Important Patriotic Service Info

If you're planning to join us Sunday morning at 10 a.m. in Lititz Springs Park for our Patriotic Service, in light of this week's flooding, please pay special attention to the following instructions...

It will be our privilege to be at Lititz Springs Park this weekend for our Patriotic Event. In many respects, we have the opportunity to "set the tone" for the rest of the park events. Even with the flooding at the park this week, the park assured us that they will have it ready by our event. However, the park has requested us to make an attempt to alleviate continued flooding damage with some simple steps we can take as entire church.

As a church when we arrive at Lititz Springs Park, please park at the Warwick High School (located behind the park). Please avoid cutting through the grass but use the paved macadam walk-ways to get to the band-shell area. Please fill up the bleachers and use lawn chairs on the blacktop walk-ways first…use grass areas for seating after these areas have filled up. While we realize with 2,000+ people coming to the park that people will most likely be sitting on the grass, we hope to leave the park with as minimal damage to the grounds as possible.

For participants in the Patriotic event, when unloading and loading equipment, there will be no parking on the grass next to the band shell. Vehicles on the grass will create ruts at this point. If you need to drop off equipment, please do so on the blacktop drive closest to the band shell and walk it across the grass to the band shell.

Church watching

I recently had the opportunity to visit a church facility for a community program - a facility I had never been to before. I enjoy such experiences, making observations of people, places and things to which I am a stranger.

First off, I apparently didn't follow my Google Maps directions accurately though I wouldn't say I was lost. But it did lead into another Norton tour - infamous for finding obscure points which aren't usually highlighted on the tourist brochures. In this case, I passed the former home of a U.S. President. I eventually found the location without too much difficulty.

From the outside, the facility looked something akin to a spaceship or a large egg standing on end - not a structure that would be immediately recognizable as a church. And whether coincidence or not, many of the cars in the parking lot had the same bumper stickers, "God Bless the Whole World with No Exceptions".

Inside the egg, the accoustics were good. Being an egg, the ceiling was huge and the room was surrounded by stained glass. It's interesting to contrast such an auditorium with our square windowless box. I guess many churches sacrifice accoustics and aesthetics in exchange for maximizing space to accomodate more people.

Beyond the physical characteristics and layout, I get a kick checking out what's in the pew racks of the churches I visit. Does the church utilize pew Bibles and what version do they use? Do they use giving envelopes and how many funds do they have? Do they use a registration/response card and what information to they solicit?

I learn a lot about a church from just these simple observations.

Numerology

Someone observantly noticed that I tend to publish my entries at the same time each day I publish. Here's why...

38 - thirty-eight is the number of my favorite NASCAR driver, Elliot Sadler. I like Elliot because he's a pretty good guy and he's sponsored by companies like M&Ms. Thirty-eight is also the number worn by Curt Schilling, but that's an ancillary reason as to why I like the number.

1149 - one thousand, one-hundred and forty-nine, which is usually represented in the blog as 11:49, is a number I recently came upon. My wife and I were recently invited to join a group that gathers for some regular game nights - and a very competitive group I might add. The last time we had a game night the men's team was in a groove and we put up 1,149 points.

Automatic Alarms

I believe it was the building codes at the time that required our facility to be equipped with an automatic, monitored fire alarm system - I wasn't here in 1990 when it was built, but I'm guessing that's why our building has such a system. Automatic alarm systems could almost be renamed Cry Wolf systems as they are notorious for false alarms. False alarms occur so frequently that everyone drops their guard a bit when an alarm sounds.

Recognizing that mind set, I've insisted that anytime the alarms in our building sound, that everyone be trained to habitually evacuate the building, not to return without receiving an all clear signal. I've been a pain in the neck in this area when it's been freezing outside and not letting anyone back into the building until we had an all clear. I have to admit that after eight years of numerous false alarms, I was beginning to question whether it was worth all the hassle, the alarm was more of a nuisance than anything else.

That all changed last night as the automatic alarm sniffed out a fire in our building, directing one of our staff to the specific location so he could contain it. In an instant all the nuisances of false alarms passed faded in comparison to the millions of dollars saved. Unfortunately for some, this only renews my insistence on regular fire drills and treating every alarm as the real thing.

I'm thankful we have the ultimate insurance agent who clearly was working in our midst.