presented the ministry plan for 2007-2008. The ministry plan has been developed by the ministry leaders and paid staff. I've assembled their work and reviewed it with Pastor Scott before presenting it to the Elders. With Elder approval the plan went before the church body for their review. But before we look ahead, let's take a quick review of what God has been doing in our midst for the past several months.

For about a decade our attention has been focused on other ministry areas, but over the past year, it appears that God started to move in new ways in our Children's Ministries. By providing the financial resources we were able to set aside funds to return the Children's Ministry Director position to full time status and to increase the Early Childhood Director to a half-time position. In addition to providing the funds, God also provided the individuals to fill those slots.

Our second year of the Christmas Walk-Thru had even greater numbers of people travel through our building to the Victorian era, on to Italy, then Switzerland and finally the manger scene.

On Sunday mornings we've studied the Book of James, When Faith and Life Collide; what Jesus said about the future, Back in the Future; Meeting People Where They Are and Moving People to Where God Wants Them to Be; Baptism and Footwashing, Just Add Water; Lost and Reel Families. Through these studies, God has challenged us, convicted us and drawn us into a deeper relationship with Him. And of course we baptized 104 adults and children this past Spring.

Sunday morning Auditorium attendance has been up about 8% over the previous year. We're averaging 1,191 people per Sunday in the Auditorium. Giving has been healthy too, but as you might expect with an influx of new attenders, it's increased at a slower pace.

God has done some AMAZING things in our midst in 2006-2007! What could He possibly have in mind for 2007-2008?

In 2007-2008 we are seeing signs that God is opening up opportunities for us to meet people where they are and move people to where God wants them to be.

Meeting People Through the Rodeo
The Elders and staff are really excited about the potential of how God might work through us and the rodeo outreach to build new relationships with people who are far from God. With the tremendous upside potential in that one day, we are preparing across the board to be able to meet more people and help them take steps closer to God. We anticipate that the rodeo impact on our ministry may well span all of 2007-2008, if not beyond.

Meeting People; Moving People Through the Core Classes
With all of the growth we've experienced over the past several years, we've identified that we need to provide stronger opportunities for people to connect with our body. The Pastor's Class is being reworked into four Core Classes. Each class will end with a specific next steps of seeking water baptism, daily Bible reading, getting involved in a specific ministry and regular tithing. The Core Classes have the potential to provide those who are new to Grace an avenue to take steps to grow deeper in their relationship with God.

Meeting Children and Teens Where They Are, Moving Them to Where God Wants Them To Be
We're also anticipating fresh approaches in our ministries for children and teens. We think we see signs that the work God initiated in these areas in 2006-2007 will take off in 2007-2008. The new staff are getting settled in their positions, have had time to assess and seek God's direction for their ministry and in 2007-2008, we'll start to see the launch of some of those new components. These ministry areas have been using the same type of approach for more than a decade; meanwhile the culture of the children/teens we've been serving has changed drastically. We are excited about how God is leading us in new directions to reach the children and teens of today with His Word in a way that is relevant to the way they think.

Moving McCracken's and Roche's to Where God Wants Them To Be
In Global Outreach we're excited about what God is doing in Cambodia. Our support of three Cambodian nationals, who've been supported through the Birthday Gift for Jesus is now part of the budget. We also have the opportunity to support them as they shift into tent-making ministries. We are happy to announce that we'll be sending Mike and Joan McCracken to assist the Cambodians in setting up a business of raising pigs. In our backyard, we're happy to be officially partnering with Joe and Kim Roche, who've been our go-to couple for people with financial counseling needs. The Roche's have sensed God's leading them to join with Crown Financial Ministries in a full time capacity and seeing evidence of how God has equipped them and utilized them in that type of role already, we are excited to be supporting them as they take this step of faith.

To sum up, we the staff and the Elders, see 2007-2008 as a hallmark year for Grace Church. As God continues to lead us in seeing His Kingdom expand in the greater Lititz area, we recognize that our body has to be equipped at every level to be able to handle the growth. We need to see those who've joined the Grace Church body of the past several years get connected and involved in our ministries beyond Sunday morning services and become fully engaged, active participants of the living body that is Grace Church.

The budget translates our proposed ministry plan for 2007-2008 into financial figures. The plan requires a bit more from each of us than in year's past. While each endeavor has an attached price tag, and giving is an important part of this process, it's not so much your money for which we are asking. We want to see everyone under the umbrella of Grace Church become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, joining us in our endless pursuit to meet people where they are and move people to where God wants them to be.

Help trim bushes, weed, carpentry

We can use help at the church from people who are interested in trimming bushes, weeding and carpentry. One mom who recognized the need contacted me out of the blue and has already worked four days weeding, trimming and cutting the areas around the church office. If you are willing to help make our facility look nice, let me know.

Rodeo Wrap-Up

Stories continue to surface about the seeds that were planted surrounding the rodeo and Lord-willing, we'll be hearing those stories for years to come. Ironically, three days after the event the field still isn't completely cleared off yet. The port-a-potties are still standing there in the middle of an empty field. It's a funny picture.


Here are some final numbers:

• 12.5 acre field
• 7,000+ in attendance
• 35 port-a-potties
• 2 electric generators
• 3,100 hot dogs
• 3,000 bags of chips
• 3,000 1-pint drinks
  
• 30 gallons of chili
• 10 tents
• 20 trash cans
• 1 dumpster
• 1 refrigerated tractor-trailer
• 2,500 seat bleachers
• 1 rodeo arena
• 34 received minor medical treatment for brush burns, splinters, blisters and abrasions (no medical emergencies)
• 1 Senior Pastor with very tired feet from standing the entire day at the main entrance greeting everyone as they arrived and thanking them as they went home
• 4 shuttle buses that operated all day ferrying Grace Church attenders to/from the parking area at Warwick High School
• 3 Operation Barnabas teams
• 1 ATV
• 2 Gator-type golf carts
• 320+ volunteers
• 3,000 rodeo programs
• 2,409 food coupons
  

Now we look ahead. I had a conversation with the farmer yesterday so I could learn the different crop schedules. In planning for next year, I wanted to know what crops could be planted on the land depending on the church plans. It turned into a fun conversation not much different than a game of Pit as we talked about rye, oats, wheat, corn, soybeans and flax. I learned that oats is the fastest to grow and be harvested, taking about three months from the time planted to the time of harvest. Oats is what was harvested off of the field just a few weeks ago. Rye is the next fastest crop, followed by wheat and corn. Even though the game was invented in 1904, the grain values in Pit still hold true today. Wheat is the only cash crop for the farmer with whom I was talking. Corn is the next in value, though for silage it's the best but it takes the longest to grow. Of course, the ethanol movement is creating a shift in grain values. I always loved Pit, so this whole phone call was a blast. I shared my fascination with the farmer and his response took the conversation to a whole different universe.

He said, "I am constantly amazed at how I can plant a seed, nurture it to grow into a crop, harvest the crop, feed it to my cows and the cows produce milk. To see one little seed ultimately turn into milk is a process man has tried unsuccessfully to duplicate, it's a process only God can do." I replied with the following which is a good wrap to my rodeo coverage...

The cool thing is that on Sunday we planted a different kind of seed and in the coming days, we'll nurture them and watch them grow to produce fruit. And like the seed-milk process, it's a process only God can do.

Rodeo: So what's next?

I previously documented the genesis of the rodeo idea. It hit me recently that in our wish to see our ministries (church, daycare and school specifically) become more cohesive, the rodeo idea was first suggested by one of the Lititz Christian teachers who doesn't even attend Grace on a regular basis. I think it's cool how God worked through that one person's suggestion, close to probably three years ago, to impact as many people as He did.

Of course, the buzz ever since the event got underway has been, "Are you going to do a rodeo next year?" Such sentiments are an affirmation that we succeeded in producing an event with quality. I'm not sure if Lititz had ever had a rodeo or when the last one was. That's probably one of the reasons why so many people checked it out. Whether we do a rodeo next year, I don't know. But I know we will pursue, like an American's Cup sailor seeking the next wind shift, where God is working, how we can join Him in what He is doing all to make it as hard as possible for people to go to hell.

For now, we gave the farmer permission to plant another crop of oats on the field which should be harvested in November. Whether another crop goes in after that will be a season by season decision based on where we are in the ministry planning cycles. The whole farming angle of all of this is almost like a life-sized version of PIT. I'll explain in the next episode of the Rodeo Miniseries on Administering Grace.

Some three years ago, a teacher suggested we do a rodeo. Where do YOU see God working? Has God put a rodeo-like idea on your mind?

Rodeo: Rising to the occassion

It took a volunteer train to pull off the rodeo, but near the front of the train, leading the effort, were several individuals. You've probably met them, heard of them or saw them about during the rodeo. But there's a unique element to them that you're likely unaware of and that didn't strike me until just recently.

Imagine you've just started in a new job as the head of an entire department or division. Along with an able staff, you job is leading about 100 people. You've never done anything on this level before, you've barely gotten your feet wet, but you've got tremendous support from the team around you and your leader. That's not too far from the position in which Doug, Tammy, Susan and Con found themselves last fall; all four of them had assumed new roles at Grace.

Having already identified their strong leadership and organizational skills, and needing people to ring lead the rodeo efforts, when they had only been in their new roles for but a few months, we asked them to take on the additional challenge. As I look back, I'm astounded. They've excelled beyond our expectations. If put in the exact same position, I'm not sure I would have succeeded to the levels they reached.

In addition to being incredible people, they are and have surrounded themselves with a collection of an equally incredible team that empowered them to reach greater heights. And, if I haven't stressed it enough already, through all of us it was really God working and His doing immeasurably more than we imagined.

Oh, and while I've got your attention, I thought of another fringe benefit to the rodeo... we used the land. While we worked hard during the land purchase process to orient people to where the property lines where and which field we were buying by handing out maps etc., I still heard people asking where the field was even just last week. Those who participated in the rodeo have a clear idea not only as to where the field is, but a concept of it's size, what it looks like and the condition it's in. In fact, a lot of us took a good bit of the field home with us covered in layers of dust. Many have even tasted the new property. Hmmm, I'm not sure that if those were the only things to come out of the rodeo that it would've been worth it just for that.

So, are we doing it again next year? Watch for my next post.