Early-morning irony

So I've set aside time to blog, and I can't remember what I was going to blog about.


O, irony.

I guess we'll go with some assorted updates:

- The church search continues (as we expect it to for several more months). We have become moderately involved in one community of faith, but we aren't sure that it's home. So we drop a fiver in the offering basket and keep tithing to the church we still miss, back in Texas.
- Since I last blogged, we had The Great Granite Countertop Debacle of 2010, which has now been solved, thanks to a second granite company and another chunk of cash. Such a piddly little first-world problem that took up way too much of our energy.
- The slate backsplash will go in this weekend, and the new fridge arrives tomorrow. After that, we just have to finish texturing and painting in there and our kitchen will be ready. When that's done, it's down to bedroom walls, master bathroom, and trim throughout the house.
- We haven't yet figured out the proper configuration for dog-bathing in this house, as it doesn't have an inescapable sliding shower door like the last house did. So today the dogs are off to the local Pet Palace, where they'll get the stink washed off of 'em.
- Found out that a friend of mine who was asked by his superiors to take a leave of absence from pastoring has pretty much been told they don't want him back, so he enrolled in truck-driving school. This is supposed to be the new era, where churches will need to change to meet the needs of the "mission field." I think this particular pastor may have gotten into trouble by pushing his churches (too hard for their tastes) to do just that. So he's told not to expect to be appointed anywhere. Again with the irony.
- Have barely begun shopping for Christmas gifts (because I'm sick of consumer Christmas and we are busy enough already). What we have bought is fair trade, and I believe we'll be spending a bunch of money on items from the Heifer Gift Catalog, too. I love Heifer. In November I got to visit both their ranch and their world headquarters. In fact, our little bit of Christmas shopping was done at the ranch gift shop.

Okay, time for breakfast, both human and canine varieties. 'Bye now.

WorshipFAIL

We were in a church sanctuary for at least an hour this morning. We tried.

But we failed. Or, more accurately, I think the entire church may have failed to worship.

It started out okay enough. We parked in a clearly-marked visitor spot, entered the building, received a welcome, a recognition that we were visiting for the first time, and a bulletin. We walked into the sanctuary, sat down in the center of a pew about 3/4 of the way back, and got greeted by one more person (who I realized I'd talked to this week on the phone as part of my job, but we kept the introductions to first names for the more incognito visitor experience). She said, "I'll be right back," and did indeed return a few minutes later with a recent church newsletter and a visitors' packet containing brochures on all their ministries.

After that, it started to get weird. We opened our worship bulletins and found hymn selections that raised our eyebrows. You'd have thought it was Independence Day weekend from the first two hymns. We wondered about them for a bit, then decided it probably had something to do with Thanksgiving coming up this week, though we aren't accustomed to big displays of patriotism for Thanksgiving, especially in church.

So, we sang "America the Beautiful" for our "Hymn of Praise," -- yes, that was the label in the bulletin and over the PA system. The Alpha leaned over to me and asked, "Praise to whom?" Exactly what I was wondering. The hymn is clearly addressed to America, not to God.

Then the substitute associate pastor, a retired clergyman from another Conference, waxed all emotional about how great America is compared to other countries. We think he got a little verklempt. Meanwhile, I'm glancing over at some of the diversity in the pews near us, wondering if everyone in here is indeed a citizen of the U.S.

The next hymn was "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." Ohhhh, The Alpha noticed... it mentions pilgrims. That's why it's a Thanksgiving hymn, we supposed. Still, another hymn not directed to God. I like to limit those types of moves to one per service, myself. And even then, it's sketchy.

Scriptural basis for the sermon was Romans 12:1-2. The senior pastor explained to the congregation that John Wesley was hearing this very same passage when he had what is now referred to as his "Aldersgate experience." WRONG! I know better! And teh Intarwebs backs me up:

"In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans." --from The Journal of John Wesley, May 24, 1738

HaHAA! Luther's preface! Wesley wasn't listening to the Bible itself being read.

Then, later in the sermon, the pastor states, pretty much out of nowhere, that "Thanksgiving is our only 100 percent religious holiday."

That comment got badger-faced (Liz Lemon-style) by both The Alpha and me. Is any holiday 100 percent religious? If so, I don't think Thanksgiving wins that distinction. Plenty of people give thanks on Thanksgiving without involving God in it. They may thank their parents for not making them cook anything, or they thank their place of employment for not making them work (or for paying them extra if they do have to work). But I'm guessing we have a significant fraction of Americans whose primary celebration of Thanksgiving basically amounts to, "YAY! TURKEY!"

Crap. I just lost several paragraphs of this post. Intarwebs fail. I'll be hitting "save now" after every sentence from here on out.

This congregation also applauded. at. everything. I usually can forgive a congregation for applauding after the children's choir sings, even if I do believe it sends the wrong message (kiddoes, who are you singing for? The congregation? No! You're singing for God, not those people out there). But these folks also applauded after the big-people choral anthem, and they applauded again when the pastor did the "right arm" verse of the Hokey Pokey as part of his sermon. (God wants you to "put your whole self in," of course. But he left out my favorite part of this illustration: You aren't just supposed to put your backside in church. It's no fun without a butt reference.) Yes. They applauded the Hokey Pokey. And not after they had all successfully done it themselves, which I think is perhaps the only appropriate time to applaud the Hokey Pokey. And even then, not always.

At one point in the service, I decided I'd try to learn a little bit more about the place by skimming the newsletter given to us by the friendly lady. That's when I learned that apparently, the place is falling apart as far as staffing is concerned. They had to cut one position, and then two other people have resigned. Doesn't bode well.

We have visited four other churches here in the area, and while no church is perfect, nor do we expect it to be, we've felt at least okay with most of the worship experiences. This is the first time we haven't been able to get our worship groove on even a little.

And now I have to go. I've spent too long on this blog post when I should be busy fighting our house. We must beat it into submission.

Assorted reports from SFM

- If you've been to our house, you probably know what SFM stands for.

- Because of the illness Dustin the Foster Dog brought with him to SFM, The Boy is on antibiotics, and will be for about another week and a half. The worst side effect? He consumes even more water than usual, meaning he requires at least one trip outside in the middle of the night. Last night, the trips were 30 minutes apart. We figured he was just trying to be fair, making each family member who has mastered The Doorknob Principle get up once.

- Dustin/Dusty is scheduled to begin his heartworm evaluation and treatment a week from today (thanks, in part, to those who gave through the ChipIn page -- like RevAnne). I sure hope it goes smoothly! From what I hear, there are points in the next few months where it won't be any fun for him or his adoptive mom. But she's committed to seeing it through to the desired outcome, I know.

- I would normally be getting started on my commute right about now, but I have to report for jury duty at municipal court today. Whee, local government! I hope at least part of the experience is interesting. It's been a decade or so since I've been called, and that was for the county court. I'm really, really hoping to be dismissed since my job involves presenting at a conference later this week.

- We spiffed up the guest room and guest bath last night, because Gavin will be staying with us tomorrow through Friday (see, Gav? we clean because we care). He's helping out with a work thing; actually, he helps out with a lot of work things, because he's on our board of directors. But some of them require that he travel here from Tennessee.

- I'm hitting a higher level of frustration with my particular geographical tribe of Teh Church lately. Just sayin'. I'm sure that this, too, shall pass, but I'm not having a good time with it right now. And I keep wondering about perspective. For example, I might put the dogs somewhere they do not want to be, or do something they don't like or understand. But invariably, I do it because they will be safer and/or healthier in the long run. Is that what's happening here, with a slight role shift? I hope so, because if it doesn't turn out to make sense in the long run, I'll be pretty hacked off.

- We at SFM have given up foul language for Lent. I slipped yesterday... but it was the Sabbath, a feast day... which means technically, whatever I'm abstaining from is acceptable to do. Sure feels like a technicality to me, though.

- I'm losing count of how many times I've said of someone, "He's such a... something I can't say during Lent!"

- We are trying to firm up plans for our upcoming vacation. We already have plans for going up a mountain; now we need to decide the particulars of going down in a hole.

- And it is now time for me to head to the courts building.

Day off, but day on, too.

I took a day off work today, but I'm dressed as if I hadn't.

In less than an hour, Mid-Life Rookie is picking me up and we will make the drive to the retreat center where representatives from the Board of Ordained Ministry are conducting interviews. Her round begins at 1:30 and continues until 4:30. I'm her support person: prayer, logistics, whatever she needs of me. I'm honored to be called upon for this role, and I pray that I truly am a source of support today.

We will know before we come back home this evening whether she will be recommended for ordination in June. Prayers appreciated!

Grand... 6 grand, actually...

Photo snapped during the audience participation portion of Black Water

Well, we did indeed have a grand time last night, and we raised more than $6,100 for UMCOR's Haiti Emergency Fund. (That total would've been just over $3,000, which would be nothing to sneeze at, but at some point before the Finance Committee chair finished counting the money, an anonymous donor let him know that whatever the total, this person would match it. Awesome.) That doesn't count other gifts that were added to the offering plate in worship this morning, and still others that were designated for the same cause the previous two Sundays.

As far as the performance itself goes, if we can just make the time to go out on tour, doing the same two song sets every night for the next six months, we'll have this thing down.... (Oh, wait. That's one of many reasons I'm not a rock star.) Seriously, things did go pretty well from a musical standpoint. And it was good to see different people in the crowd, too -- not just folks from our congregation. We weren't quite at standing-room-only, but I don't think I've seen the sanctuary that full since Easter.

Twenty-one songs is a lot of work, especially when you begin by whittling the list down from 40, finding mistakes in every chord sheet, enduring waves of panic when you're certain you'll never have it ready on time, deciding exactly how to play every intro, bridge, chorus, etc. ... But I think this is the point, at least for some of us, when the pendulum swings from "This is too much trouble. Let's never do one of these again..." all the way over to, "Hey, what's our next set list going to look like?"

There's no telling when we'll actually do another concert, but I confess, I like it when the pendulum has swung over to this side.

Tough talk update

For those who commented on my recent rant/post: Thought you might like to know that The Alpha and I pretty much purged the anger out of our stewardship talk. Not until 11:30 the night before, mind you, but we did do it. Here's the script, very similar to what we delivered at two worship services this morning.

ALPHA: During this focus on our membership vows in the context of stewardship, The Typist and I have been talking over what we might say.

TYPIST: Two words that have come to mind are Vision and Commitment. For us, they go hand in hand.

ALPHA: The best description of vision I’ve seen is something Bobby Kennedy said, which I’ll paraphrase: “Some people look at the way the world is and say, ‘Why?’ I dream of the way the world could be and ask ‘Why not?”

TYPIST: Commitment is deeper than just being involved. The difference between "involvement" and "commitment" is like a ham-and-egg breakfast: the chicken was "involved"; the pig was "committed."

ALPHA: Commitment without Vision is drudgery. Why are you committed, and what are you committed to, if there’s no vision behind it?

TYPIST: And Vision without Commitment is just wishful thinking. How are you going to help vision become reality if you’re not willing to work toward it?
In our culture we don’t make vows very often – but vows are to be taken seriously. When my parents had me baptized as an infant, they made vows before God and the church about how they would raise me. Through those vows, they made a commitment to a vision for my life, and that’s one of the biggest reasons I stand before you today.

ALPHA: When we got married, we took vows. In our 13 years of marriage, we’ve encountered situations where the words, “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health” mattered. We’re committed to each other, and to a common vision for our marriage, and are stronger for it.

TYPIST: We have vision beyond our own household, though. We have a vision that a family will have enough to eat. That’s why we’re committed to the Food Share ministry.

ALPHA: We have a vision that young people will grow strong in their own personal faith. That’s why we’re committed to the youth ministry.

TYPIST: We had a vision of a new, well-built, and welcoming facility. That’s why we’re committed to the Capital Campaign.

ALPHA: We have a vision of God’s people transforming the world by making disciples of Jesus Christ. That’s why we’re committed to uphold the church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.

TYPIST: There was a time when we didn’t take our membership vows quite as seriously. But when we arrived at here nine years ago, something changed. It was in this place that we, as a family, made our first real commitment to a community of faith. Our lives are sustained by the prayers we vowed to pray. Our presence here is a requirement for us: If we are in town and well enough to leave the house, we are here on Sunday morning. We made a vow to be here. And when things have been less than comfortable here, we’ve stayed committed, waiting to see what God’s vision would be for us in this place.

ALPHA: Vowing to uphold the church with our gifts has helped us grow in generosity and faith. If you’d told us ten years ago that we would be tithing by the time we hit our early thirties, we wouldn’t have believed it. Yet, several years ago, we began to work up to giving that 10 percent, and here we are. It’s like physical exercise; you have to start where you are, and be willing to work harder to reach a higher goal. Even incremental improvement is still improvement. Working at our giving has helped us grow spiritually.

TYPIST: Our service has taken many forms here: things like working with the youth, teaching Sunday school, serving as a member of the choir and of MorningSong, sticking it out through committee meetings. Less-noticeable things, too, like setting up and taking down tables and chairs, folding bulletins, and making sure the lights get turned off after classes.
Our faith community means so much to us, and we are thankful that this church has helped us become willing to stay committed to a vision higher than our own, and we joyfully renew that commitment at every opportunity.

Tough talk

So, I volunteered us (The Alpha and me) to give a talk during our church's annual stewardship focus (for the uninitiated, that's the church version of the public television pledge drive). Our turn is one week from today.

Typically, people have been sharing what our faith community means to them, and maybe a little about giving.

The Alpha and I have strong opinions about what this faith community means to us. It means a great deal to us. We could have found various excuses or opportunities over the years to give up and walk away from it. Others have, but we haven't. That's not who we are.

The investments we make in this faith community mean a great deal to us, too. This is the place where we really began to understand that our lives and our money can make a positive difference in the world. That we really do have the power to help feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the sick. That it really is our job to do all those things.

I think where The Alpha and I tend to get bogged down, though, is that we notice all the ways in which we aren't, as a church community, living up to our potential. The average United Methodist gives less than 2 percent of his or her annual income. He and I realized years ago that we could do better than that, and started moving toward tithing -- giving 10 percent of our incomes. Now that we are tithing, it seems easy. It took years of working up to that goal to reach it, though. We want to encourage others to do the same... which is where the urge to rant begins:

We want to say, Seriously, y'all. Come. ON. Isn't our church community worth more than an average of 2 percent of our incomes? Don't y'all like having electricity in this pretty new building we moved into last year? Wouldn't you love it if the youth didn't come before you to beg for money for their mission trip? If we all gave up front, they wouldn't have to do that.

My personal favorite example of misplaced effort is the church auction [which, this year, is the night before The Alpha and I are speaking to the congregation]. People spend a lot of time planning, gathering donations, and working really hard so we can essentially convince ourselves to give a few thousand more dollars to ourselves -- in the form of moving it from our own bank accounts to the church's account. What if all that time and work could be used on mission instead? If we all really took a hard look at where our money goes, we wouldn't need extra funds from a church auction, or a variety show, or a chili supper, or any other kind of fund raiser. Instead, we'd have the time we spend on those events freed up... to do more ministry!

As The Alpha likes to say, "This church has all the money it needs to carry out any number of ministries. The trick is getting it out of people's pockets."

Abundance, y'all. The vast majority of our congregation has it. There are people all around us who we could be reaching with the love of Christ if y'all would quit pretending you're poor when you come to church, but that you're rich when you go to the mall.
---

But I'm guessing all that shame would backfire on us.

I've got to quit fantasizing about grabbing people by the scruff of the neck, demanding to see last year's income tax statement, showing them how to calculate 10 percent of that number, and rearranging their checkbooks so it works out. That isn't our job.

That isn't our job. That isn't our job. That isn't our job. Really, it isn't. So we're not going to do it. It isn't our job.

Ideas for how to do what is our job, anyone?

Whew...

It's been a busy week.

Last Saturday's wedding was lovely, and a certain bridesmaid with a nasty virus managed not to ruin it by fainting (and managed to keep the puke out of the ceremony).

The Alpha drove us home on Sunday. That night he came down with the same bug, only worse. We were both out sick on Monday, and I had to take him to the doc-in-a-box for a shot. Neither of us really got our appetites back until today.

I had a 3-day business trip this week. It was actually kind of helpful not to have an appetite while traveling. Ever frugal, I figured the bright side was that I was saving the company money. It was good to be at the event, see old friends (including one I've known since I was about 4 years old), meet new ones, and watch a certain rookie bishop in action.

And, thanks to the business travel, I can now say I have celebrated Holy Communion with the hermetically-sealed host. I didn't know when I walked into opening worship for this conference that they'd be using them. Apparently they're still really into the flu scare in that part of the state.

You know what went through my mind as a thousand or more of us were communing together by opening up our little single-serving cellophane-sealed styro-bread, then the shot of juice underneath it? This sounds like a giant bowl of Rice Krispies being soaked in milk! ... *snap * crackle * pop * I'm glad I wasn't sitting with anyone I knew; I wouldn't have been able to resist sharing that observation right in the middle of it all.

Also thanks to the travel, I had some big chunks of time with my soon-to-be-former CEO, who joined me for the last half of the trip. She's amazing. It's no wonder she's been tapped for such a great opportunity elsewhere. Yet she's still running full-steam on our behalf in her last weeks in this role. Such a class act.

Been home now for about 24 hours. Settled in, but not quite ready for my own conference, which begins tomorrow afternoon. Lots on my plate. Then a third one, next week, before my chunk of this conference season winds down. Might not be blogging again until the second half of the month.

(Maybe by then, we'll be able to talk openly about plans for lovely niece's major life event, tentatively scheduled for around Thanksgiving.)

Getting my Lent on

ashes on forehead
mortality reminder
but then, back to life

Each year on Ash Wednesday, we have a brief evening service including the imposition of ashes. We say a prayer about coming from dust and returning to dust, and about our mortality, but we aren't told that part individually when we go forward for the imposition of ashes. Instead, it's something like, "May God restore to you the joy of your salvation."

I think I've only been told "Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return" one time. It was in college chapel, and I received those ashes from a guy in the class a year behind me. It was humbling, chilling, holy. I really wouldn't mind being told so again. I'm just sayin'.

Tonight our pastor challenged us to give up several c-words for Lent: control, complaining, and I didn't write them down so I can't remember if there was one more word or two. (I'm sure someone will remind me in the comments.) The c-words I do remember are even harder than the one I'd already chosen to give up: cussing. (I already uttered one vulgarity today; there's no chance at a perfect Lenten record here.)

And after the service, some visiting. We aren't a somber crowd for long. Besides, several of us had to go back into the sanctuary for choir rehearsal. And several had band practice after that. There's always more to prepare, and that's good.

Lately I've been countin' up all my days,
good and bad;
I found that joy has more than doubled
all the trouble I've had.
From now on, I'm not gonna worry about
what might be
I know I'm part of something
a whole lot bigger than me.
Life's a song and we're all singing,
Life's a song that never ends.
We pass it on to sons and daughters
and it starts all over again.
-- "Life's a Song" by John Hadley & Sean Locke (recorded by Terri Hendrix)

Methoblogger/Tweeter meetup, Nashville

Here's the group of Methobloggers, Twitter types, and friends who met up Wednesday night at Congress On Evangelism. Gavin has more pics and a good roundup of our discussion, which went on for more than 3 hours. Thanks, Wayne (TNRambler), for suggesting the meetup in the first place, and thanks to everyone else who jumped in, especially Bishop Schnay-Z, one of the newer bloggers in the group that gathered. (Others pictured include Mid-Life Rookie, Reverend Mommy, Jay Voorhees, RileyByrd, Erin Richardson, and Amy Shanholzter.)

Great to meet some of you for the first time, and to see others again!

Reflections on the year

As 2008 slips on by, with me way behind on other people's blogs, I did find a minute to spot-check my Bloglines account today. One of the blogs I checked was Diane's, and it is from her that I hereby blatantly steal the idea for this post.

She put her reflections in 3 categories: Memorable, Disappointing, and Ambivalent. I'm not ambivalent about "ambivalent," but I am about the other two, so I'm changing their names.

Joyful:
1. Attending the RevGalBlogPals Big Event 1.0, and looking forward to 2.0 this spring.
2. Our church finally completing its new building and making the long, long move across the field from the building we'd already sold.
3. Being able to provide a home to Tuesday the dog, when the timing was so right it just couldn't be denied.
4. Getting opportunities to work with new people in my same job.

Sorrowful:
1. The death of my sweet girl, The Best Dog Ever, Cub. But thankful for the outpouring of sympathy, even from people I've never met.
2. The deaths of two clergy friends, one anticipated, one unexpected. Each of their absences leaves a hole.

Ambivalent:
1. United Methodist General Conference. As a rookie delegate, I'm still trying to figure out what I learned, and what kind of difference it made that I was there. I don't believe all of my time there was wasted, but I struggle with the apparent necessity of navigating tons of bureaucracy in the hopes of doing at least some good.
2. Deciding, discerning, which opportunities required a yes and which required a no.
3. Reacting to my sister's and my brother-in-law's deteriorating health. Not being sure if I've always made the right call. Trying to maintain healthy boundaries in these situations as we decide how to help.
4. Tiptoeing into other forms of social media. I got two more Facebook invitations today, both from family members, and I'm still not planning to join. On the other hand, Twitter is kinda nifty. On the other other hand, finding out through Twitter that a friend has just died is kinda odd. On the other other other hand, I got ReTweeted a couple of times yesterday, which I liked.

Time to get my new chair's slipcover out of its dye bath in the washing machine. We shall see whether the result of this experiment lands in Joyful, Sorrowful, or Ambivalent... tune in next time...

Monday morning dots of procrastination

• I should be curling my hair right now. Curling iron's hot and everything.
• Saturday afternoon we felt very urban. We dressed nicely and walked 9/10 of a mile to the district parsonage for a reception with the new bishop and his wife. We let several people know that we'd walked from our house (smug enviro-hippies that we are). Others who live nearby hadn't thought of that option.
• On the way back, we stopped at the P.O. and bought stamps. (Trip consolidation, even on foot. We are so smug.)
• We're thinking about adopting again. (Not a human, ya goofball!) We'll see how things unfold this week. She's been living at the vet's office since July, so I don't think she's going anywhere without us knowing about it.
• We rearranged the den on Saturday, and are taking a few days to decide whether we like the new layout. Then we might buy a piece of furniture that would allow us to move the computer in there and hide it behind doors when we're not sitting at it (which is about never, obviously).
• There's a lot of dust and dog fur behind things that haven't been moved away from the wall in 8 years or so.
• Okay, okay, I'm going to finish getting ready for work.

Updated to add:

• Dang it. I think my curling iron is busted. I did not want to run errands tonight, but I guess I will. With stringy-looking hair and all.
  

Church Nerd On-Call

We've had a wild few weeks at church, with the move to the new building and all the changes that type of transition brings. And our pastor's long-scheduled vacation began the day after our move, which wasn't the original plan (because we were thinking we'd move back in August).

Yesterday morning, I talked with Lovely, Talented, Dedicated Church Secretary, as is typical of mid-week for me. I'm the resident proofer of the bulletins, my qualifications being a) I'm a word nerd, b) I'm a church nerd, c) I'm involved in music ministry for both services, and d) there was a time when building this church's bulletins was actually part of my job, so I know what to look for.

Anyway, yesterday LTDCS was doing a great job of holding down the fort, settled in her brand-spanking-new office and preparing to email me the bulletins for review. But I never got them. I figured with all the moving parts of relocating, she just had to shuffle that task to today. In the afternoon, though, I learned that shortly after we'd talked, she'd wound up in the ER with severe and sudden abdominal pain.

The great news: It was one of the less-complicated things that it could've been, and the issue is pretty much resolved, so she got to go home (albeit drugged for the pain). Rejoicing and prayers of thanksgiving!

The relieving news: Two of us who are former church staff members had her back on the bulletins. Last night we were blowin' and goin', picking up where she had very suddenly left off (Word document and Bible still open and everything), asking just a few questions by phone. The bulletins for this Sunday are now complete and copied, so LTDCS can rest easy.

The amusing news: Neither of the Bulletin Elves will be present at worship this week, so it really is kinda like we swept in, worked a little magic, and dashed back off to the church attic or wherever it is that Bulletin Elves live. heehee....

A new beginning for AUMC

Today was a momentous day for the church where we're members.

We worshiped in our new sanctuary for the first time today. This building has been a very. long. time. coming. (It was definitely on God's time, not ours.) So today was a celebration of joy, of faithfulness, of praise to the One who brought us to this point.

Here it is on Saturday morning, during the furniture-moving process:


I tried to take a few more pics this morning, before the first service, but only got a few shots because of all that we still had to do. Here's our pastor at our new altar table which, along with the lectern and baptismal font, was custom-made by a group of our members:


Here at the bottom of the frame you can see what I thought was the top of the baptismal font. But it wasn't quite the top. I thought the bowl would sit down in that opening, but a few minutes later someone brought in a large basin that rests on top of the opening. It's absolutely beautiful. Didn't get a picture of that, though, because we were doing sound check.

My fellow band members during setup:


(Yes, those are boxers...but at least they kinda match the jeans. Our drummer's 18 and we love him. Give him a break.)

It took a lot of restraint for me to resist taking a picture of the congregation while I was standing up front leading singing. The place was packed out -- the view made me giddy. And when we robed up for the choir-led service, it was packed for the second time.

Before the early service it dawned on me that I was going to be the one speaking the first official words of welcome to this holy place about to be consecrated to the glory of God. (No pressure, huh?) So, rather than ad-libbing it, I grabbed a pen, dashed out to the narthex, and sought out a dear friend's help. Here's the end result, with emphasis on the words I wanted to make sure people heard:

"Good morning! What a joyful day! As we celebrate our new surroundings, let's remind ourselves of the reason we're here. Let's prepare our hearts to worship God in this place."

(You can't have too many reminders that the church is not a building.)

At the second service, we sang a few verses of the Jane Marshall hymn, "What Gift Can We Bring?" One of the questions in the first verse is, "What words can convey it, the joy of this day?"

I've tried plenty of words here, but I don't think they really can convey it.

Late night for the church nerd

I've been at South Central Jurisdictional Conference since Wednesday afternoon. Just after 10:00 tonight, we finished electing the 3 bishops needed to fill the vacancies of those retiring. The third one elected was from our delegation. Quite the rollercoaster these last two days. I'm really too tired to be good at writing anything right now, but we are in recess until the Episcopacy Committee makes assignments and I'm enjoying the free wi-fi that we don't have in our hotel rooms.