Our new pastor

Some great news...this just in. We now have a new pastor set to begin his service with us in September.

The journey to this came about very slowly. But the process was very well done. We like to think that we had something to do with that. We met individually with each member of the search committee and emphasized the importance of keeping the whole congregation informed along the path of choosing a pastor. We also tried to get the idea acrossed that this pastor needed to be chosen by all the people.

The search committee did an excellent job of vetting our new pastor. They also did an excellent job of involving the congregation. Our new pastor was approved by a 93% vote. He also mentioned in his acceptance note that he felt good about how we went about the job of selecting a pastor.

Our new pastor is a down-to-earth guy...very people oriented. He feels that scripture is important and enjoys study. Another interesting aspect is his use of drama to help make his sermon point.

So we look forward to a good experience at church in the future.

Spring Bible Memory Psalm 100

WE ARE HIS

She said:

For our spring quarter we will be learning Psalm 100 as Bible memory. We are using the NRSV. Each week I will say the psalm along with the student up to that week's new verse or partial verse. Perhaps this will help them learn the whole psalm by the end of this quarter. Each one that recites receives a lamb sticker and a treat. When the whole psalm is recited on their own by a child, a reward will be given. Or we may just all recite the psalm in a Sunday morning service. Our bible memory recitation takes place between the bells after Sunday school. We have a warning bell and then five minutes later the final bell. To let the children know that I am ready to listen I have a couple of stuffed lambs that make a sound like a lamb baahing. The children enjoy squeezing these while helping to distribute the stickers and treats. Plans are to have a visit from a real lamb before the quarter is over. Part of their reward will be one of the stuffed lambs.

Food-Faith-Family-Fellowship (4F)

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow!

She said:

Again this year our church is having what is called "Food-Faith-Family-Fellowship" (4F) nights each Wednesday evening. Our frigid snowy weather is wreaking havoc with our plans. Two weeks ago it was very iffy with schools closed and other activities canceled due to the weather. The meeting was still on, but we chose not to go because of the weather. Then this past week we actually canceled the evening due again to snow.

Every Wednesday for six weeks we have a fellowship meal and offer meetings/classes. This year our choices were:

The conscience consumer, learning how to be more aware of our buying and it's effect on the world.

Pick up your pen and write, in depth Bible study using writing as a tool.

Prayer, Praise & Ministry, just like is says; an informal time of prayer, praise, singing and ministry by sharing scripture.

Serving at local mission outreach, involves cutting fabric and busy work to help with overseas mission donations.

Inter-generational Interaction, a time of games and fun, by families or individuals.

I am staying with the Prayer, Praise & Ministry group as it is an extension of the meeting that began as a result from our transparency meetings. This time is precious with intercessory prayer, singing and praising. It reminds me of the old fashioned prayer meetings from my growing up years.

Hubby is not sure where he fits in. He came with me last week to our meeting but doesn't think that's for him. He's still not sure what he wants to do.

Our youths had planned a pinewood derby race for last week. (All other classes/meetings won't meet that night) But since this was canceled due to weather, we probably will try again this week.

Rerouting Project

Update on our transition time at our church

Our transition focus has taken a decidedly different direction. At our transition meeting in Oct our transition pastor announced unexpectedly that he was removing himself from the leading position and changing to an adviser position since he felt it was time the church take full responsibility for the direction of the church in the future.

As a result our Congregational Leadership Team has decided to form a group of 5 members to explore and investigate how other churches have turned a declining attendance around so that the church would experience growth.

All active participants can nominate up to 5 persons to be on this "Research Team". Then the transitional pastor along with two other members from the CLT will use the submitted names to select the 5 member Research Team.

All of us are to be involved in this scouting out process. We can submit our findings to this research team using any and all resources available.

In June the team will present a report. Then the congregation will begin meeting again to implement needed changes.

After thinking about this idea and proposal, it brings back to the surface older questions such as why do people leave our church and why do persons stay at our church? What does God want us to be doing? Do we feel we are faithfully following His Word now?

It will also be interesting to see how the Lord's timing is concerning this effort and the arrival of a new pastor. If he arrives soon enough then he can help us sort through this process too.

The pastoral search committee is still looking at names but have made no plans at this point to interview any one.

We are on an interesting journey! Please continue to pray for our church!

Thank you.

Peace on Earth

This quarter our memory work contains passages from the New Testament about peace. Each child that wishes to participate was given a list of the passages and a magnetized dove. They can post their list on their refrigerator.

Each Sunday we will all be learning the same short passage. A volunteer student shakes the dove shaped tambourine whenever the passage is recited. (This dove gets excited whenever peace is mentioned.) Another volunteer hands out a dove sticker for keeping track on the list. A treat is also received for each recitation.
At the end of the quarter a reward will be given for each recitation of all ten passages together.
The congregation was encouraged to join us in our learning.

Plans are to give each child a dove cookie ornament for a small Christmas treat.

Can you tell how much fun this church work is?

The Good and The Bad

Note: this post was written originally back in March of this year. To date we still hold to what it is saying.

Our transitional transparency meetings are beginning to have two effects on us as members of our congregation. On the one hand, we are learning much about our fellow members, and this is good. But on the other hand, we are discovering great discrepancies between our beliefs, a very bad thing. Most of the issues we have been looking at are clearly spoken to in the Holy Scriptures, and yet many within our congregation have another view. They site the working of the Holy Spirit as the testimony that what they want is a ligament course of action. If we only strive to come to consensus on the issues we face, we will surely be less than what God had in mind. If all we strive to do is arrive at something we can all agree with, this in no guarantee that God's will is done. We must use another standard than consensus. Our understanding is that we must use the scriptures in testing whenever there is disagreement. Consensus is not what Christ had in mind when he prayed for unity within the brotherhood. Our unity must be under Christ the Lord as head of the church. Scripture is the source of arriving at understanding what that unity should be...not our own experiences. We must use a standard, and we feel that standard must and should be the Holy scriptures. Our understanding of the workings of the Holy Spirit are as a guide in understanding scriptures and as a source of strength in living out what Christ calls us to do. The working of the Holy Spirit was never meant to be a substitute for an understanding of that call. We are to serve Christ through the church body. God has a plan for how we are to go about doing that. The Holy scriptures clearly define that plan. Some within our congregation want to bypass certain scriptures and follow what they feel the Holy Spirit is calling them to do instead. We firmly disagree with this position. We both believe as our confession of faith decrees: "We acknowledge the Scripture as the authoritative source and standard for preaching and teaching about faith and life, for distinguishing truth from error, for discerning between good and evil, and for guiding prayer and worship. Other claims on our understanding of Christian faith and life, such as tradition, culture, experience, reason, and political powers, need to be tested and corrected by the light of Holy Scripture.

We know from Scripture that the Holy Spirit continues to reveal God's will to us (1 Cor. 14:26-33). The Spirit of God is not silent in the present. However, this new revelation will not contradict what we know of Christ's way in Scripture (John 14:26). So we can open ourselves to revelation and prophecy, provided we test them in the community of faith by the norm provided in Christ through the Scriptures."

What about Sunday school follow up

According to the list of Sunday school classes we have to offer there is no class for persons from 18-20 years old. We suppose since ages are approximate that they would be welcomed into the 20-35 group class, but we are wondering if they would feel comfortable there. Our high school class has only a handful attending, and they are uncommunicative most of the time. Perhaps all those 18-20 years are attending higher learning institutions? But no, we know of at least one that is not. And what is happening when those away at school do make it home on a weekend or during summer? We think we might be on to something here. This could very well be why we are a dying congregation. Could we be loosing our young people because we don't offer support during this time of their lives? We sometimes wonder if we are the only ones concerned about this.

We are now attending our age group Sunday school class. Again it is mostly just discussion, with little actual learning taken place. But it is a good time of fellowship anyway and a good way to keep up with what is going on in others lives.

Quilt set-up committee

Close up of top.

Baby Magic

One of us is a member of the quilt set-up committee for our ladies sewing. This project is finally completed.

The instructions were found on the internet and the name of the pattern is "Baby Magic". That's one down and two more baby quilt tops to go. These will probably be knotted. Then they are presented to new mothers in our congregation.

Bible Memory

One of us has been hard at work preparing as the new Bible Memory Coordinator of our congregation. Since this one is the same one that does most of the writing for our blog, there hasn't been an entry lately.

The original idea for the new year of Bible memory for our primary department has been entitled "Keys to the Kingdom." Each child will receive a keyring with 10 verses appropriate to their ages. The verses are laminated so the children can handle them without damage. When all 10 verses are memorized they receive a special reward. They get a small treat for each verse learned, and these are kept in a "Treat Treasure Chest."

If this quarter goes well, we will continue this theme. If not, some other ideas will be implemented. One problem has been the lack of involvement for the adolescent boys in our Bible Memory program. A solution may be to peak their interest with a friendly competition against the girl's class of the same age range. The class that has all students complete the memorization will win another special reward of their own choosing (within limits).

It will be an interesting year!

Sunday School

Sweet Diminutive

You may recall that we have taken the summer off from our transitional transparency meetings. In that spirit we have decided to visit other churches in our area and we are really enjoying the experience. Every other Sunday or so we continue to attend our own church. When we do, we make it a point to visit a different Sunday school class.

For the past several years we had not been attending Sunday school. We were dissatisfied with the way these classes were functioning. Mostly they were a time of fellowship and discussion, with not much in the way of learning taking place. In other words, it was a time of everyone giving their own opinion and not much in the way of really studying God's word. So we thought it might be the time to go around and visit each of the adult classes that our church has to offer to see if anything has changed.

First we visited, what for the lack of a better term, is considered to be our Senior Citizen class. The Sunday we visited a substitute teacher was in charge. The material being used was from a uniform lesson. We were warmly welcomed to the class and we were asked to come back. The discussion centered on the lesson somewhat. The title of the lesson was "Trustworthy leadership." Much affirmation was given to our current leaders, although one person asked the question about why so many are leaving our congregation. There was no discussion about that question. Usually the same people spoke and we felt we didn't learn much in this class.

Our next visit took us to a small class consisting of older couples, some about our age and some were leaders within our congregation. The title for our lesson was "Teaching that transforms" and it also was from the same uniform lesson series. This class was taught on a rotating basis and for that Sunday a women was in charge. She did a good job of walking us through the lesson and leading our discussion. Again, we were warmly welcomed. We noted that due to the size of the room this class had a limit to the number able to attend. And again, mostly the same people shared during the discussion. This class reminded us as to why we stopped attending Sunday school in the first place. Much discussion, not much learning.

Now this past Sunday was a unique experience and an "eye-opener" of sorts. Our post-high class has been asking for volunteers to share with there class. So we had decided that we would be willing to do that. We also requested an opportunity to ask our own questions of the group. All this was arranged by one of their own, the person in charge of this class. For us to prepare, this person sent a list of questions that we could answer, either one, any or all. When we arrived at the class there was only one other person present. Even though we waited no one else showed up. Not even the person who had made the arrangement. We went ahead as best we could and had a nice time of getting to know the lone young person there. We shared our experience as requested and the person seemed grateful for our being there.

This experience has shed some light on what is going wrong with our congregation. We currently have a program of financial aid for college students who attend our affiliated institutions. According to the records we have distributed funds to 11 qualified candidates. Besides this number, there would be others of this age group who are not attending school or not attending qualified institutions. Where are all these people? Are they just not attending Sunday school? And, if not, why? Over the next few weeks we will investigate this matter and report to you. This is a real mystery for us and we want to get to the bottom of it.

The Celebration Hymnal

The Celebration Hymnal

Songs and Hymns for Worship

This is simply the best hymnal. It has a wonderful mix of the old and contemporary, hymns and gospel songs. We came across it when we visited our local community church. What a treasure!

We purchased the looseleaf addition and had it spiral bound at Staples. The actual hymnal can be obtained from Amazon in a myriad of colors.

What we like the most about the hymnal is that each hymn has a Bible verse right under the title. All the suggested readings are from Scripture. Our edition uses the KJV but they also offer another edition that uses three more contemporary translations, NASB, NIV and NKJV.

It was published by Word/Integrity in 1997. If your church is thinking about new hymnals be sure to check out this one!

Visit to local community church

Scottish Bluebells

Last Sunday we visited a local community church that is known for it's traditional worship style. We were not disappointed. All the songs selections were familiar to us and very inspirational.

The preaching was not the best we have heard, but also not the worst. It was biblically based and the style was easy listening. But we must say that the pastor had some nervous habits that were distracting at times. He often rubbed his hands together and waved them around and gestured almost to the distraction of what he was trying to say.

The song leader and the pastor made comments of a personal nature (sort of inside jokes) that made us feel like outsiders at times.

The facilities were wonderful and very comfortable. Though we did have trouble locating the main entrance and ended up coming in the door at the front of the sanctuary. Fortunately we weren't the only ones entering that way.

The congregation was neither overly friendly nor cold. We thought perhaps they were accustomed to visitors so we weren't an oddity. All in all it was a pleasant experience and we may visit again soon.

We are encouraged by the depths of worship we are encountering in our area. Makes our hearts soar to know that our Lord is praised in many ways around here. We recommend that you also take the time to visit around where you live and see what God is doing in your midst.

Visiting Other Churches

Columbine

As mentioned earlier, we are taking the summer off in our transitional work as a congregation. So we have decided to get a feel of where the broader church is headed today by visiting other congregations in our area.

Our first experience was with a congregation from a more conservative conference within our denomination. At least, that was our thought before we visited. But we discovered that at least as far as their worship service is concerned, they are no more conservative than our own congregation. Perhaps even less so. The style of music was much more contemporary than what our congregation offers, mostly praise songs with a band. It was a much smaller church so the preaching, by comparison, left much to be desired. The style of dress was perhaps even more modern and relaxed than our church. They are struggling within that conference with many of the issues facing our broader denomination today, just like our conference.

Our next visit took us to a church that has recently left this same, so called "conservative", conference. One of their reasons for their leaving was the divorce issue. The women in this congregation appear more conservative and no musical instruments were used in the service. We really enjoyed the singing here. There is something about the simple use of the human voice in praising our Maker that is refreshing. We had no problem with knowing the hymns that were used, even those sung spontaneously during the offering and at the end of the service. Our only concern with this group was the obvious double standard in outward appearance. The men could be anyone you would meet on the street today...but the women wore long hair (always put up into bun style), coverings and dressed modestly. There seems to be one standard for the women and another for the men. Some men had long hair and pretty contemporary clothing. This congregation is presently strugling with the use of musical instruments in their worship service. Several people recently have left this congregation over the instrument issue. The preaching was very biblical and well done. (As a matter of fact, the pastor giving the sermon was at one time pastor of the church we had visited previously.) We noted that this congregation was larger with many families and the facilities were very comfortable.

Our next visit will be to a non-denominational church that uses a traditional service. At least, that is what has be reported to us...and remains to be seen.

TT meeting

At our last transitional transparency meeting we were asked to view our congregation as a person. This abstract idea was hard for some of us to comprehend. But we gave it a try anyway. We were asked to identify our congregation as a person in a number of ways such as: gender, health, looks, vocation, future, and other insights we may have observed that were not addressed. The total two hours were spent on this exercise, and we didn't finish looking at all the characteristics presented to us. Looks like we will continue with this at our next meeting.

Some of the responses were rather humorous. One comment was that we are "tired and need a nap." Another said we are a "person of simplicity, but not simple-minded." The best comment was that we are "like an octopus-a big belly from being a bit flabby and over-fed, but many arms for reaching out and helping others." But the most profound comment was, "We live in a house that needs a little paint and a fire in the fireplace. The foundation is still good."

After this meeting we had the thought that we felt like we had just spent two hours on a psychiatrist couch. Our transitional pastor wants to spend the next meeting completing the picture of who our congregation person is and where we go from here. Then, if time permits, begin looking at issues related to the pastoral search process.

Faith, Family, Fellowship

Our church is having Faith, Family, Fellowship Nights each Wednesday for the next 6 weeks. The fellowship meal doesn't start until 5:45 p.m. which is about an hour later than our normal evening meal time. So we won't be planning on going for that. Each person could sign up for various things of interest to begin after the meal: Bible study of Acts, Book study, service project, Singing. We signed up to sing through the supplemental worship book called Sing the Story. Unfortunately they started the singing earlier than we anticipated so we didn't get in on all of it. We thought the classes and such would be starting at 7p.m., but obviously we were wrong. Next week we are planning on arriving at 6:30p.m. just so we won't miss any singing. The singing was enjoyable.

There are other children activities for all ages, as well as youth activities, planned on Wednesday evening also. The Bible study of Acts is being led by our pastor. The book study is on the book Power of Enough by Lynn Miller. The service project is the building of the inside of our food trailer used to raise money for our women's group.

Though we normally don't like going out in the evenings, especially during winter time, we feel that our efforts will be rewarded. And it should make these frozen months go by a little faster.