New Year’s: The Perfect Celebration

With all the noise during New Year’s Eve, there was just no way to sleep. Once I got into Junior High and High School, staying up was more fun anyway. Once we were able to receive the Armed Forces Network (AFN), everything fell into place.

The Philippines was advanced enough to have a handful of local TV stations, but their sports programming didn’t show US events. But when we were finally able to tune in AFN, we had access to the big nationally televised events, setting up the perfect New Year’s Eve celebration. Now I’m not exactly sure of the timing here (partly because I lost track of days and times) so there may be a few inaccuracies.

The week of New Year’s usually coincided with the annual conference for all of the Philippine missionaries with our mission. That whole week I turned into a night owl, staying up until 4 or 5 in the morning watching AFN’s broadcasts of bowl games etc. and then reporting the results at breakfast the next morning to all the missionaries who had collegiate allegences but weren’t committed enough to loose sleep over it.

This was the perfect way to celebrate New Year’s. The early bowl games would come on around 10 p.m. followed by a second game that would start around midnight and at times even a third game in the early morning. Staying up, when you couldn’t sleep anyway, hanging out with friends and watching football. Perfect.

So as you fight to stay awake to see a bologna, goat or whatever else is falling on Saturday night, there’s probably a high school kid on the other side of the globe enjoying a bowl game as the clock strikes 12. Happy New Year!

New Year’s: Where my love of NASCAR began?

As you can imagine, with that much gun powder being exploded in densely populated developments, city streets and villages, there are many injuries each year, some quite severe. The whole night of December 31 is chaos. The amount of firepower builds as the night wears on and crescendos during the hour that spans midnight. It’s in that hour that everyone unloads their full arsenal with the sound completely deafening. The dénouement continues into the wee hours of January 1 as they light the stash of firecrackers they forgot about and things like that.

In addition to all of this noise and gunpowder, if you would dare travel the streets, every few blocks you come across a burning tire – again, rooted in warding off evil spirits. There’s nothing like the sweet aroma of burning rubber – apparently, that’s where my love of NASCAR is rooted. I knew it was more than a passing interest of mine :)

The whole night is like a war zone. Though I’d never equate anything to war, out of respect for what soldiers endure in battle, the pictures of the air attack on Baghdad in 1991 reminded me of New Year’s in the Philippines. It’s not a night that you want to be out on the town. Thus far, I’ve forgotten to mention that some Police and military, in their drunken joy of entering a New Year express their jubilation by discharging their live firearms into the air and usually injure some more people. By morning of January 1, so much ammunition has been exploded that Manila is covered with a think cloud of dark smoke.

While some humans really get into this approach of celebrating the New Year, those who don’t at least have options: earplugs, leaving the country among others. Those I really felt sorry for where the dogs. With their sensitive ears, the explosions scare the dogs stiff. Our poor Boxer would be under the couch in fright all night long. We put her in the backmost room of the house, but there wasn’t much else we could do to protect her ears. After a few days, she was back to normal, but the shellshock was intense.

Here's a report of the New Year's Eve 2006 celebrations.

I never got into the firecrackers, I was too afraid I’d injure myself. I did find the perfect way to celebrate New Years.

New Year’s: Pinoy Style

Watching a lighted ball (or if you live in Lancaster County any other sort of object. See: white rose, red rose, bologna, pickle, pretzel and goat) drop to celebrate the beginning of a New Year is passé compared to how New Year’s is celebrated in the country of my youth.

In the States, a frequent question on the days surrounding January 1 is, “Did you stay up to watch the ball drop?” In the Philippines, unless you’re deaf, you have no choice but to stay up and usher in the New Year.

Supposedly, the tradition is rooted in attempts to ward away evil spirits for the coming year – but I can’t say my friends ever referenced that purpose as they made their New Year’s preparations. Regardless of the true reason, Filipinos create bunkers of gunpowder and other small munitions in preparation for the big event. Everything I’ve seen in the US pales in comparison to the amount of firepower I’m talking about here. The Philippine arsenals pay no regard for aesthetics, it’s all about noise – after all, evil spirits won’t be scared off by pretty colors. The standard issue firecracker of choice during my days was the 5-star, gunpowder tightly rapped into a triangular-shape with a fuse protruding from one corner. Some of the more elaborate 5-star configurations included an entire belt of them strung together on the same fuse, light it and some 50+ 5-stars explode in rapid succession.

During the months of November and December, Filipinos stock their bunkers in preparation for December 31. Off and on, they’ll set a few off for the fun of it before New Year’s Eve, I guess to test things out. Once December 31 rolls around, you want to make sure you’re safe at home. Though sleeping is out of the question, there is a festive atmosphere to be enjoyed. The New Year definitely comes in with a bang.

Little did I know that my love for NASCAR may have originated in New Year's.

Christmas Dilemma Answered

After all the media hullabaloo, we appear to have answered the Christmas dilemma correctly – at least as far as Grace Church is concerned. Our three Christmas weekend services had attendances in the Auditorium (not including the early childhood kids who were in Sunday School) of the following:
     6 p.m. 12/24 – 640
     8 p.m. 12/24 – 392
     10:45 a.m. 12/25 – 359
     Total Auditorium attendance – 1,391

This is a good example of the leadership/followership relationship. Obviously, the church leaders set the course for our Christmas weekend. Pastor Scott could have decided not to have any services on Saturday night or Sunday morning for that matter. He could’ve led us in that direction. That’s the leadership side of the relationship. But good leaders are also good followers.

The followership side of the relationship is when the leader attempts to follow those they are trying to lead. In the example of Christmas weekend, the church leaders attempted to put themselves in the place of the congregation, what service(s) would the congregation most like to have. The leaders that best know those they are leading tend to be the best followers. And with Christmas weekend, we appeared to have followed and thereby led rather effectively.

With a congregation of 800+, I know our service schedule didn’t fit with everyone. That’s the tough part, we have to lead/follow based on the majority, unfortunately, in doing that, we miss some.

If our attendances continue at their current level, it wouldn’t surprise me if we offer two
Christmas Eve services to accommodate the large response, but I’m just guessing. Maybe we’ll always have a Christmas morning service too – regardless of whether Christmas falls on a Sunday or not. It will all depend on following and leading.

Christmas: Joy!

I am filled with joy…

• as I’ve heard countless stories of how God has worked through Grace Church to bring numerous individuals one step closer to him


• as we as a staff have had opportunity to serve shoulder-to-shoulder on big projects


• as we as a staff are being molded into a team


• as Pastor Scott opens the word each Sunday and each staff meeting as if the lesson is especially for me


• as it is clear that God has sent us a wave that we’ve caught and we are riding it for all it’s worth


• that through the birth of Christ and his eventual death and resurrection, I was offered grace. And because of His grace, I have the opportunity to offer grace to others.

May you experience His joy!

Nap Time

Like many of us look forward with eager anticipation to an upcoming vacation or Christmas, the church building looks forward to the week between Christmas and New Year's. The last week of December is the one week of the year that the building enjoys peace. The other 51 weeks of the year, there are activities going on day and night between the children, youth and adult activities, the school ministry and the daycare ministry. Other ministries take breaks a different points during the year, but because it provides childcare to families who have to work at all times, the daycare remains open but for the major holidays.

I praise God for providing us with a facility that can handle those demands. With the amount of use our building gets, it’s holding up really well.

I praise God that we have ministries that utilize the building so heavily, maximizing it’s full potential. Our investment in this building is reaping huge returns.

I think the building is ready to curl up on the sofa with a nice warm blanket and take a weeklong nap. Then again, so am I.

Christmas: Green Tights

I blogged last week about the annual staff Christmas skit we produced in Princeton. One year, the church Christmas party deadline loomed while the creative juices weren’t flowing. As a last resort, we decided to have the Sr. Pastor dress up as Santa Claus and I would be his helper elf.

My wife did a superb job of putting together an elf costume from scratch. I was completely decked out; she even created size 13 elf shoes with pointy toes and bells! The worst of it was having to wear green queen-sized pantyhose.

Now, you have to understand, being dressed up was not new to me. As a blonde-haired, blue-eye six-year-old surrounded by brown-skinned, brown-eyed Filipinos, the schoolteachers always gave me prominent parts in their lavish productions – after all, in their eyes I was a living doll. It was the opposite of Where’s Waldo, I stood out in a crowd. Their productions required me to wear makeup and the like, which I greatly disliked, but was usually bribed to accept with money or a liter of soda. But wearing green tights at the church Christmas party was a different category. Tights just don’t look good.

To top things off, that year the church Christmas party was held at a restaurant that was hosting other functions. I didn’t have the privilege of wearing this getup in the security of the church, I was out in public, changing in the restaurant bathroom and having to pass other guests on my way back to party. Fortunately, the party ended without incident and I still have the tights to this day.

Of course, Pastor Scott’s resume includes a green tights incident (see the April 9 entry) as well. With all the other zany things that we’ve done at Grace over the past year-and-a-half, green tights might make a comeback.

ROI for an Auditorium

There’s no doubt about it, our multi-use/multi-purpose facility comes with a boat load of headaches, but the ROI (return on investment) when fully examined does make it all worth it.

Think of all that we were able to do with our facility in the past year…

• We worshipped together with the Auditorium chairs setup in a circle with the platform in the middle


• We increased our seating capacity for our largest Easter services ever


• Children rode the giant swings of VBS fame


• We hosted volleyball, basketball and floor hockey games


• We hosted communion and foot washing


• We brought the North Pole to Lititz


• We hosted weddings


• We hosted funerals


• We had the school Christmas program


• We had the school play


• We had the daycare and school graduations


• And lest I forget the daily physical education classes and school recess

That’s quite a list. If we had a fixed-seats in the Auditorium, how many of those activities would we be able to continue to do? Think of all the people we've been able to touch because we have a facility that is flexible.

Our facility is used more now than ever and the master calendar has become a master-challenge. We’re in the process of upgrading our tracking systems to try and keep up with the demand, our current system has been completely maxed-out. These are all positive signs. In their book, When Not to Build, Ray Bowman and Eddy Hall capture the essence of the function of a church building, “If the church’s mission is to minister to people in Christ’s name, church buildings can have only one legitimate function: to serve as tools to help church members better fulfill that mission.” In my evaluation, we are doing pretty good in that department. Though we want to continue to be good stewards of our facility, we are less handcuffed by walls, paint colors, bricks and mortar. We are less concerned about staining carpets if in return we are ministering to people.

Using our multi-use/multi-purpose Auditorium as a tool produces eternal returns that far outweigh the headaches that it creates. Based on how God has used our current Auditorium, I can only imagine how God may choose to use the next tool if it is similarly geared to serve in a multi-use/multi-purpose capacity.

The Solstice is Coming and My Goose is Getting Fat

Don't let this detract from your celebrating the birth of Christ this season, but there is another celebration to be had in a different context.

This week marks the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight for the northern hemisphere. There will be 9 hours and 19 minutes of daylight in Lititz on December 22. From here on out we will be gaining a few minutes of daylight every day until June 20 when we'll top off at some 15 hours of daylight.

Here’s a tip so you won’t be caught by a trick question… if you are ever asked what days are the shortest and longest days of the year, you need to clarify whether they are asking about daylight hours or hours in the day. In areas that observe daylight savings time, the longest and shortest days in terms of hours are the days you spring forward and fall back. Meanwhile, the winter/summer solstices are the shortest/longest days of daylight of the year.

I don't enjoy arriving at work just as the sun's rising and getting home at dusk, so I celebrate and enjoy counting up the added minutes of daylight each day.

http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/lancaster-pennsylvania.html
http://www.almanac.com/rise/

Christmas: Diesel Van

One of the Christmas traditions at the church where I served as Administrator, was an all-church Christmas party. The highlight of the party was the staff skit. We were blessed to have a creative Associate Pastor and an artistic Senior Pastor, who when combining their efforts could produce some great work. It's important that I set the atmosphere.

As with a lot of things in church ministry, the Christmas party would be on the calendar months in advance, but the planning was last minute. The organized, non-procrastinators would begin reminding the staff that we needed to start thinking about the staff skit a month or so before the party, but their warnings and urgings fell on to the floor with no response. The day of the party would roll around and all hands would be on deck - the entire day devoted solely to creating, editing and practicing the skit. The atmosphere in the office was electric with the buzz of the pending deadline, the natural stagefright before a performance and the fear of writer's block with the deadline looming so closely. Rushing out the door with the final script in hand, we'd race to gather our families and head to the party. Our spot in the program would roll around and the skit would come off as if we'd been rehearsing for weeks.

My final Christmas on staff followed this same routine. The day of the party we decided to make a parity on The Sound of Music, taking the well-known songs and writing lyrics based on events at the church. Each of us would sing a song as a solo and my solo was to the tune Edeleweiss with the following lyrics:

Diesel van, diesel van
every Sunday you choke me
rusty and old, forever cold
this is a nightmare, please poke me

When Ford makes a van it will stick around
stick around forever

Diesel van, diesel van,
why didn't you leave with Wayne Wever

The skit received rave reviews and was a smashing success. I even have a copy of it on tape, though none of the record labels picked it up. But the show ranks right up their with the previous classics. Next week I'll tell you about the skit that required me to wear green pantyhose.

The inherent potential of a church-sponsored school

I've thought for a long time that our school ministry has inherent potential that we haven't realized yet. It's a little uncomfortable to put into these terms, but from some perspectives, Grace Church is a medium-sized business with a multi-million dollar budget. The resources that come along with that type of business creates a world of educational possibilities.

Think about all the resources we have to offer in the building:
A fully functional office - administrative functions
A fully functional computer network - computer tech support and network administration
Building maintenance - electric, plumbing, HVAC among the other building systems
A fully functional accounting office
A plethora of ministry opportunities

We can use our day-to-day operations to educate kids. We haven't tapped that potential as much as I'd like. One recent project gave me renewed hope.

It was clear that the project could be more efficient if we had a mathematical formula. Though I love numbers and studied computer science for a while, math isn't my greatest strength. I sought assistance from the school math teacher. We talked through the problem and the solution I was seeking and the teacher said they would work the problem and get back to me. A few days later I was handed a solution (the formula pictured is not the actual formula). My schedule turned upside down at the time, so I didn't have time to test or work with it, so it sat on my desk for a few weeks. Then the teacher contacted me again and said that one of her students had streamlined the formula. I finally found time to work with it and found a bug or two which gave me the opportunity to work directly with the teacher and the student. In the end we came up with a formula that solved the problem and one that I'll be able to use quite frequently. In addition, a couple of consultants I know were aware of what I was trying to do and were very interested in the solution as they face similar problems on a regular basis.

I was thrilled to have a real time, practical problem that we could use as a teaching opportunity. I think there has to be a world of other things like this that we can leverage for educational purposes, giving our students the benefit of seeing their solutions applied in real situations.

Christmas: Hot Wings roasting on an open fire...

One of my Christmas memories has little to do with Christmas...

My parent's first assignment as missionaries in the Philippines placed our family in the remote town of Labo on the southern end of the main island. I was in first grade. That December, as a way to build relationships with the community, my parents were giving out Christmas cookies. While Mom & Dad were walking the few blocks to deliver cookies to the Post Office staff, I went across the street to play with my Filipino friends. By most accounts, if you couldn't see my skin color, you would've thought I was one of the natives. I spoke the language fluently, went to Filipino public school and had a group of Filipino friends.

One of our neighbors across the street, was a blacksmith. His shop was in front of his house. The forge was originally hand-cranked and I used to have fun cranking it for a while when I'd stop by. I happened to stop by the blacksmith's to discover that the forge was used for more than just blacksmithing - the men were preparing the Filipino rendition of hot wings. The "wings" were normally consumed with alcoholic beverage and reserved for the men, but there wasn't any of that around at the time. My parents taught me to be a polite guest, so I couldn't refuse the offer of having a taste of the "wings." So while Mom & Dad were building relationships handing out cookies, I was having "hot wings" cooked on a blacksmith's forge. One of many unique experiences.

In case you're curious, it tasted like chicken.

Transition Reflection

I've had the privilege over the past 3-4 years to watch and participate in our church's leadership transition. Now that the transition phase is fading, I wanted to take an opportunity to share my perspective.

My observations will focus on Pastor Young and Pastor Distler. Please understand, that while I respect both men and want to acknowledge the great way in which they have lead us, in no way do I want to supersede the God's work. I cannot express or completely identify, how much praise is due to God. I've never seen Him lead in such clear, and special ways as He has led our church through these last 3-4 years. Praise God! In addition to a tangible sign of His sovereignty, it is also an affirmation of the power of prayer. Soon after Pastor Young announced his retirement plan, we began praying off and on in the office for our future leader and his family. I know many others were praying too. The credit God deserves cannot be expressed adequately.

I admire and respect Pastor Young's leadership through the transition. When I interviewed for this job, I directly asked him if he had a retirement plan. In 1998, he didn't, but when he finally did have a plan, he shared it with the congregation two years in advance. The foresight to give the church two years to prepare for his departure laid a firm foundation. As the search process was organized, Pastor Young backed away and allowed the Elders to operate. On several occasions when Elder meeting discussions would turn to transition issues, Pastor Young would excuse himself quietly. Being the first time we had ever faced replacing a Senior Pastor, Pastor Young found the right balance of giving appropriate advice about how to create the process and then backing away and letting the process be carried out without his influence. I'm not sure any of us will ever know how difficult it was for him to leave those meetings and to let go. At his insistence, Dr. Young also made sure that he wasn't in town when any of the candidate(s) were visiting our church. I also respect Dr. Young for continuing to lead to his last days as our Senior Pastor. During his last few months he tackled reorganizing the board that oversees the daycare and school ministries, not a small initiative. He used his remaining influence to prepare a large part of our ministry for future growth. By declaring his retirement early and the work he led us through during the ensuing two years, Dr. Young prepared us to accept a new Senior Pastor. We were as prepared as we could be. As in a relay, he ran his leg to the best of his ability, left all he had on the track and gave a perfect handoff.

I had an instant connection with Pastor Scott. I had the opportunity to meet with him one-on-one for 30 minutes several weeks before he was introduced to the congregation. I've never had a meeting like it. We both knew that we would work well together, we just knew it. It was clear our philosophies are closely aligned and obvious that our strengths and weaknesses would compliment each other. Had it been feasible, I think we would've started working right then. The excitement in the office was hard to contain. With a three month gap between Pastor Young's last day and Pastor Scott's first day, Scott sent us multiple email messages orienting us to his style of leadership, setting some of his philosophy of ministry in place and preparing us for his arrival.

I've been impressed with Pastor Scott's desire to get to know Dr. Young, to honor him and his concern for the Young family that remained in Lititz. The congregation never go to see it due to technical difficulties, but on the Sunday when the Youngs officially returned to Grace after their year-long hiatus, Pastor Scott had taped a video message (he was out of town), In addition to welcoming them back, Pastor Scott shared about the relationship the two of them now had, that Dr. Young and his wife had asked Scott to be their pastor and that Scott was thrilled that they wanted to retain their membership. I've also been impressed with the Young's desire to retain their connections with Grace. The love for the church is obvious. It was neat to sit under the teaching of Dr. Young again on Thanksgiving weekend. To me, that was the culmination of the transition.

The exchange of the baton is a critical moment in the race, often determining the success or failure of the team. At Grace, the exchange was superb. The exchange occurred in stride, the handoff was firm and the momentum of the first leg carried through to the second.

I praise God for the way He used both of these men to affect a transition process that has not only maintained the ministry of Grace, but has it ready to join God wherever He chooses to work next.

I only like Christmas surprises

I don't like surprises, especially first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, when you work in infrastructure areas, managing systems on which others rely to do their work, you have to deal with surprises. So my normal morning routine was again interrupted with a surprise when I opened the door to the office this morning - one of our computer network servers had a problem. This is the perfect week for a network problem: the school Christmas program is tonight and uses computers, the school is scheduled to process grades today using computers, the Christmas walk-thru is this weekend among our regular tasks. No pressure or anything. So I donned my fire helmet and went to work to put out another fire. I don't like surprises like that. I think the only surprises I like are the kind that come on Christmas morning.

I can hear Santa on the phone with me Christmas morning, "Andrew, uh, the network is down." That's the kind of surprise I like, the kind that only come on Christmas.

Grace Church holy of holies - part 2

The second holy of holies at Grace Church is the church office. The door to the church office can only be opened with a key, limiting access to the office and a small percentage of the congregation has the opportunity to enter the church office. Why is the office area restricted?

The layout is not people friendly - The church office layout is designed for function; getting office work done. The design does incorporate any area for receiving office guests or anything that remotely resembles a reception area. The floor space in the outer office area holds several permanent workstations that all face the wall; communicating that the space is task-oriented, not people oriented. I've analyzed it to pieces to try and find a cheap way to redesign the space to receive guests and serve people, but I haven't found a workable solution.

The open layout makes everything accessible to everyone - The floor plan is so open, there are no physical elements to control people traffic. Think about the CopyMax store, there's equipment in the general area that customers can access, but there's other equipment behind the counter that only employees can access. The church office isn't laid out in that manner, once in the office, a person has access to all of the equipment. Serving the needs of multiple ministries and hundreds of people requires a level of control. The layout of the office does not provide that ability.

Confidential and sensitive information - As the brain center for our facility, the office houses different types of information. It is difficult to protect this information within the open floor plan.

Here are some of the elements in my dream to renovate the church office. I'd like to see a balanced floor plan that adequately serves the two audiences of a church office: the employees who use the space Monday-Friday and the volunteers who use the space on Wednesday nights, Sunday mornings and sporadically during the week. The space requires a reception area for receiving people into the office as well as a general office area that ministry leaders can use to support their ministries. On the flip side, the office needs an employees only work area and an indirect way to limit access to the ministry staff offices so all guests can be appropriately screened. To try and accomplish those objectives with the current layout would require a lot of work to address numerous issues.

What's behind that locked door?
In addition to the general office area, there are seven individual offices, a break room, a men's and women's restroom, two storage rooms and a conference room. The staff will tell you that the area is one of the colder spots in the building (in fact, I think we tripped a circuit breaker yesterday because so many staff members were using personal heaters).

The conference room is used for staff meetings, the monthly Elder Executive Committee meetings, the bi-monthly Elder Board meetings, and a lot of other meetings as well as for the occasional staff lunch or social. The conference room is typically where the bridal party prepares for weddings and we even had a wedding in the conference room!

The individual offices serve in multiple capacities as well: workstations, nap areas, auxiliary storage rooms, computer data center and tree graveyards (because of all the paper we use). One of the offices is a lighthouse shrine, one is dedicated to Penn State and the Steelers, another might as well be a music shop and one is a train room.

The office area is one I hope to renovate at some point. I dream of using the space to be more welcoming to our guests, to be more user friendly to our ministry leaders/volunteers and more conducive to facilitating teamwork among our staff.

Christmas Walk-Thru is a Team Effort

On the surface, the upcoming Christmas Walk-Thru may look like an outreach organized and carried out solely by the Worship Arts ministry. But I'm thrilled to reveal that behind the scenes it is an all-out team effort. Indirectly, a majority of the Grace Church ministries are contributing to the effort in different capacities. It's been encouraging to see volunteers and paid staff alike, pitching in, solving problems for the sake of this church-wide outreach. It's exciting to be a part of an effort like this.

And while we aren't ready to start publicizing anything yet, early indications are that we as a team are very interested in creating more outreach opportunities like the Christmas Walk-Thru in 2006. Pastor Scott led an exciting brainstorm meeting earlier this week to begin developing outreach concepts for 2006 as a follow-up to the success of The Road to Grace initiative in 2005.

I'm so excited.

College Bowls

I think this past weekend could not have gone any better for Penn State. Being ranked number 3 with the current BCS system is the most precarious positions, just ask the 2004 Cal team among a list of others. Fortunately, USC and Texas are clearly a cut above the rest and were able to go undefeated on the season. If they had lost a game there would be some uncertainty in College Football once again. Thankfully, USC and Texas did their jobs.
There were others that were claiming rights to the number 3 ranking prior to this weekend - LSU and Virginia Tech among them. Each with a loss on their record, they had a legitimate argument to be ranked 3rd. Fortunately, both teams lost over the weekend, leaving Penn State as the clear number 3.

And finally, the bowl matchups play to Penn State's favor - at least based on rankings. A Penn State/Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl would have been enticing, but being matched against Florida State, ranked 22nd in the country, on paper looks like a nice matchup. The pessimist that I am, I'm still nervous as to whether they'll pull out a win. (If you look back, I expressed serious doubts on October 4).

I heard a great quote by Jim Rome in response to those who are celebrating the BCS system for pitting the number 1 and number 2 teams in the country together... "Saying that 2005 proves that the BCS system works is like saying a broken clock is right two times a day."

One last thought, do you think if we send Pastor Scott to the Fiesta Bowl that Ohio State will lose it's third game of the season?

Why Grace Church rarely cancels Sunday Services for Snow

One of Grace Church's reputations is that we rarely cancel Sunday Services for snow storms. I think we have an interesting approach to snowstorms, though it's often misunderstood.

First and foremost, based on past attendance, there is a segment of our congregation that want to worship on Sunday morning. Whether they're crazy to be out on the roads or maybe they live close enough to walk to church, it's clear there is a group of our congregation that shows up in spite of the weather. If there's a group that wants to worship, we want to give them that opportunity.

From our experience, other churches have similar groups. When their church cancels and we still meet, some of them worship with us that Sunday simply because we are open. We have no intention of "stealing" attenders from other churches, but we think a snowy Sunday presents some unique ministry opportunities for us to serve the church universal.

Combined with that, most of our staff live within a few miles of the church, so it's not difficult for us to get here.

I can't stress enough that we trust and we need every attender to use common judgment on whether it is safe for them to be traveling. Our congregation is spread widely enough that we can't determine the safety conditions for each attender. While we aren't supposed to give up worshipping together, missing a Sunday or two because of the weather is understandable. Just because we don't cancel services, doesn't mean we expect everyone to be at church. Our expectation is actually to the contrary...

We expect a smaller crowd on a snowy Sunday. With that comes a unique worship atmosphere unlike our regular services. We recognize that Sunday School teachers, childcare workers and all of the others that support a regular service may be unable to get to the church, so we take a casual approach. We throw the normal plans out the window and work with what we have. Children can worship in the Auditorium with their families and we can sing without instruments or song words, each of us in our flannel shirts and snow boots. The volunteers who support Sunday morning services should not feel pressured to get to the church if we don't cancel. We'll flex with what we have/who shows-up and have fun in the process.

I should stress that during really bad weather, dress appropriately if you are coming to church. We can't always keep the sidewalks and parking lot clear if a ton of snow is falling, so dress appropriately, wear your boots and leave the patent leather shoes at home.

We will rarely cancel Sunday services the night or day before and here's why... Nothing against Doug Allen or any other Meteorologist, but their track record shows that they aren't able to exactly predict the weather. Therefore, we want to delay the decision until we have a much better idea of what the weather will be.

How can you find out if services are cancelled? Listen to WDAC 94.5 FM or WJTL 90.3 FM on Sunday morning. Our cancellation will be announced on those stations. If you have to, you can call the church (626.2155) and press option 6 for the cancellation notices - be advised that the phone system can handle a limited number of calls, if it is overwhelmed you will be cutoff. Listening to the radio is your best bet.

So the next time you wake up on a Sunday morning and Grace Church is still meeting for worship and you deem it safe to go out, pull on your snow gear and worship with a few of the frozen chosen at Grace!

My Tannenbomb

Though I have my share of typos, the typo in the title is on purpose... Thank goodness I have a day job! For some reason, I don't get along well with Christmas tree lights. Every year, it takes me forever to string the lights on the tree. This past Saturday, we started decorating the tree around 12 noon. The tree wasn't lit until about midnight. Granted, we weren't working on it non-stop, but we didn't accomplish anything else during the day. Oh, at that was just the lights. The ornaments, garland, etc. went up Sunday evening. So I think the tree is more appropriately called a Tannenbomb.

Speaking of holiday decorations, the large inflatable lawn ornaments are apparently a hit with some Christmas decorators. I don't get them. I've tried to imagine the corporate brainstorm meeting where this concept was hatched... hours into the deliberation, the employees feeling the pressure of the most recent economic downturn and after a day long deliberation with little results they hit the jackpot, Smith blurts out "I know, why don't we make a big inflatable snow globe that people can put on their lawns!"

Then there's the ensuing scene, the family is shopping at their local all-in-one mart and seeing the inflatable item exclaims, "That will go perfectly with the Christmas lights on our house!" I don't get it. The best part about the inflatable decorations is seeing them deflated like a melted snowman when I go to work each morning.

One other Christmas Tree note, Marlin W. figured out that the reason Pastor Scott couldn't get the chainsaw to work was because the one pictured on his blog is electric.

Overanalyzing Where the Best Seat is in the Auditorium

I'm an analyst, it's part of my personality make-up and probably evident from my blog entries. If it hasn't been evident, this should make it blatantly apparent. Let me disect the location of the best seat in the Grace Church Auditorium.

I've identified at least five criteria to consider when selecting a seat in the Auditorium: lighting, temperature, accoustics, sight and aisle.

Lighting - Since we use incandescent lights in the room to give it a softer feel, lighting can be a challenge sometimes when I look at my Bible during services. If lighting is of high concern, look at the ceiling before you sit down and find a seat that is a few feet directly behind a light. By sitting behind the light, the rays should fall in front of you on your Bible. If your seat is directly underneath or behind a light, your body will cast a shadow over your Bible creating a human eclipse.

Temperature - I've written previously about the temperature settings in the Auditorium, but there may be some other steps you can try. If you feel a draft, look at the ceiling and identify where the air vents are located. The ceiling vents are designed to distribute the air away from the vent itself, so my theory is that if you sit directly beneath a vent you should have less of a draft. The room is so large that I'm not sure you'll notice a difference, but if it's really a concern, it's worth a try. On the flip side, if you don't like stagnant air try to sit between air vents.

Accoustics - The Auditorium is equipped with two rows of speakers that are parrallel to the rows of seats, one row in front of the stage and one row around the middle of the room. In terms of the sound amplified through the sound system, the quietest seats in the building are the first 1-3 rows of seats at the very front of the room. It depends on how the chairs were setup, but the majority of the time, those rows are in front of all the speakers, so the sound waves from the system do not reach those seats whatsoever. If you're uncomfortable sitting up front, sit directly underneath or just in front of the second row of speakers. If you prefer things loud, sit just a few rows behind the speakers where they should be pointing right at you, you'll be in the direct line of fire of the sound waves coming from the system. If you are hearing impaired, we have listening devices for your use each Sunday morning; ask an usher for assistance.

Sight - There's a little boy who's in the service every now and then who has the best view of the stage than anyone I've observed - he sits on his Dad's shoulders (Dad happens to be about 6'8"). If you don't have a friend who is 6'8" and will let you sit on their shoulders, try sitting closer to the front of the room. During the 9 a.m. service, there are usually seats available up front, you'll have to arrive a little early as the front seats are usually taken. The screens are a big help too. And of course, sit behind someone who is less tall. Maybe we should have stilts available in addition to the listening devices?

Aisle - Back when we were flying to and from the Philippines, especially once my legs were longer, I never quite figured out which airline seats were the most ideal - the window or the aisle. The same goes in the Auditorium.

My Seat - I generally try to sit near the rear of the room close to the aisle, that way if I need to leave the room I can do so without interrupting a lot of people. If it weren't for that, I'd prefer to closer to the front so that as the congregation sings, I can hear people singing behind me.

How I like to start the Christmas Season

I started a new Christmas tradition three years ago that gets the Christmas holiday off to a great start every time. My wife sings with the Ephrata Cloister Chorus and every Christmas the Chorus puts on a short Christmas program in early December.

The program follows the traditional Lessons in Carols order of worship with the Cloister Chorus singing some of the carols along with frequent audience participation. If you haven't heard the music of the Cloister, they sing a cappela in hushed, almost whisper voices, so the music is very soft. Some of the carols are in English and a few are in German, which adds to the ambiance. (Silent Night has a powerful affect when sung in German and it makes all those years of high school German worthwhile).

The program is great, but the setting makes it even better. The program is held in the Cloister meeting room, the Zahl. The sidewalks throughout the Cloister are lit with candle lanterns and all the buildings have candles in the windows. Because the program is popular you have to wait in line in the crisp December air. Of course, it's not much warmer when you get in the Zahl since it's not heated, but that just adds to the atmosphere.

I appreciate the program for it's simplicity. In the midst of the craziness and commercialism that overshadows Christmas, to worship the babe in the manger in the most simplistic setting is just the way I like to get the holiday season started.

Check out Christmas at the Cloister December 12 and 13; tickets are required.

The Car is in the Garage!

We moved into our first house this past June. We found a Cape Cod that allowed us to convert the two first-floor bedrooms and bath into my Dad's living quarters. As a result, we have a little less space for ourselves than we did in the house we had rented for six years. So moving day consisted in large part of turning the garage into a storage unit. In my mind we would not be settled-in until the car was in the garage. This past week we organized/emptied-out the garage and as of Tuesday night, the car was in the garage. I must've caught a clean-up/organize bug last week, because my office is organized more than it's been in about 10 months. I'm a binge organizer/cleaner.

Disclaimer: this photo is not an actual representation of the Norton's house or personal vehicle

What to do about Christmas?

In planning for 2005, churches have had to face a problem for the first time since 1994 - what to do about Christmas - what is a church to do when Christmas falls on a Sunday? Actually, the question churches have to answer is, what will the congregation do when Christmas falls on a Sunday? Remind me to wax eloquent on the relationship of leadership and followership sometime. Anyway...

You know the conclusion we reached at Grace Church, we will have three worship services, two on Saturday night at 6 and 8 p.m. and one on Sunday morning at 10:45. All three services are identical Sunday worship services; will function like our regular worship services with greeters, friendship team, ushers, count team, worship teams and every other group that supports our regular services. There will be childcare up through Kindergarten for all three services (children grades 1 and up can worship with their parents). ABF classes are cancelled. The Saturday evening services are not traditional Christmas Eve services. And to state the obvious, the 9:00 a.m. service on Sunday, December 25 is cancelled, there is only a 10:45 service on Christmas Sunday.

Here's what we tried to navigate...

• We considered looking at what Grace Church did in 1994, the last time Christmas fell on a Sunday, but a lot has changed over the past 10 years. Though we did not investigate further, we couldn't believe that Pastor Young would cancel a Sunday service. We don't close for blizzards, let alone a holiday!
• In the past, attendance at our traditional Christmas Eve service has been very high, so we figured we would need to add a second Christmas Eve service anyway.
• We assumed that Christmas morning is a special part of Christmas Day for family celebrations.
• If every other year we add a service for Christmas Eve, on the year that Christmas falls on a Sunday, why would we take one or more services away?

I am curious to see how it plays out. My guess is that all three services will be well attended, with the services on Saturday night having the largest attendance. I've had fun checking around with other churches to see their answers to the Christmas question.

In 2007, December 23rd falls on a Sunday, then what are we going to do?
My point exactly.

The holy of holies at Grace Church - Part 1

Sorry for the three-week hiatus, but now back to the blog... One of several physical indications of Christ's death on the cross was the curtain to the temple being torn in two (Luke 23:45), opening access to the Holy of Holies. Though all believers were given direct access to the Holy of Holies as a result, ironically, churches have been creating their own holy of holies ever since. I know of at least two that we have at Grace Church.

One of the holy of holies at Grace Church is the church kitchen.

Because the Grace Church kitchens are used to prepre food for the daycare and school programs, they are ruled by the criteria established by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture published in the Pennsylvania Code. This subjects us to regular inspections by the Department of Agriculture, you know the restaurant inspection reports you can read each week in the Sunday paper. This is one of the key reasons we've employed strict policies with the Grace Church kitchens. The Grace Church kitchens are considered commercial kitchens, no different than a restaurant. We have standards we have to maintain, standards that may not concern other churches, so we've put policies and procedures in place to help us maintain those standards. Our multi-use facility presents additional challenges to the kitchens that we've tried to navigate.

The Grace Church building was designed specifically for use by a lot of people with multiple uses. We succeed daily in fulfilling that goal, but it presents challenges too. Equipment and utensils are regularly moved if not misplaced and it's often a challenge to identify who last used a particular room. In the kichen setting, with the aforementioned standards, these challenges are magnified. If you read the Pennsylvania Code, you will find that there is specific criteria about kitchen equipment and utensils. What can and cannot be used, how it must be cleaned, how it should be stored. You can't just use any cooking utensil you can find or you bring from home (when you think about someone else preparing a meal for you, do you really want them to?). To help us hold each group/person accountable, we've been hard-nosed about who uses the kitchen so we can trace back if there are any issues.

Hopefully this gives you a broader understanding as to why the Grace Church kitchens are a holy of holies. It's frustrating to have to follow a complex room reservation procedure and not being able to access resources that would make life easier. The systems we have in place are designed to balance our responsibility to the Commonwealth with our need to prepare food for our different ministries.

Connecting with Youth through Sports

It's playoff time for the fall sports and while the Lititz Christian Girls Volleyball Team received accolades on Sunday, unfortunately, the Lititz Christian Soccer Team didn't qualify for the playoffs (they couldn't produce goals this season). Ironically, the goal scorers for Cedar Crest High School and Manheim Central played for Lititz Christian in Junior High.

While Lititz Christian deservedly received accolades on Sunday there are some other Grace Church connections in the playoffs. My wife and I plan to attend tonight's PIAA District 3 AA Soccer Semi-final match between Manheim Central and Mechanicsburg at Hershey Park Stadium to root on Ryan Hummer, one of Central's strikers. Kick-off is scheduled for 7:30.

I wish I could devote more time to following high school sports, not just for the entertainment value, but as a way to connect with and show an interest in our youth. When adults showed interest in my high school sports teams, it boosted my self esteem and showed me that others were interested in my life. I struggle to connect with the youth of today in a lot of respects, but athletics in one area that I share in common with them. I've heard youth speakers emphasize that the youth of today want to know they matter, want to know that we care about them, that we even know they exist. I find sports to be an easy way for me to communicate that to them.

It means a lot to the parents of the athletes too. Since I can only attend one or two games a season, I like to get the weekly update on how the team is doing from mom and dad. Their eyes light up as they give me the review and how their child did in the recent contests. Athletics are often blown way out of proportion, but it's a great avenue for building relationships with kids and with their parents.

Extreme Makeover: Distler Blog Edition

Since discovering that Blogger allows you to publish it's blog to your own location, I've wanted to modify Pastor Scott's blog into a traditional blog. To date, his blog has been a simple html page with the text and graphics of each week's entry.

Starting today, his blog has been reformatted. We're using Blogger, but publishing to the same URL path and filename, so we didn't have to reprogram any of the links. Hopefully, it will be a better layout for his weekday entries along with supporting XML/Atom feeds for those that are in to that (You can guess by now that I find feeds very useful).

Have you ever noticed how frequently he uses the phrase, Folks, Listen! while preaching? I figured it was an appropriate title, at least more interesting than Pastor Scott's Blog.

Testing New Announcement Format

I've been toying with new ways to deliver Grace Church content to web users. It seems a lot of websites are employing RSS feeds (see Automatic Feeds in the My Favorite Browser entry) which your computer automatically downloads to your computer without you having to actually go to a website unless they have information you want to read in-depth. We use RSS for our Grace Church Sunday Messages, but we program it ourselves. For the messages, it's not that involved, but to produce all of our content by reprogramming it in RSS would be laborious. So I've manipulated a blog site to offer our weekly announcements which automatically creates an RSS feed.

If you use feeds, you can subscribe to the blog and you'll be notified when new content has been posted. I'm curious if this will make our information more accessible to our web users or not, so give me your feedback. Here's the link to the test site - http://www.lgbc.org/blogger.html

Grace Church has been Brought to You Today...

Our current message series is a study of our church's five core values, using the acronym of GRACE. While working on the bulletin covers for the series, I thought the following would be most appropriate...

Shamed by the Shema

Our Pastor's message yesterday focused on the Shema, partially quoted in Mark 12:29-30. The interpretation of the passage and it's application to my life (our lives) was convicting and powerful. Everytime I read the Shema, I feel shamed or guilt because I don't measure up.

"Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, and with ALL your soul, and with ALL mind and with ALL your strength." Not some, ALL!

As I awoke this morning, I asked God to help me espouse the Shema throughout the day today. But as I drove to work, I found my mind wandering - and in an instant I had not loved the Lord my God with ALL my mind. Another failure. That's part of my problem, my personality attempts to categorize things so I can comprehend/manage them. So when it comes to commands that use the word ALL, it's either ALL or nothing. But I have to remind myself, that I am nothing. If I was more than nothing, I would not have needed a Savior. If I'm more than nothing I wouldn't need daily doses of grace. My feelings of shame are unnecessary. I'm not doomed to fail, it's through my Savior and the grace He provides that I can attain fulfilment in Christ.

In my imperfection, I have to continually come back to God, asking Him to help me make God my ALL in ALL.

Me and False Alarms

False Alarm Occurs at Eagles-Chargers Game
While watching the Eagles-Chargers game yesterday, a loud sounding woop could be heard over the announcers. The other members of our AFF (adult football fellowship) asked if we heard it. We speculated that it was the latest thing the Eagles were using to try and rile up the crowd. Then the CBS announcers reported that it was the fire alarm system and that the public address system was asking everyone to evacuate in an orderly fashion. From what we saw on TV, few people moved and play continued as if there wasn't a problem. What would I have done if I had been at the game?

The story of the boy who cried wolf was ingrained in me as a child and ever since, when I hear an alarm, out of habit I respond. The time my wife and I were away for a weekend in Washington, D.C. and the hotel fire alarm went off while I was in the middle of showering; I quickly rinsed my hair, threw on clothes and we went to get breakfast. Mind you, everyone else in the building was milling around and talking about a false alarm, but not us, we got out of there. The one time our high school actually had a fire, we evacuated as normal, in fact, it was so routine that most people didn't even realize there was an actual fire. One night while studying in my dorm room in college, the alarms went off. My roommate and I looked around, grabed our most prized possession and calmy walked out of the building. Fire drills are designed to make a real fire seem almost normal. I figure alarms sound for a reason. So when I hear an alarm, I evacuate. Though it would have been painful to walk out on a live NFL game, even with the players on the field, I would've walked out.

You may read this and think I'm kidding, along with my other posts, but I'm not making this stuff up. I really do evacuate when alarms sound and do enjoy our annual audits. I'll go ahead and say it, I'm not normal.

Independent Auditor's Report

Every year we hire an accounting firm to conduct an independent auditor's report of all the financial operations of Grace Church. This annual investment is integral to maintaining a high standard of accountability in the way we handle our money. The independent audit usually consists of a 3-4 day site visit by a team of accountants. The team randomly picks certain months of the year and exhaustively reviews the income and expense records. In addition to many other tests they perform, they check to make sure expenditures have accompanying official receipts, that expenses have the proper signatures to authorize purchases and that expenses are correctly categorized (i.e. office supplies weren't categorized as a food purchase). If you ever wonder why you are asked for so much detail when requesting a reimbursement, it's because of the auditors :)

Another aspect of the site visit is individual interviews with our HR/Finance Assistant, Karen G., the Church Treasurer, Steve L. and me. These interviews consist of a lengthy questionnaire. With their vast experience, the accountants know the key signs of fraudulent activity and mishandling of funds. They grill us with specific questions about anything questionable that we've observed over the past year and ask us if we have any concerns about anything related to our financial operations. Each interview ends with the auditors giving each of us a free chance to report anything we find remotely questionable, suspicious or fraudulent pertaining to any person in the organization or any element of our operation.

The site visit is an intense scrutiny of everything we do. Though site visits normally carry a negative stigma, I actually look forward to the week. I recognize the value of being scrutinized by outsiders and look forward to learning how we can improve in our operations. Fortunately, all of the previous auditor's reports have come back positive with few, if any, qualifications. The report from the site visit in July 2005 was another positive report. As I usually do, I learned some new things we need to put in place and we're methodically working to get those implemented. I hope there is always something new for us to learn, something new to pursue.

Much of our success is due to the diligent work of the people who handle our finances. They often have to fill the role of communicating messages we don't want to hear - that my documentation was incorrect, I forgot a signature, I need my receipt, or my check was not written correctly. Their tenacity in insisting in having these details is what keeps us above reproach. I deeply appreciate their sacrificing their personal popularity for the sake of upholding our stringent processes. Without their sacrifice our systems are compromised.

Copies of the Independent Auditor's Report for the years ended June 20, 2005 and 2004 are available at the church office. Though not interesting reading to most, the document affirms that our financial reports are a fair representation of the church's financial position and found our operations to conform to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

My Favorite Browser

For the time being, my favorite internet browser is Mozilla's Firefox (version 1.0.7). I've found Firefox extremely effective at minimizing the number of pop-ups and advertisements on webpages. Beyond that, Mozilla can up with some great enhancements to web-browsing that they incorporated into Firefox that made Microsoft's Internet Explorer obselete:

• Tabbed-browsing - this may seem like a minor enhancement, but being able to open multiple webpages in tabs as opposed to opening them in separate windows is a huge help. This is especially when I'm researching a topic and want to have multiple sources open simultaneously. It's great to be able to tab back and forth between the pages.

• Automatic Feeds - RSS feeds, the ability for programs to tell my computer when there's new information on a webpage, has overtaken the internet. A built-in Firefox feature automatically senses which webpages have RSS feeds and gives you the option of subscribing to them automatically. We use RSS feeds on the Grace Church website as does this blog. When you go to those pages the Firefox browser places a special orange icon in the lower right corner of the browser window. Clicking on that icon automatically subscribes you to the RSS feed which is placed along with your other Bookmarks.

I find these tools greatly enhance my web browsing and I commend Mozilla for their ingenuity. Microsoft is working on their next version of Internet Explorer and it's sure to incorporate these same features. But for now, Firefox is my favorite browser until another company can produce a better browser.

Feedback, any kind of feedback

One of the concepts covered in the Master's program I completed a few years ago was the relationship between leadership and followership. The premise is that leading often involves a lot of following. To be a good follower and thus a good leader, one must have a good understanding of the group they are trying to follow/lead. Having that good understanding requires feedback.

I yearn for feedback. Positive or negative, I want to know what people are thinking. Take the land purchase, since we sent out Pastor Scott's letter, we haven't received any feedback. I've assumed that if anyone had an objection that they would have voiced it, but that's not always a safe assumption. I want to know what people are thinking. That's one of the reasons you can leave comments in response to my blog entries.

In some ways this is new for us, we haven't been known to ask for feedback or input. Being new, here's what you can expect from me. In return for your input, I commit to listen to what you have to say. I'm human, so I may struggle at times to listen when the message isn't one I want to hear, but I need to hear it anyway. Granted, I have to weigh the information I receive and discern which to heed. For example, I was working on a document last week and asked multiple staff to review it for content and typos. The document included the following sentence:

Throughout the week, the Pastors and staff pray for anyone who needs strength to make it through the day, the wisdom to make a tough decision or relief from an unendurable situation.

I received two conflicting responses, one that stated that the word, needs should be singular and one that felt it should be plural (having learned Tagalog when I was 4-years old, English has never been my strong suit). I had to weigh both responses and decide which to follow, so I can't promise that I'll act on every piece of feedback I receive. But I'll listen. I want to know.

If I don't know, I'll be ineffective as a follower and if I can't follow, I can't lead.

Denial - a defense mechanism that denies painful thoughts

At around 7:17 p.m. on Saturday, October 15th, I realized that I am in denial about my enjoyment of competition. I like to portray that though I enjoy sports and competition, I don't let it affect my day or my outlook on life. The fact of the matter is, when I get rooting for my team, it affects me. And that was evident Saturday evening as Penn State battled Michigan. Somewhere around 7:17 p.m. as Chad Henne found Mario Manningham in the end zone for the game winning touchdown, I had to leave the TV, my heart sank and my blood boiled. I didn't realize how much it would impact me.

The pessimist that I am, I didn't expect PSU to come away with the victory and with Michigan leading, my lack of faith appeared justified. But then the blue & white game me hope and drawing me in with them only to have it dashed in the end. Maybe it was because I had a Penn State t-shirt and hat on all day? Maybe it was because I was following the game (I didn't see or hear any of the games against Minnesota and Ohio State)?

Yeah, I've been in denial, I take it seriously.
I've got to stop kidding myself.

The Pros and Cons of Moving Route 772

Link to Lititz Record article
I had heard rumors several years ago that the local officials were looking to re-route 772 to remove truck traffic out of downtown Lititz. That's why I thought Penn Township has invested so much into Lexington Road between Doe Run and West Newport in the past several years. Apparently, the discussion is ongoing and a final decision has not been made, but the change could have positive and negative impacts on Grace Church.


If Route 772 is moved to enter Lititz on Doe Run and West Lincoln Avenue, there is the potential advantage of more traffic passing by Grace Church, giving us higher visibility. Being located on a State Route could also make it easier to give people directions in finding Grace (Go North on 501, turn left onto 772 West and go 8-tenths of a mile. Grace Church is on your right). I think that would be ideal for Grace Church.

The increase in traffic could have a negative impact on Grace Church. Pulling out of our parking lot could be more difficult depending on the time of day. During our large events, we might need to work closely with the Warwick Township Police to help with traffic flow. Though a nuisance, I think the increased visibility for the church outweighs the negative impacts.

From the Lititz Borough perspective, I don't see the benefit to bringing 772 through Lititz that way. Moving 772 from Orange to West Lincoln still requires trucks to make hard turns in Lititz Borough, in essence the problem is moved north by a couple of blocks. Why not run 772 completely north of town and keep it out of the Borough alltogether? Unfortunately, the other re-routing options all involve hard turns as well. Fortunately, those intersections are outside of town, so there's space to widen intersections and clear sight lines.

I found out about the October 6 meeting after my schedule was already set for that week, but I hope to attend future meetings as a representative of Grace. I encourage all residents of the areas that would potentially be affected to actively participate in the process.

Link

Effective Bulletin Communication

Have you ever viewed our weekly bulletin through the lens of someone who's unfamiliar with the Grace Brethren, has never been to our or any church before? I'm convinced that we do not communicate effectively with that audience. I found the following excerpt online and it made me feel the way I would guess our bulletin makes some people feel...

Hey ppl whats up ? not much here really just
hangin out and stuf im whachin the football game yeaa..... so ya my
friends are thier they r so lucky bt ya im @ home rite now im just chillen my
bro went to the store and im here whachin teh game its great bt ya . Ppl if u
wana do sumthin plezzzz call me im so bored i have no life ya no lol bt ya
i gess.....im doing ok bt ya anyway no biggy so ya im just
reallyyyy...........ya anyway ......well leave me sum 2 cum back 2

Though I've reread those sentences several times, I have very little comprehension of what the writer is trying to communicate - I need an interpreter. But how often does the bulletin contain jargon and acronyms that are specific to us and foreign to others? BNYC, FGBC, CE National, The Chateau, Alpha Lobby, Threefold Communion, Trine Immersion... the list can go on and on. We're accustomed to them and we know what they mean, but many have no clue. Of course to explain each item each time we talk about them can get tedious, is time consuming and takes up printed space. But we have to weigh those concerns against the effectiveness of the message.


I admit that it's hard to think beyond ourselves in this way, but I that's our challenge. As we create the bulletin each week, we've got to keep our audience in mind, with whom are we trying to communicate and what's the most effective way to communicate with them.

The bulletin for Sunday, October 16 is unlike any bulletin we've published in my time at Grace. We changed it because the entire morning this Sunday is aimed at reaching unbelievers. The normal weekly bulletin will return next week, but I hope to keep pressing us to use language that's understandable to the masses in our announcements.

Weekend Update

The Curse of Distler
Our fearless Senior Pastor predicted the Ohio State Buckeyes would blow-out Penn State this past weekend (There is no joy in Happy Valley); fortunately, his prediction was off. But I got to thinking, Ohio State has two losses this year. Both games have at least one common denominator, Pastor Scott was in attendance at both games. Coincidence or curse?

SALT Water Taffy 2005
Due to the inordinate amount of rain our SALT2005 community service turned into Salt Water Taffy. Actually, I figure God did the community service by sending the much needed rain.

Latest Web Development
We rolled out our newest addition to the Grace Church webpage last week, weekly audio previews of the upcoming messages. The previews augment the weekly messages which we've been publishing for about a year now. The weekly messages are also available in a podcast; I've contemplated broadcasting the previews as a podcast too, but I can't make up my mind. Is it worth podcasting them? Should they be combined with the message podcast or separate?

An Inside Perspective on the Land Purchase

Hopefully you've received the letter Pastor mailed to the congregation on Wednesday. If you didn't stop by the Diligence Update bulletin board in the lobby on Sunday - it has copies of this week's letter, the Diligence Update that was published in July and the original letter announcing the land deal that was distributed last Spring. You need to read all three documents to get up to speed. In addition to the formal communication, I wanted to share my inside perspective on the whole process...

I’ve been completely amazed at how God has been leading us over the past year or more, particularly with future expansion possibilities. I have been honored to be at the table in multiple meetings and have walked away laughing hysterically at how God’s hand was evident.

The current agreement for purchasing the land across the street is an interesting story. We initially contacted the owners and asked if they would be interested in selling their property to us. We had an initial meeting with the joint owners, both respected businessmen, where Pastor Scott shared our dreams for reaching the greater-Lititz area. They were interested in what God was doing and particularly about what role we thought their property could play in achieving our dreams. We were floored to learn that though they had owned the property for 10+ years, they had not even driven by the property in more than 5 years (I think if I owned property, I’d at least drive by it occasionally). The meeting concluded with them asking us to make an offer.

So here are two very successful businessmen who own a tract of land they haven’t seen in some time. They made an investment 10+ years ago. Their plan was to expand their business into Lancaster County only to be thwarted by a zoning change. The zoning change not only halted their expansion plans but also significantly devalued their investment. They’ve been sitting on it for years and apparently have not pursued selling it off. We knock on their door and they ask us to make an offer.

We were confident the property would sell for about $250,000, but the Elders had a good debate about our deal-strategy and timing. I’m a plan guy, I like to have plans and follow them, an idea of the direction in which I’m headed. The whole way this thing was unfolding was a little scary since we didn’t have a plan. We had no idea of how we would use the land other than it would be for expansion. My instinct plus everything I’ve heard and read told me that it would be difficult to garner public support for any proposal to buy property without a comprehensive plan. Nevertheless, it was coming together before we had a comprehensive plan in place.

On the surface, it seemed like the owners were ready to accept our initial offer of $125,000 with no diligence period, but their accountants advised them that they needed an official appraisal so they could accurately book their gain/loss on the sale for tax purposes. When the appraisal came back at $250,000, the owners made it clear they would not accept any less.

There was activity on other fronts too. We started receiving gifts toward future expansion for sources we never expected. Some gifts came from former attenders who no longer live in the area and other gifts came from people who God has blessed recently.

As we pursued our due-diligence research of the land, other opportunities were seemingly dropping in our laps. In one meeting, unexpectedly an individual made us aware of some additional property that might be available. We inquired of two other property owners as to their interest in talking with us about the church purchasing the property. These other developments have had me laughing hysterically as God just keeps putting things in our lap. That’s what has impressed me most over the past year or so, we haven’t been following our plan, we’ve merely been following and walking through opportunities that God has been putting at our feet. These other opportunities have yet to develop; we’ve pursued each appropriately but not in an aggressive forceful approach. We are confident that God will open the doors and lead us in His time.

I’m taking the same approach on the zoning clarification. Yes, it was disappointing to hear the Township Manager clarify that we will not be able to build a large facility on the property under the current zoning. Nevertheless, my disappointment was overshadowed by the Township’s willingness to work with us on other solutions. That the Township Manager sees churches as an important factor in the community should not be taken for granted. I previously worked at a church where the Township viewed churches almost as a nuisance to the community. That church has been unable to expand it’s facility in some 30 years – in part because of the Township. We are fortunate and we should thank God for the climate in which we find ourselves.

So the general course we have followed during the land purchase process is not how I would have scripted it. And while I don’t fully understand why God has brought us along this course to this point, I’m also befuddled by the following questions:

• Why the property owners, who are so successful in business, are giving us the offer when they could probably reap a higher return on their investment if they opened it up to other potential buyers?
• Why the congregation was on board with the land purchase without a plan in place?
• Why people have contributed sacrificially when we don’t have a plan and we haven’t pushed it?
• Why the township is so willing to work with us to solve our needs?

None of these factors makes sense; in some ways, it’s backwards. I don’t know where God is leading us specifically in regards to facility expansion, but I’m confident this is an opportunity He has orchestrated. As good stewards we’ve researched just about all we could about the land itself and have found it to be clean. The funds needed to buy the land have been coming in, above and beyond our regular giving, (in fact our regular giving has increased over last year), putting us in a position where we will likely be able to purchase the property without having to use any money out of the General Fund. In my experience, when factors align in that manner on an issue, I've proceeded with faith, trusting that God will direct step-by-step. I think He's doing the same for Grace.

Some Like it Hot; Some Like it Cold

Setting the temperature in the Auditorium at a level that is comfortable for everyone in a service is a monumental task. I'm not sure who I'd rather be, the worship leader who picks the songs we sing on Sunday or Jay Hall who sets the temperature - both can be lose-lose positions. I don't expect to make you feel more comfortable in the Auditorium through this entry, I just hope to shed some light on how things transpire.

The Auditorium is served by five air conditioning/heat pump units. I'm not a HVAC specialist, so if you want details of how they work, you'll need to contact your local HVAC provider. But from the little I know, heat pumps run off electricity and blow air. Heat pumps heat adequately, but have a reputation for pumping air that is cooler to the touch than comparable gas or oil systems. In our experience, the heat pumps struggle with the outdoor temperature fluctuations common to the spring and fall months.

The thermostats are set around 68-70 degrees throughout the year.

During a service ushers monitor the temperature of the Auditorium and request Jay Hall or myself to adjust the thermostat for that day. If you ever see Jay answer his mobile phone while playing the drums during a worship service you'll have an idea of what might be occurring. :)

Divine Cancellations

Divine Cancellations
Pastor Scott has introduced us to the concept of divine appointments, God-made run-ins with people who need to experience God's love in some way shape or form. Unfortunately, Pastor Scott failed to teach us about divine cancellations, but we're a team around here so I'll pick up the slack.

I had a meeting scheduled for first thing this morning, but due to operator error I awoke 2 hours later than I had originally planned. In fact, I awoke 10 minutes after I was scheduled to be at the meeting. I was really upset with myself and convinced this would destroy my entire day. I calmed myself down enough to accept that while I don't want to make a habit of missing appointments, I didn't have to let it wreck my whole day. Instead, I viewed it as a divine cancellation, for some reason I guess I wasn't supposed to or wasn't going to be at that meeting.

There is a second definition for divine cancellations - this would be the appointment you grudingly scheduled but for reasons beyond your control you are unable to make; often resulting in celebration. But let me stress here that my meeting this morning does not fit this second definition.


Weekend Fragments - It took me a while to defragment, but here's what I could piece together from the weekend...

False Advertising
I know corporations are held to high standards when it comes to false advertising, but does that apply to TV shows? I'm convinced that the TV networks are sensationalizing, if not falsely advertising their upcoming episodes. Take The West Wing for example: the previews for the episode that aired on Sunday, 10/02 advertised that one of the character's career was going to end. That didn't happen in that episode! I thought I observed the same trend with several shows last season, but never documented it to know for sure. I also observed it on the NFL post-game shows Sunday night as well. They all referenced the "controversial ending in Tampa." We watched (check that, they watched, I napped) through the ending of the Tampa/Detroit game in our AFF and there wasn't anything we would classify as "controversial". So we watched the post game report thinking that maybe something occurred after the broadcast, but they were just referring to a touchdown that was called back. I still don't think it deserved a "controversial" billing.

NASCAR @ Talladega
Sunday's NASCAR race was a shame, too many drivers eliminated way to early in the race. With the new safety improvements, why doesn't NASCAR look at removing the restrictor plates and letting the cars run flat out? Watching three, sometimes four lanes of bumper to bumper traffic racing around a track at 180-190 miles an hour isn't racing when half the field is eliminated in accidents. And though it was great to see Dale Jarrett in victory lane for the first time in several years, it was even better to see Kyle Petty crabwalk the 45 across the finish line after he wrecked on the last lap and put the exclamation point by doing a burn out as the sheet metal was falling off of the car frame.

Big Ten Football
Except for Ohio State and Iowa, I guess the Big Ten has pretty much eliminated itself from sending a candidate for the National Championship as they keep beating each other. Makes for a good Big Ten season, but not for the overall rankings. I'm trying to contain my excitement over Penn State's resounding win against Minnesota. Though they'll have momentum going into the game, Ohio State's going to be a different story. Pastor Scott informed me that his OSU jersey is already for Sunday, if PSU pulls the upset, are we up for returning the favor?

College Soccer
Marc Myers (Lititz Christian alum) had an assist in Saturday's match between Philadelphia Biblical University and Polytechnic University. Philadelphia Biblical went on to win 3-0.