Mental Musings

I arrived at church this morning to see two police cars parked in front of our church. There was only one other car in the lot and that belonged to our security guy who arrives early to unlock everything. As soon as I entered the foyer I could see why the police where there: the foyer had been ransacked and the door leading into the worship center had been broken into. Within a few minutes after I arrived, the police decided that the church needed to be sealed up as a crime scene. With five services planned for the day, they informed us that we would not be able to access the worship center, Preschool and nursery area or most of our adult bible study rooms for at least three hours. With the help of about forty people, we quickly prepared a makeshift worship area in another building. No hymnals, no computer, no projectors, no sound equipment, no music stands, etc. We scavenged for anything we could find. The youth pastor brought out the youth ministries projector, the sound team found s...

Our eleven performances of the Living Christmas Tree ended today with a very busy schedule. After arriving at church around 7:00 am, we left tonight a little after 6:00 pm. We had our normal three morning worship services at 8, 9:30 and 11 followed by a 2:30 matinee of the Living Christmas Tree ending with a large meal for the 200 plus people who have helped with the Tree. Next we have the Christmas Eve mega round with five worship services 8, 9:30, 11, 5 & 6:30. At least we get some downtime before then. Following Christmas we are heading to the MusicFlorida Conference in Orlando and a week vacation after that in Vero Beach. As a pastor friend of mine always says: “Peace out, man.” Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our Christmas Letter from this year... (BTW - I loved the FoxTrot comic strip from December 4-8 about these yearly letters) Last year at this time we were almost certain that we would be moving to Maryland. We were preparing for the performances of “The Christmas Post” at our church and Steve was about to fly to Maryland to view the Living Christmas Tree at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Bel Air. Since then, we did move and Steve is now the Minister of Music and Worship at Oak Grove (www.oakgrovebaptist.com). Steve has had to get used to a completely different style of ministry. He has many more meetings and much more paperwork, but he also has much more help from paid and volunteer staff. More than 100 people are on his Living Christmas Tree team and about 90 people in the choir. Steve is getting rather spoiled. He has many people (especially his Ministry Assistant) who pamper him. He has surprised many people by actually showing up to help with things like decorating or constructing t...

Yes…it’s that time of year. People bundled up as they brave the chilling temperatures, huddling together on cold concrete walkways, taking turns running to the restroom so they don’t lose their place, camping out overnight or for days in front of any electronic store for the smallest hope of getting their hands on the Nintendo Wii or Playstation 3. If only God could draw such attention. Oh, wait. He did, back in His day. You remember the men who cut a whole in a roof just so they could get their paralyzed friend in to see Jesus? Or how about those magi who planned and traveled for nearly two years in search of the prophesied Messiah? And then their were the crowds who followed Jesus all day with no thought of food, forcing the disciples to bring a little boys’ lunch to Jesus only to see Him use it to feed thousands. And there are even current stories from other countries of how people walk miles to attend worship services. Some people stand through entire services that last several hou...