Long time no blog

I received an email from someone asking if everything was all right since I hadn't posted anything on my blog in a long time. Indeed, things are going well.  So well that we now have three times the number of activities going on at church in any given week.  But receiving the gift of a growing ministry comes with the tandem taking away of any excess spare time that I might have had previous to all this excitement.  Plus, I usually like to think that blog postings should be somewhat literate and I haven't had too many inspired or bright ideas for writing of late.

Last week we traveled to Indianapolis for the Mix in 06 women's gathering.  I went to represent the office and spent the bulk of my time stuck in a 6'x6' display booth area yearning for anyone to come and speak with me about growing their church's endowment through low cost, socially responsible stewardship.  Suffice to say, there weren't a lot of takers. I spent most of my time chatting up the artist across the way, getting free free-trade chocolate from the girls next door and wishing that the church envelope sellers might come over for some fun and games or at least a good laugh at the entire situation.  It is torture to put a profound extrovert in a small booth at a conference where the majority of people have no interest in what you do.

The best part of the week came last Sunday when the kids put on a play about David and Goliath.  I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in church in my life.  Fortunately, I got to sit in the back of the sanctuary so no one saw that I was in tears when the kid playing the erudite young David walked out in studious glasses reading the hymnbook, but had the hymnbook upside down.  The play clearly marks a special moment in the worship life of the church.  The kids have shown both their interest in learning about the Bible and in participating in worship.  But best of all, they are taking ownership of worship - making the liturgy more "the work of the people" - in this case all the people.

In other exciting news, the consistory met and is now able to have me reduce my day job hours so that I'm only working 3 regular days per week, instead of 4 long days.  This is going to make a huge difference in the quality of the ministry we're able to provide.  Just having the time to plan out worship instead of putting it together at the last minute is exciting.  But, we think we'll be able to do a significantly higher amount of outreach as a result.  The giant empty pool in the park is now going to host a series of free concerts and we'll hand out invitations there for folks to check out the church.  The whole thing is really exciting.  Please pray for us that this might really help our ministry grow in its depth and reach.

Comments

[RogueMonk]

Glad to hear things are well.

Blessings, RogueMonk

[Songbird]

Ann, so good to read this update.

[Jarred]

I'm glad to hear everything's going so well. The play on Sunday sounds wonderful!