Help Wanted: Ushers

Based on the questions I field, there are many understandable, yet inaccurate assumptions about the usher ministry. I’m the paid staff person responsible for this vital ministry and since we always struggle to find enough ushers for our services, dispelling the inaccurate assumptions might help us recruit more. At least that’s my attempt through today’s entry.

Ushers only collect the offering – Though part of what they do, collecting the offering is just a small part of the ushers role. Ushers are some of the first who have the opportunity to greet church attenders. They have the opportunity to help them find a seat; make sure our guests know where the restroom is, when the nursery is located and their other needs during the worship service. They have the opportunity to make our guests feel welcome and comfortable.

Ushers have to wear a coat and tie – I hear this assumption more than any other. While I’m all for wearing your Sunday best, attire in our culture has changed. To adapt, I expect ushers to be in decent attire that reflects the attire of our congregation.

Only legal adult men are allowed to usher – I think ushering is a perfect ministry for men and women, legal adults and youth. If the role of an usher is to make our guests feel comfortable, the ushers should be a cross section of our congregation. As a safety precaution, I do require that the ratio of adults to youth/children ushers at each service is at least 1:1 so that in the event of an emergency there are plenty of adults to lead the response effort.

Here's what I'd like to see from each usher:

Time Requirement

• Ushers are organized into 2 teams for each service. Teams rotate, serving for 2 months and then off for 2 months.
• When serving, ushers should be in the Auditorium ready to begin greeting worshippers 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the service and remain at their posts until after the offering is collected or until 30 minutes after the service started (which ever is later).
• Always on call for the duration of the service. If an emergency should occur, they will need to assist with crowd control, evacuation, etc.
• General schedule – First service 8:45-9:30; Second service 10:30-11:15

Greeting – greeting people as they enter the Auditorium with a smile, an outstretched hand and a “Glad to have you with us!”, specifically seeking out those who appear to be new or unfamiliar.

Directing – helping worship attenders find the restrooms and other needs they may have while worshipping with us. This can include parking their wheelchair, accommodating their seating needs, assisting the elderly, etc.

Emergencies –

• Assuring the congregation to remain calm in an emergency
• Directing the congregation to the nearest exit in an evacuation emergency and assuring them that the children’s workers will do their best to get their family members to safety
• Assisting the elderly and handicapped out of the building in an evacuation
• Handling crowd control in non-evacuation emergencies (keeping the crowd at a distance so medical personnel have the space they need to assist the individuals injured and a clear path to transport the injured out of the building.
• Assisting the medical personnel as requested (calling 911, getting the emergency kit from the church office for the medical personnel)

Offering – receiving the morning offering

If you are interested in serving as an usher, know of someone who is or want to recommend someone as an usher, please contact me. The attendance in our services continues to rise and we need more ushers to meet the demand. Being an usher might be right for you!

NASCAR: Daytona 500

Plans are underway for a Daytona party at Grace, Sunday, February 19. I think this has outreach potential, but we'll see where it goes. Here's the plan...

1. If you feel inclined, wear your favorite driver's or NASCAR apparel to church.

2. Stick around in the Auditorium to watch the Daytona 500. The TV image will be projected on the screen(s) in the Auditorium.

3. Bring $2 per person if you want in on the pizza

4. Bring a snack and drink to share with others

5. If you prefer to sit on something other than the Auditorium seats, bring your own chairs.

It's time the Grace chapter of NASCAR Nation had an official meeting. As soon as the Fantasy Leagues get put up, I hope to sent up a group for Grace, open to anyone.

Paid In Full

On this date, January 27 in the year 2006 the Grace Brethren Church of Lititz (aka Grace Church) paid off their $2.8 million mortgage. Pictured below is Karen Gromis delivering the final check to the bank this morning.

Following the example of our nation's calendar, while today is the actual date that we've paid off the mortgage, we won't celebrate the accomplishment until April. That said, there are probably some neat stories or reflections worth sharing with the rest of the church and those of us who've only become a part of Grace during the last few years. You are welcome to post your memories and reflections as comments on this blog.

Walk Like a Chameleon

I reread Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson last night. It’s a book I came across about a year or so before Pastor Young retired and one that I shared with my staff in anticipation of the changes that would come through the leadership transition. I get a kick out of the metaphor and enjoy the short story, but the simplicity of the book stares in sharp contrast to the complexities of change.

Through my formal Organizational Leadership studies and my 10 years of experience in church leadership, I’ve discovered that being adaptable is a crucial, though underrated, character trait. We didn’t spend much time in class talking about how to be adaptable, or how to become adaptable. As we’ve encountered changes at the churches I’ve been a part of, we didn’t identify our need to adapt, it was assumed or it didn’t happen. If I could select my own character trait toolbox, I’d want adaptable in there, readily accessible. I’m not sure I’m good at a adapting, but I’ve identified several times in the past few years where I had to adapt.

When I accepted the position as Business Manager, I agreed to a lengthy and specific job description. I was excited with all the responsibility I was expected to carry, but I soon learned that what had been written on paper didn’t reflect the actual operation. In addition, it was clear that other forces were at play that would produce conflict should I attempt to assume all the responsibilities listed in my job description. For a moment, I surveyed the situation, assessed the pros and cons and asked myself if I could adapt to the way things actually were operating as opposed to the way they had been written down. I accepted it and did my best. In the end, I think it worked. That wasn’t the first time my job had ever changed and it wouldn’t be the last.

We had some staff changes in the midst of some financial stress at one stage and I was faced with another adaptable moment. With reduced staff, reduced cash, but the same production demand, could I adapt to make it work? I remember challenging myself as I assessed the circumstances, “Let’s see if I can excel with this makeup.” I became more involved in the day-to-day operations than normal, because that’s what we needed to keep up. When I identify an adaptable moment, I try to view it as a challenge to my ability to lead and manage. Am I up to this challenge? Am I good enough to adapt to the style needed to work in this situation?

With the leadership transition, my job has morphed again. Year 1 under Pastor Scott’s leadership, I spent a lot of time orienting Pastor Scott to the ways of Grace. In the past 6 months, that role has diminished and changed to becoming more of an advisor on the business issues of the church. These shifts have required more of my time, making me less available for the role and tasks I performed three, four years ago. It’s required me to delegate and manage more. As I look back, each phase is different from all the rest because I attempted to adapt to my read of what was needed at the time. Some of the snapshots are hilarious.

Me dressed in my normal work attire, dress shirt, tie, slacks, loafers, jumping up and down in the already-full dumpster to make more room for the influx of trash produced at school year’s end. We were between Facility Directors at the time. That’s my most favorite.

The survival of the fittest theory would indicate I’ve adapted well enough. I wonder what I’ll get to adapt to next?

Shredding money

I hope the Pastor Scott’s just completed Stewardship message series affected you as much as it did me. Hard as it may be to accept a Business Manager proclaim that we don’t want your money, I echo everything Pastor Scott had to say wholeheartedly. If you haven’t listened to the messages, check them out on the website.

If you were in church on Sunday, 1/15, you know that we didn’t physically collect an offering that morning, because we wanted to emphasize that it’s not about your money. But we wanted to provide a way to give for those who came to church intending to do so. So we placed a box in the lobby in which people could drop their gifts.

What you may not have known is that box was actually a paper shredder; well, not exactly. The week prior, I asked Elaine to setup the offering box, but I took time to explain what we were doing to her, Joan and Karen. During the discussion we identified that we really needed a drop box that was relatively secure. While we were having this conversation, I was sitting next to our paper shredder. It’s actually just a big lock box with a drop slot. When it’s full of paper to be shredded we call the shredder service, they send their truck, which is equipped with shredders out to our location, dump the box in the shredder-truck and give us the empty box back. We realized the box would be the perfect solution to collect the offering, but the concept is amusing.

When we say it’s not about your money, it’s about your life, we’re not kidding. We didn’t just not collect an offering that morning, what we did collect was placed in a shredder!

Finances: How is the church budget created?

Sometime between November and January, I initiate the budget creation process. It all starts by projecting how much the Church Treasurer and I think we will receive in church gifts for the upcoming year. We base our projection on the giving history dating back to the mid-1980s (that’s when the church started tracking the data, at least that we’ve been able to uncover). We also attempt to factor in the national and local economic trends. As financial planners, we have a conservative bent to begin with, so we are hesitant to push the envelope. That’s a good thing, but it needs to be balanced out with a God-centered awareness. A step of faith could be easily squashed by a fiscally conservative mindset – we spend a lot of time working through that one. As we look to the 2006-2007 budget, it will be interesting to see where our projections fall. We’ve experienced unprecedented growth over the past two years. We saw tremendous growth a year ago, but were hesitant to anticipate sustained growth through 2005-2006. We’ll be faced with the same question again this year.

The expense budget is built entirely around the projected income. We do not spend what we do not receive. With the income figure set, I sit down with Pastor Scott and ask him what areas he wants to emphasize in the coming year and what his goals are for the church. The budget, as a key tool for how our ministry gets carried out, has to be led by our Senior Pastor. He needs to set the tone and in general identify what will be the main emphasis of the coming year.

Pastor Scott then communicates to the ministry leaders the things he is looking to emphasize and asks the leaders to submit their ministry plans and how they’ll fit in with the overall direction of the church. From this information we work with the ministry leaders to project ministry expenses and categorize them.

I then take the detail of each ministry and consolidate the numbers into one and see where we end up. From there, we usually enter a refining phase, eliminating projects to reduce the expenses to be under the projected income.

The actual process is similar to having a completed puzzle, then disassembling it into minute pieces to see the detail and then reassembling it once again.

Whos been on staff the longest?

This weekend marks the anniversary date of when Joan joined the staff at Grace Church. She holds the distinction of having been on staff the longest of all active staff. Her role has transformed dramatically during her years of service – from running the mimeograph machine which evolved into an offset printing press to the digital photocopiers of today. Her early introductions to computers featured a blue screen (back when a blue screen was a good sign, unlike today’s blue screens of death) and multiple key strokes using function keys combined with SHIFT, ALT, and CTRL. Today she is versed in Microsoft Publisher and Word. With the church growth rate of the past year-and-a-half, most of Joan’s time during the week is invested in the church database: keeping address information up-to-date and tracking Sunday and Wednesday night attendance. It’s easy to capsulate in a sentence, but when you’re managing over 1,300 people (when you include children), there’s a lot of information to manage.

What amazes me most about Joan is her intuitive knowledge about the families in our church. Want to know the family tree of a family, Joan’s likely to know the family connections. She and I actually make a good team, Joan remembers the family connections, and I have the unmarketable skill of remembering what vehicles they drive.

Joan is a huge asset to our staff and to the entire church. I congratulate and thank her for her years of service.

Facility: ADA needed to win A MAP

A year ago my Dad moved in with us so we could care for him. He was diagnosed with a neurological disease and his condition had deteriorated to the point where he needed someone to care for him. Through God’s sovereignty, we were able to take him in and have cared for him for just over a year. His condition has deteriorated of late and for safety reasons, he’s been using a wheelchair when he comes to church for the past month or so. This has given me a new perspective on our facility.

Though I can’t say I’ve heard it said outright, I’ve gotten the impression that churches in general often view the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as a nuisance. Having to install ramps, elevators, designated bathroom stalls among other things does add to building costs. But I’m proud to say that our facility is handicap accessible with handicap-equipped restroom facilities and most areas fully accessible by wheelchairs through the use of ramps. Even with all of those handicap amenities, getting around our facility in a wheelchair on a Sunday morning is labor intensive. The traffic congestion is akin to the daily bumper-to-bumper traffic on the I-95 corridor. I’ve been afraid I’ll run someone’s toes over. And maneuvering in a restroom when there are others washing their hands etc. is a real challenge. I’ve never been exposed to any of this, so I admit I’m a novice and haven’t learned any tricks yet. But be assured that my analytical mind is busy trying to come up with the most efficient approaches to these seemingly simple tasks.

I always viewed the ADA requirements as purposeful, but with my recent experiences, I’m more convinced of the value they bring to a facility. To churches in particular, the ADA requirements are a necessity, if we are truly striving to win
As
Many
As
Possible.

I want to be an Under-rower

In Sunday’s message, Pastor Scott in defining the word servant (if I remember right), shared with us that in the Greek language it referred to the under-rowers of the large ships of the day. I loved that description.

If I had to boil my philosophy of leadership down to one concept, it would be an under-rower. I want to be an under-rower to all of the staff and volunteers for whom I’m responsible. I want to be an under-rower to the congregation I serve on a daily basis. I hope I duplicate in Lititz, what I achieved in Princeton.

After serving as the Church Administrator in Princeton for four years, we felt God leading us to Lititz. I worked hard up until my last day. And that last evening, as I was closing out my office for the last time, tying up the loose ends before my departure, I felt as if my heart was being ripped out. It was a satisfying, yet painful agony. The previous four years of my efforts, the triumphs and the heartaches were running through my mind like a this-is-your-life highlight reel. I left the office that night acknowledging that I had made some mistakes, but that I’d given my all. I was spent. I had rowed for all I was worth.

I found great satisfaction in that evening.

The church in Princeton was special to me. I had connections to it going back to my childhood; my Dad was a Pastor there before becoming a missionary; my parents were missionaries sent by the church and I had attended there during college. I didn’t have those same connections when I started at Grace. I was a stranger at best; to a skeptic, a hired hand. But I can feel that I’m becoming just as vested at Grace. I consider the opportunity to be an under-rower for the staff with whom I serve a great honor. And each day it is a privilege for me to be your under-rower.

He Giveth and He Taketh Away

Pastor Scott’s currently leading us through a stewardship study (see yesterday’s message or his blog entry for today). I’ve already documented about my toolbox of mint-condition tools. So as you might imagine, I like my possessions to remain in tip top condition. That means I tend to have a tight grip, not wanting to loan them out to others for fear they’ll get dinged or wanting to use them as sparingly as possible. When I stop myself, I realize the error of this line of thinking. In some ways, my life mirrors the shift we’ve made with our facility.

This all coincides with stewardship. The error in my thinking is that I’m concerned about my stuff. MY is the problem. When I correct myself and view it as God’s possessions for Him to use as He sees fit, I loosen the grip and have a much freer view. I’m less concerned about whether it gets dinged-up or not, as long as God is using it for His purposes it doesn’t matter. If it is destroyed, God supplied it and if He deems it a necessary item, He’ll supply the replacement. Our car is a good example.

We were fortunate enough to purchase a car in 2002. With interest rates so low, we were able to afford a brand new car. Within the first year, someone put a ding on the passenger-side quarter panel. I was furious; our brand new car was marred! After getting over my initial fury (it took a month or so), I came to accept that God had provided the car and that I shouldn’t let a little ding get me upset. I haven’t repaired the ding, purposely as a reminder that it’s not my car. While it is not an unblemished car, I dutifully change the oil every 5,000 miles, try to keep the car clean and all of the other aspects to maintaining a vehicle. It’s served us well and hasn’t left us stranded.

I face the loose-grip challenge daily – am I going to view it as mine or view it as God’s?

Facility: Dreaming BIG

I’ve spent the better part of my time at Grace learning about its history through conversations, cleaning out files and rummaging through the archives. You can read more about the Grace story along with archive photos and documents on the history page of our website. From what I’ve gleaned the 1970s and 1980s were exciting times at Grace with a body of believers that were taking great risks in following God’s leading. Dwell on these things for just a minute with me:

• It was just a handful of some 13+ families who decided to gather their financial resources to purchase the original acreage at 501 West Lincoln Avenue.


• From that first major step, they decided to add on to the building three times in the span of 12 years.


• Then, at the young age of 20, the church decided to take on a $2.8 million project to double the size of the facility.

In addition to these physical changes, I’ve heard stories of vibrant church services with the narrow hallways (in what is now the Young Chapel area) congested with people. And what’s impacted me the most are recollections of corporate prayer meetings, focused on the expansion, some that went around the clock with people praying in each room of the facility at that time for different shifts. It’s exciting to be building upon that history today.

I need to explore the $2.8 million project that was launched in the late 1980s. From the birth of Grace, it seems that while teaching the Word, the church was constantly confronted with the challenge of keeping pace with the exploding growth. From an outsider’s perspective, it appears that by the late 1980s the church wanted to overcome the growth challenge once and for all. So they dreamed BIG.

Funding is a key component of any project, but Grace’s dream was so large that most financial institutions considered it too great a liability for them to absorb for the church. Even the Grace Brethren Fellowship’s financial organization, designed to assist churches expand, wasn’t willing to absorb the total cost of the project. Only one financial institution had confidence to offer Grace the full $2.8 million loan.

Those huge dreams of the 1980s successfully addressed the growth-challenges for the next 10+ years. With the additional space, we’ve been able to offer Christian education through the 12th grade and we’ve been able to launch a Christian daycare program. We are seeing fruit from these ministries. That’s in addition to the other things we’ve been able to do with this facility that I’ve documented in previous entries:
Nap Time
ROI for Auditorium

Why do I mention this now? The mortgage will be paid off next month. Over the past 16-odd years, Grace has never missed a mortgage payment. We’ve had some lean years, but God always provided the necessities; our ministry has grown, been refined, and grown some more.

We need to share the Grace story, there’s too much evidence of how God has led, worked and provided through the years to leave it in a file drawer. We need to share the Grace story with everyone who attends a ministry at Grace. At 36, we are a young church, but we’ve got a rich history that points people to our Savior.

Facility: A Shift Has Occurred

I have a few tools in my toolbox that look so nice, I’ve been reluctant to put them to use. I’ve preferred them to look nice over being functional. Occasionally I take out my toolbox and admire my nice looking tool sets, neatly packaged shining brightly. They haven’t helped me with any tasks, but they look good.

Over the past few years, we’ve implemented a conscious shift in our view of our facility. Previously, we viewed it in the same way that I view some of my tools, concerned more about the aesthetics and less about function. Our strict no food/drink policies aimed at keeping carpets from being stained have been very effective. I challenge you to show me a multi-use facility that has 15-year old carpets that look as ours do. The carpet in the Auditorium that used for weekly worship and as a gym floor is the original carpet that was installed in 1990. I think that’s a tremendous feat.

Now we are consciously lifting the no food/drink ban, but I want to explain why. Like my tools, we view our facility as a tool. Tools are designed to perform a function. We want to maximize our facility for its intended use. We want ministry to be more important than structures. We don’t want to be handcuffed by a coffee spill.

Now, that’s not to say that we are foregoing any stewardship of the facility. Just as I clean up my tools after using them for a messy project, we still have an obligation to take very good care of our facility and we aren’t going to compromise those standards. It would be foolish for us to take advantage of what God has provided. We have to find the balance of taking care of the building while using it heavily.

Speaking of what God has provided, have you heard how God worked to provide this facility?

Orange Squeeze

My fears were realized last night at around 10 p.m. when Florida State scored their second touchdown to take the lead in the Orange Bowl. Since the BCS Bowl match-ups were announced I was nervous about Penn State’s chances against Florida State. I feel more comfortable with Penn State as the underdog. Once Florida State took the lead, I couldn’t watch anymore. While I’m happy with the final result, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Penn State fall in the final polls.

Having been ranked 3rd in the country prior to this week and playing against the 22nd ranked team in the country, Penn State had to come out big in order to keep the voters impressed. I don’t think a triple overtime game was impressive enough. Over another top-10 team, maybe, but 22nd; I don’t think so. Secondly, Ohio State looked exceptionally strong in their drubbing of Notre Dame on Monday afternoon and West Virginia’s showing against Georgia was impressive too. Notre Dame, Auburn, Georgia and Miami fall, but Ohio State, West Virginia and LSU climb up the rankings. I would not be surprised to see West Virginia and Ohio State end up ahead of Penn State.

False Sense of Security

Churches give us a false sense of security. Think about it, when you go to the mall do you ever consider leaving your car unlocked? There’s an expectation that churches are different, that I shouldn’t have to lock my car that I can leave my wallet in my coat, which hangs in a public coat rack for more than two hours. Why is this?

We’re probably making some bad assumptions…
That while we are sinners, stealing is a sin that doesn’t tempt us.
That everyone coming to church is just like us.
That somehow the church property is exempt from the real world.

We need to change our assumptions. Church facilities are public buildings just like the local mall. This is only amplified with churches that operate seven days a week. There are hundreds of people that are in and out of our facility, many of whom have no tie to our church. From a scriptural approach, we are commanded to refrain from doing things, which cause our brother to stumble. If we leave valuables lying about or unsecured, aren’t we possibly tempting our brother?

A church is a collection of sinners, people who aren’t perfect or immune to doing wrong. I lock our car and keep my personal belongings with me at all times. I do hang my coat on the coat rack, but I don’t leave any valuables in the pocket and I have a 3x5 card in one of the pockets with my contact information in case anyone picks my coat up by mistake.