Sunday Stuff
I got up early-ish to get the kids up and ready for church, I sang with the praise team today and we rehearse before services start. Dh stayed home -- yes, he's the worship minister, but he has a colonoscopy tomorrow and had to fast for the morning to get ready to drink the yucky stuff tonight. We got there, the kids played in the nursery while we rehearsed. It always surprises me when they don't trash it before services! They were great. I got to do a little improv stuff on Zoe Group's "Worthy is the Lamb". I'll never get close to their rendition, but I worshipped and God was praised! Came home, Sis had lunch in the oven (Dh was bemoaning how great it smelled). Nothing like coming home from church to lunch in the oven, although I would have loved for her to have come with us. Napped, went back to church for our first-Sunday-of-the-month worship time and church meeting.
It's a little depressing, out of 420 members representing 283 families, we had under 40 people there tonight. They announced in church this morning that the elders were going to be talking about some changes in the way they approach leadership -- sounds like serious stuff, right? I guess not serious enough. If we had held a chili cookoff afterward, we would have had quite the crowd. I shouldn't be so hard on our church members. We do have a great congregation, it's just so easy to get used to the status quo instead of pushing ourselves to dig deeper and keep growing in our walk with the Lord. Heck, if I weren't married to a minister there, I'm sure I'd be at home thinking "I'm not getting my kids out again tonight! Someone will tell me what went on." But I guess God put us in this ministry partially to kick my butt and make me take a good hard look at myself. I hope now that hubby's stepping back in his duties (yeah, I know I still haven't blogged about that yet -- too hard), that I will still hold myself accountable whether or not he's on staff.
It turned out to be a wonderful evening. Our elders have been studying and praying and listening to God's call about their roles as elders. They've basically come to the conclusion that they need to be less of what our tradition has always expected elders to be (decision-makers, de facto board members, the big honchos), and more of how the Bible describes them -- shepherds. They need to know their flock better -- 6 elders for 420 people is quite difficult to get personal with -- in order to lead them. They are going to begin visitations with families, having the deacons make calls to see how families are doing and who might be needing such visitation. They really want to be more in tune with the spiritual life of the church, and are taking steps to make sure they are. They aren't abandoning the decision-making, but are delegating some of the day-to-day, administrative stuff they've been bogged down with to deacons, ministry leaders, or other qualified members of the congregation. It really touched my heart that they were tired of being the 'big guys'. None of our elders is the type to be power-hungry, so I know it was weighing on them, the responsibility. The fact that they are in a position of responsibility won't change, but I think that God will bless their efforts to follow HIS leading in just what that responsibility entails, and how to go about fulfilling it.
Well, anyway, if you're reading this tonight, please say a quick prayer for Dh, he's still trying to get that nasty prep liquid down. (He's been drinking it since 5, you're supposed to be done in 2-3 hours, it's 11:00 now.) If you're reading later, a quick prayer that the colonoscopy helps diagnose or rule out diverticulitus. He's only had one attack, back in September, and we'd like to find out that it's his last -- that it was just a quirk or something. Not likely, I know, but anything is possible!
It's a little depressing, out of 420 members representing 283 families, we had under 40 people there tonight. They announced in church this morning that the elders were going to be talking about some changes in the way they approach leadership -- sounds like serious stuff, right? I guess not serious enough. If we had held a chili cookoff afterward, we would have had quite the crowd. I shouldn't be so hard on our church members. We do have a great congregation, it's just so easy to get used to the status quo instead of pushing ourselves to dig deeper and keep growing in our walk with the Lord. Heck, if I weren't married to a minister there, I'm sure I'd be at home thinking "I'm not getting my kids out again tonight! Someone will tell me what went on." But I guess God put us in this ministry partially to kick my butt and make me take a good hard look at myself. I hope now that hubby's stepping back in his duties (yeah, I know I still haven't blogged about that yet -- too hard), that I will still hold myself accountable whether or not he's on staff.
It turned out to be a wonderful evening. Our elders have been studying and praying and listening to God's call about their roles as elders. They've basically come to the conclusion that they need to be less of what our tradition has always expected elders to be (decision-makers, de facto board members, the big honchos), and more of how the Bible describes them -- shepherds. They need to know their flock better -- 6 elders for 420 people is quite difficult to get personal with -- in order to lead them. They are going to begin visitations with families, having the deacons make calls to see how families are doing and who might be needing such visitation. They really want to be more in tune with the spiritual life of the church, and are taking steps to make sure they are. They aren't abandoning the decision-making, but are delegating some of the day-to-day, administrative stuff they've been bogged down with to deacons, ministry leaders, or other qualified members of the congregation. It really touched my heart that they were tired of being the 'big guys'. None of our elders is the type to be power-hungry, so I know it was weighing on them, the responsibility. The fact that they are in a position of responsibility won't change, but I think that God will bless their efforts to follow HIS leading in just what that responsibility entails, and how to go about fulfilling it.
Well, anyway, if you're reading this tonight, please say a quick prayer for Dh, he's still trying to get that nasty prep liquid down. (He's been drinking it since 5, you're supposed to be done in 2-3 hours, it's 11:00 now.) If you're reading later, a quick prayer that the colonoscopy helps diagnose or rule out diverticulitus. He's only had one attack, back in September, and we'd like to find out that it's his last -- that it was just a quirk or something. Not likely, I know, but anything is possible!
posted by Gem at 10:45 PM
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