It's A Wonderful Life @ Grace

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

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

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

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

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

Church Clean-up Day

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

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

What happened to Pastor Scott's blog?

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

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

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

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

Baptism - poll

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

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

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

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

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

More snow, more neighbors

Sure enough, while shoveling the latest snowfall Saturday morning, I had the chance to meet another neighbor in our development. He actually used his snow blower to clear our the end of our driveway, establishing what Filipino's call an utang na loob, a debt of gratitude. Though not as strong in US culture, it does open the door for us to do something in return for them which hopefully will lead to building another bridge with them. Clearing 6-8 inches off of our short, single-car driveway is knocked out in a few hours, the church on the other hand...

A lot of us probably don't realize the time and effort required to prep the church lot on snow days and the lengths we go to, to have it ready with as little disruption to the church's regular schedule. Take this last storm for example. As soon as the storm had passed, our snow clearing team started work almost immediately. That had them starting to work at 12:30am on Saturday morning. They had the lot cleared by around 8-9am. There's nothing like seeing the high contrast of several inches of snow against the black ashpalt of a driveway and parking lot.

As I've posted previously, we try to leave the cancellation of Sunday services as our absolute last option. So when it takes upwards of 8-9 hours to clear our parking lot, there will be Sundays when the lot is not completely cleared. We accept that, figuring that we can all wear boots to church if we have too and if ever someone doesn't feel comfortable being out in snowy weather, we highly encourage them to follow their intuition and stay home that week.

Fortunately, we have a dedicated snow clearing crew and most Sundays that I can remember, the lot has been as good as it could be in light of the circumstances. I appreciate the service and sleepless nights the team puts in as service to our church.

Just Add Water - Logistics, Part 2

As of Thursday, we're up to 102 who've asked to be baptized on Sunday, amazing. Sheri's had quite the week keeping everything organized. Note that the 102 doesn't include the applications that were received from:
- Ima Believer
- Needa Bath
- Duncan Water

Baptism Flashback

As I sit in my office reconciling the church bank statements the voices of Pastor Scott, Pastor Andy, our Youth Director, Doug, Scott's assistant Sheri, our Facility Director, Jay and Dot and Carl are carrying out of the conference room into my office. They're coordinating Sunday's baptism service.

I wonder if the disciples went through a similar process in the midst of Pentecost?
I wonder if they worked through the issues of water temp, tank/tub capacity, what the people should wear, who was dunking who...?

It's a fun time to be at Grace, though reconciling bank statements is all wet.

Ordinance

The messages the last two Sundays have been an interesting re-gripping of what baptism is all about. Upon further review I was struck by the contrast in ordinances. In the New Testament, Scripture mandates two practices to be regularly practiced by the local church: communion and baptism.

In kind of a "duh" moment, the contrast between the two caught my attention. Through His various scribes, God gave us detailed information about communion... what it symbolizes, who we're to remember each time we partake, who should practice it, when it should be practiced, who should not practice it, what happens to those who practiced it when they weren't supposed to, etcetera, etcetera. Lots of detail. Contrast that with what's recorded about baptism.

It's explained, but not in terms as specific as communion is explained. We're told what it symbolizes and who should practice it. But as I reflect on what I know and remember about the Bible, I don't recall reading anything that specifies who should not practice it. Nor do I recall reading anything about what happens, if anything, to those who are baptized who shouldn't have been. In fact, there's something to be said for the amount of stuff not written about baptism. Just an interesting observation.

This just in, there are now upwards of 90 people who want to be baptized on Sunday; unbelievable. Be praying for these 80+ people who are taking that next step in their relationship with Christ.

Just Add Water - Logistics

As Pastor Scott mentioned yesterday, there are some 50 people signed up to be baptized this coming Sunday. While Just Adding Water seems simple enough, doing so when we don't have a permanent baptismal presents some challenges. But as I shared with the staff in last week's staff meeting (using John's account of the feeding of the 5000), we can't allow logistics to get in the way of how God is moving in the hearts and minds of His children.

Through the late 1990s, Grace was content to hold baptismal services outside of the regular Sunday morning worship times and to hold the services in the original Chapel which has a built-in baptistery. But it didn't seem the appropriate atmosphere for celebrating one of the ordinances of the church. The timing didn't mesh with the schedule shifts of our culture, near the end all of 10 people were showing up for baptisms. At the same time the capacity of the Chapel doesn't hold the Sunday morning attendances. So we went with a temporary solution to accommodate baptisms on Sunday mornings - a hot tub!

That's served okay for the past four plus years (not everyone was fully immersed, in some cases only the front half of their head was plunged - the water height is all of 30"). But with us anticipating 50+ baptisms this week we're faced with a couple of issues:

Time - it takes a while to get people in and out of a baptistery, not an issue John the Baptist probably faced in the Jordan. In that forum, they were probably able to line everyone up in the river and just walk down the line. Unfortunately, Scripture doesn't give us the specifics of how they baptized at Pentecost - that would've been an interesting read. Our time-driven culture pressures us to get the 50+ people baptized in such a way that we can still get home (or beat the restaurant rush) as close to 12 noon as possible.

Water - when you start talking about mass baptisms, you have to think about how much water you'll need. Between what will spill out of the tub and what will walk about in the drenched clothing, there's a good chance we'll loose a good amount of water out of the tub.

I'm not in the loop, but from what I understand a couple of options are being considered. For one, we've ordered another makeshift baptistery. Having two tubs gives the option of doing near simultaneous baptisms. Plus, the newly ordered tub, being a bigger one, will be able to hold more water. You'll have to come Sunday to celebrate what God's doing in these people's lives and for side interest, how we navigate the logistics.

Where the M&M's came in

On Monday, December 4th we moved from creating the statement to communicating the statement. If you think the ideas were flying around during our first meetings, these were ideas on steroids. I mean, I'm talking about ideas of having the congregation sitting in specially constructed bleachers with Pastor Scott preaching from center court and giving each attender a basketball and all sorts of stuff that never made the cut. In the end we hit on the M&M concept and the other elements that you witness throughout the series.

But in all of this, what's been most gratifying to me is to see a group of people take hold of a simple statement and see it motivate them to take a next step in their walk with Christ. I've listened to professors talk about purpose statements in the isolation of a classroom setting, but I had never been a part of implementing the process from scratch. I've read the purpose statements of other organizations and been personally inspired, but never seen up close how they can transform a group of people.

It's been very satisfying to have had the opportunity to have a seat at the table were all of this was composed, to be a part of the process, to see it implemented and to see how it's energizing us to meet people where they are and move people to where God wants them to be.

It's not about the chocolate

Several days after my breakfast with Rich, Pastor Scott gathered all of the full time ministry staff together for an all day meeting. We spent a significant amount of our meeting in prayer and sharing what God had been doing in our lives personally and in our ministry. While God's promised that "where two or three are gathered, there I am with them" with our staff, where two or three are gathered, there's sure to be a wild and fun time. Add to that being holed up in a room all day and it's like the time I doused the charcoal with so much lighter fluid the lid to the grill caught fire. Though you may not believe it, we did have a very focused and productive day.

It was neat to see each of us participate and contribute to the discussion. And while our backgrounds are quite diverse, we span a range of ages and our approach to ministry sometimes differ, we were uniquely unified throughout the meeting. It was an exercise I thoroughly enjoyed.

As I write this, eight months later, it's been fun to recollect to that first meeting and especially to look at our original worksheets.
You can see how much we left on the cutting room floor because we felt it was implied, in an effort to keep the statement short and memorable. Actually, we figuratively left the floor covered with ideas and worksheets throughout this process - either the Elmer's was defective or only the good ideas were sticking.

With prayer interspersed in the interim, we reconvened several times after that initial meeting to see if we were comfortable with our work and the direction we were headed. Pastor Scott then shared it with the staff for comment and reaction and then the Elders. Having received very constructive feedback, but limited negative reaction, we started preparing for the February message series.

The irony of that first meeting is that it wasn't until I started composing this post that I realized that in addition to the bottled water, soda and pretzels that we were munching on during the all day meeting, there were also M&M's on the table. None of us realized it at the time that M&M's would come to the forefront several months later.

Making an M&M

I really like m&m's, especially Peanut m&m's (the plain one's are just a little too sweet). I pick my favorite NASCAR driver based on who drives the m&m's sponsored car. It might be a little bit of a stretch, but m&m's excite me, so much so that I thought it only appropriate to celebrate my 200th post by talking about them!

In the past month at Grace, M and M has a new meaning

M eeting PEOPLE where they are
M oving PEOPLE to where God wants them to be.

The new statement captures the purpose of Grace Church since it was organized back in 1970. We just finished a month-long message series dissecting what Grace Church has been and continues to be all about. If you weren't able to attend any of the services or hear the messages, you need to check them out. I keep harping on how God's doing something in our midst unlike anything I've ever seen and He just keeps adding more and more to it. Go Berean on me and check with other Grace-folk and see if it's just me.

February was a good month, but I almost forgot about the journey that started on June 20, 2006 that got us to where we are today.

Having closed on the 12.5-acre property purchase in the Fall of 2005, Pastor Scott and I had been working on creating the process we would follow to lead us in figuring out how God wanted to make use of the newly acquired property for the sake of His Kingdom. We'd recently connected with Rich, who's involved in a local ministry, helping them with strategic planning etc. and Scott asked me to meet with him. We had breakfast together on June 20, 2006.

Most of what Rich shared was a 60-minute review of my Master's program, but material that had gotten fragmented in the deep recesses of my mind. While the restaurant didn't serve any chocolate candies that melt in your mouth, not in your hand, little did I know that our breakfast would chart the course for the next eight months or the role chocolate would play down the road.

We stole the restroom from Chili's

You may have noticed that we renovated the lobby bathrooms in the past year, actually it was a year ago January that we did the work in the Alpha lobby restrooms. If you have been in the lobby restrooms, you know that we did some unique decorating schemes in those rooms. I think they turned out well, but the rooms are definitely unique. So the other day when my wife and I were having lunch at Chili's and I used the restroom, it dawned on me that the men's restroom in the Grace lobby is actually the restroom that Chili's wanted in their restaurants, but I think that we did a more effective job at catching the theme Chili's had in mind. So you need to check out our lobby restrooms, if you haven't already.

Lord, please send lots and lots of snow

It first struck me after we had lived for a few weeks in an apartment complex in Lawrenceville, NJ. The architect designed the apartments in clusters of 16 situated around a central garden-type thing. It looked like a nice, homey, apartment complex where the residents socialized regularly. Yeah, what was I thinking?!? Looks can be deceiving. At the end of each day, each of us would retreat to our cells and lock in until it was time to head out for work the next day. Farm country, at least my experience of country living, hasn't been much different.

I've gotten to talk with our neighbors only a handful of times...
-when we were all out chiseling the ice disguised as snow last week
-when the tree fell on our backyard shed last summer
-when we were shoveling snow last winter
-when we asked them if we could help with work around the house for them as part of SALT2005
No wonder God sends so much snow, it's the only chance we get to talk to our neighbors!

Most interesting was the response when we took our neighbors a breakfast pastry just before Christmas. We had close to a dozen to deliver, but much to my wife's and my surprise, they invited us in to chat!

Talking with neighbors is much of what I watched my parents do as they planted churches. In the Philippine culture, just about every block had a family run business where you could buy a soda and a snack - much like a vending machine, except it was a much more personable experience. These Sari-sari stores were a regular gathering place on the block. Want to get to know people, hang out at the Sari-sari store for a while. And that's how I watched my parents start churches. What is the Sari-sari store equivalent in Lititz?

This is elementary stuff. I see two choices: either each of us walks across the room, driveway or wherever we need to walk, OR, we join the children of the world in praying for lots and lots of snow.

The Enemy's Playbook

Gleaning from my youthful observations, both past and present, I think I've seen some trends in the way our enemy (the aforementioned roaring Lion) does his thing to thwart the progress of the Gospel. And it came to mind again during Sunday's message.

In the Philippines, I observed a culture, if not a whole nation, for which the spirit realm was accepted as reality, though feared to such extents that it held them captive. My childhood friends were literally scared to death of the ghosts and spirits that haunted the rice mill and lurked among the graves at the cemetery. It was obvious to me how the enemy used their common acceptance of the spirit realm in an attempt to hold the power of the Gospel at bay.

I contrast that with my common day observances now and it fascinates me how different a playbook the enemy uses in the US culture. The spirit realm is laughed off as child's play in our culture. But the enemy's playbook would make Bill Belichick proud. In the US I see him using our busyness to hold the Gospel at bay, among a list of other offensive/defensive schemes.

And I often see the church playing right into the enemy's plan... we, the church, simply add more busyness to people's lives. As was mentioned on Sunday, we need to resist busyness for the sake of the Gospel, even if it means not participating or our family members participating in everything everyone else is doing, whether it be rec leagues, community activities or, heaven forbid, some church events.

In order for us to walk across the room, the driveway or whatever you need to walk across, we need time in our schedules to build relationships. Which leads me to tomorrow's post...

Free Squirrely!

This is a follow-up to my January 15th post... Apparently our friendly visitor during the NFC Championship game took his/her whilrwind tour global. I'd like to think that like Free Willy, I had a part in letting that poor varmit live out his/her dream.

Skittering Stowaway

That's not called shoveling

Calling what all of us did yesterday (I pity you if you left it until today) shoveling just doesn't do it justice. I've determined that chiseling is a more appropriate term.

It was one time that I was glad I have a one car garage.

For the record

For the record, let me state publicly that I've advocated a daily siesta break of up to an hour or so in the office, but have always been rebuffed by my co-workers. They prefer to get home early than have a longer break during the day.

While environmental factors come into play, growing up in the Philippines I was accustomed to most businesses closing from 12 noon to around 2 pm for the daily siesta break. I always thought they were onto something and now there's a scientific study to support it.

You can't say I didn't try.

Get to know Judy

One of the things I appreciate about the company that we have hired to clean our facility is their relationship with us. Though the owners don’t attend our church, they have made a concerted effort to get to know not only our staff but our congregation as well. They are on a first-name basis with a lot of people. One of their staff members is Judy. She attended Grace many years ago and then stopped attending for awhile. When she joined Personal Touch Cleaning, it wasn’t long before she was back worshipping with us again. Two times a week Judy comes in and cleans the church offices, and it’s been fun for us as a staff to get to know her. To Judy, it is more than a job to clean our facility, offices, and bathrooms. It is her ministry and way to contribute to the body of Christ. She cares about our staff members and often asks how we are doing and keeps up with the different things going on in our lives. She also cares about the people we are ministering to as a church, helps out on Sunday mornings in the children’s area, and things like that. So, though she serves in a behind-the-scenes capacity and works for a company that is providing a service to the church, I appreciate all that Judy does and the role that she has at Grace.

Realtime feedback

I came across this article earlier today, wow, what a concept. I'm really curious as to how it actually worked. Was the speaker reading his text msgs throughout his talk? Did he respond to any of the msgs while he was talking? Very interesting though, I give him credit for taking the risk.

Thus far, we've only used text msgs at Grace to communicate about service information between the people on the stage and the techs supporting them on the Mezzanine. Oh, and last week I used one to pull someone out of a meeting.