CHURCH REPORT FOR AUGUST 15, 2021: A Pause

CHURCH REPORT FOR AUGUST 15, 2021

The word "church" refers to an "assembly of called out ones." Sometimes, due to pressing concerns, the "called out ones" have to show their "church-ness" in other ways. It is not ideal, it is not preferable, and, if done too long or made habitual, it can even be detrimental to the individual member and to the local body as a whole.

But because of ongoing concerns about the appearance of covid within our congregation, the elders, after meeting and discussing and deliberating and debating, and, most of all, praying and searching the Scriptures, came to the incredibly difficult decision to pause our in-person worship service this Sunday. 

One of the "good things" that came from last year's outbreak is that it pushed us into making our services available online. It wasn't a live stream, but a pre-recorded service that we released at 10 a.m. The very first service we did, back in March of 2020 was a disaster. Not the service--it was fine. But because of the huge demand at 10 a.m. and the limits of our own knowledge of the technology, the site crashed. Ahh, memories...

Well, we still offer the services online (usually released Monday) and they serve a need for folks who cannot attend on a given Sunday or who were here, but missed the service (kids workers, service & safety team, and others--SA-LUTE!). 

So, back to the subject: last Sunday, pausing in-person service. . .

Pastor Dick pre-recorded his message from Daniel 6, called "Trusting in the Lord." This brought back some other memories of a time that he spoke on this chapter and used an actual lion to illustrate it (I have a videotape of it).  This time, it was a timely word about trusting the Lord, even in the midst of pandemics. Pastor Dick reminded us that God brings peace when we're surrounded by lions. He pointed out that, "the banner over David's life was because he trusted in the Lord."

So the message went on at 10. And dozens of "called out ones"--some, no doubt, in their jammies or finishing breakfast or brunch, or laying on the couch with their tablet--worshipped the Lord through the Word. For one Sunday, we paused an in-person service for an on-line service. Was it preferable, was it ideal, was it the best? No, but as a good friend of mine is fond of saying, "it is what it is." 

Here's to the return of the actual assembly of the called-out ones. Pray for those who are sick with covid and pray for all of us who are sick of covid. And pray that our focus, our hope, our trust be ever in the Lord.

And how was your church service this weekend? Did you take any special measures in light of health concerns or local regulations? Let us know in the comments below (be nice! This is not the forum for a debate or argument). 

Disclaimer (because someone will say something): although I am actively involved in my church, all opinions and observations are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the leadership, staff, or congregation.

AN ESSAY ON GETTING OLDER

 I have a senior friend at church who is fond of reminding me that "getting old ain't for sissies." I never appreciated what that meant until I got older.

It is sad when a vehicle starts breaking down the minute the manufacturer's warning expires. I'm convinced this happened to me at some point. The warranty expired and things that never hurt before now ache with a jarring regularity. Limbs that could climb a hill and dodge and weave in a backyard football game start to object upon arising from bed. When my older friends used to tell me about their medical issues, I used to nod in sympathy. Nowadays, I nod in affirmation, then share my own!

Do not misunderstand. I am far from "over-the-hill" or "washed up." Some wise choices early in life have held off some of the consequences of some not-so-wise choices.  Working in children's ministries for 15-plus years has permanently programmed my brain to "kid mode." My hobbies and interests skew "young." I laugh easily and have been known to break into song at a moment's notice. My ambition and dreams remain active. Like the fictional musical character of Hamilton, I feel compelled to "write like I'm running out of time." This last year, I've started a new project (which I will share another time). If anything, my curiosity and thirst for knowledge has increased.

No doubt, I have earned the gray in what is left of my hair. I am smarter, wiser and more determined in some areas than I ever was. I know more. But with that knowledge comes the realization that I do not know as much as I thought I did earlier in life. My heart breaks far easier at the growing divineness in our society, the embrace of things that God has warned us about, the presence of real injustice, and the knee-jerk abandonment of faith and values. I grieve for friends who have lost their lives--the number sadly grows--but I also grieve for those who have lost their love for their Creator.

Forgive me for using a stodgy expression, but as I think about this "stage of my life," I like what the psalmist says: 

"How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light."  (Psalm 36:7-9)

"Getting old ain't for sissies." But in the satisfaction of the Lord's presence, the years ahead are full of hope.

CHURCH REPORT FOR AUGUST 8, 2021: Slightly different service

 Disclaimer (because someone will say something): although I am actively involved in my church, all opinions and observations are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the leadership, staff, or congregation.

CHURCH REPORT FOR AUGUST 8, 2021

Church was decidedly different this last weekend. For one things, our Saturday evening service is adjourned until September. For another thing, many of our staff and teenagers were away for our annual High School camp. Among the missing were our song leader, most of our praise and worship team, and most of the usual men who are called upon to fill the pulpit.

Yup, you guessed it: I had the honor of bringing the message on Sunday morning! More on that in a second.

As usual, the morning began with the 9:00 Adult Bible Study. We blazed through a whole three verses from Romans 7. I love the interaction, the questions, the discussion. It's almost like gathering around a family table.

When the service started, I ran up at the last minute to welcome everyone. It's at those moments that we realize how much we depend on those who serve in various capacities, such as Dick K, who faithfully reminds us each Sunday to take a deep breath in preparation to simply surrender ourselves to God. 

Our musical guests were Dakota and his wife and they BROUGHT IT!  In this modern era of full instrumentation (nothing wrong with that), who would have thought a guitar and keyboard would bring such a blessed atmosphere to the service?

I gave the message (a link to the service is below) from 2 Peter 1:12-21 about the reliability of Scripture. There were some positive comments from folks afterwards and I'm humbled by them. 

The second worship set ended with a medley of hymns and choruses that got everyone singing and engaged. I love toe-tapping music. . .and traditional music done in a contemporary way is just exciting to listen to.

So it was a good Sunday. I have found out later that the staff, counselors, and high schoolers from camp returned safely that afternoon, with everyone accounted for and no major injuries. As a wise man once said, any camp you can walk away from is a good one. And I guess that applies to services too.

So how was your church service this weekend?

Morning Worship Service 8-8-21

CHURCH REPORT FOR AUGUST 1, 2021: Daniel continues

 Disclaimer (because someone will say something): although I am actively involved in my church, all opinions and observations are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the leadership, staff, or congregation.

CHURCH REPORT FOR AUGUST 1, 2021

Happy August! It's hot. Smoke is in the air from our annual regional fires. And did I mention it is hot?

What better place to be than an air-conditioned building for the Sunday Morning Worship Service! 

Ordinally, I would refer to the "Weekend Worship Service." For several months, we have had a duplicate service on Saturday evening. The Saturday service was started primarily in an attempt to address concerns about Covid spread. By offering a second service, it would spread out our crowd, thus reducing issues of distancing. The Saturday night service did not have a huge turnout, but there were positive comments from those who came.

But since our church has headed into youth activity season (camps, VBS, and so on), it has become difficult to staff a second service. And with camps winding up, many families are trying to squeeze in one last vacation or getaway. So the elder board decided to discontinue the Saturday night service until September, when they will reevaluate the program.

So that leaves us with Sunday morning. . .

We've been going through the book of Daniel and this week's message from Mike
Bull was from chapter 5. Mike usually does not have a title for his message, but the passage had to do with another famous account: the handwriting on the wall. King Belshazzar, at a drunken revel, sees a finger appear and write a cryptic phrase on the wall. Daniel announced that Belshazzar and the Babylonian's kingdom was at an end. And that night, Babylon fell to the Medes and Belshazzar was killed. 

Mike's style of preaching is to bring in a lot of background and then bring in a lot of application: personal, society, church, nation. One of the asides had to do with the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused such division within the church at large. Vaxxers, anti-vaxxers, maskers, anti-maskers: we need to be more open and tolerant to one another. Personally speaking, I think he's right, but I can't help but feel there were a few on both sides of the debate who who took umbrage at his statements. But good preaching does that. Not that the speaker should seek to make someone mad, but sometimes, it happens. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

Quick shout out to our music director Chris Alden. Week after week, the music is consistently good. Sometimes, his challenge is to find enough musicians and singers to bring it over the weekend (particularly Saturdays!). But bring it they do...and I would put our praise team against the "big boys" any day.

Being as it was the first Sunday of the month, we also observed the Lord's Supper, remembering the death of Christ on the cross to pay the price for our sins. Folks came forward to take the elements during the second worship set. Doing it in remembrance of Him!

So how was your church service this weekend?

9 (JUST FOR FUN) OBSERVATIONS ABOUT NCIS

 

Like many tv viewers, I enjoy the program NCIS. Originally launched as a two-part episode of the series JAG, NCIS chronicles the activity of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's Major Case Response Team, led by Leroy Jethro Gibbs and his squad of highly skilled agents. 

I spent several months of semi-binge watching the series from the beginning (by "semi-binge watching", I mean one, maybe two episodes a night), as well as full scale binging while recovering from surgeries. So as I watched these shows one after another, I began to notice things. Mostly minor things. Things that made me go, "hmmm." So I'd like to share them with you.

Three quick disclaimers before we start:

• NCIS is a very entertaining show. I enjoy it. So nothing I say in this post should be interpreted as nit-picking or griping or complaining about the show. 
• No major plot points in this list, but if I accidentally say something that you may have preferred to find out on your own, then just put this list in the category of spoilers.
• Super fans of the show have no doubt addressed most, if not all, of these items. Plus some things may have been touched on in an episode. I have avoided the fan boards and chat rooms for that very reason. I'm just a normal guy with a casual enjoyment of NCIS. If you want to weigh in on the comments after you've read the piece, that's fine, but be nice about it. 

And now , without further ado, here are nine observations about the series NCIS.

1.Who are these people? During a typical episode, there are people who are working at other stations, people carrying papers, and people simply walking around. Who are these people and what do they do at NCIS? One episode arc had a female agent whose team was on the other side of a divider. Why don't we hear more about these other teams?

2. Is it connected to the Navy or Marines? Is it just me, or does it seem like the Navy connection for a given case is sometimes a stretch?

• "Got a dead sailor in Norfolk. Grab your gear!"
• "Got a dead Marine in Arlington. Grab your gear!"
• "Got a dead janitor at a Marine Base. Grab your gear!"
• "Got a dead window washer at Quantico . Wait a second. Oh, okay, uncle is a reservist. Grab your gear!"
• "Got a dead body at the park. Ummm, he was wearing a navy blue suit. Close enough. Grab your gear!"

3. Who gets a hall pass? How does someone get admission to the "bull pen" level? At times, we see agents escorting guests (and while we're here, those agents nod, but rarely speak).  But there have been times when people seemingly have come up on their own. In fact, there have been times when "nefarious ne'er-do-wells" have stepped off the elevator, much to the surprise of Gibbs and his team (but not always the other people, who continue to walk around). 

4. Who does what? I used to watch JAG, in which the Navy lawyers would investigate Navy crimes, even going undercover at times to nab the bad guys. So what exactly is the relationship between JAG and NCIS (the fictional series, that is, not the real-life agencies)?

5. Down time? Does Gibbs and his team  work more than one case at a time? What do they do while waiting for the phone to ring or for Gibbs to stride into the room and announce that they found the leg of a biologist whose lab was next door to a Marine recruiting station, so "grab your gear!"?

6. How do you get to the Director's office? Does it not seem unusual for NCIS Director Leon Vance, the head of a major federal law enforcement agency with world wide contacts, to have his office just upstairs from where the agents are working? I'm not saying it's impossible, but isn't that like a local school district superintendent having her office at the elementary school?

7. Is one expert enough? For the amount of cases that NCIS tackles from Gibbs' team and (I assume) from other teams, is just one Forensic Scientist and one Medical Examiner enough? While some episodes have addressed the workload, most of them have Abby (and later Kasie) and Ducky (and Jimmy) perform in-depth analysis and detailed autopsies fast enough to give the results to Gibbs in a timely fashion.  I wish I had that mojo of energy and productivity.

8. The biggest small agency in DC? In early episodes, NCIS was portrayed as an undervalued, little known federal agency. One of the running jokes was when the agents would identify themselves, they would be met with confused stares and questions of "who?" or "what's that?" Since then, at least in the tv universe, NCIS appears to have field offices and major operations in several locations in the U.S. and around the world. It regularly takes the lead role in investigating and stopping global terrorism and high crimes. And its technological brilliance would be the envy of most spy agencies. So just how amazingly awesome is NCIS?

9. How many clicks does it take to get to the center of a file? I'm not a computer expert by any means, but it seems like the agents tap a LOT of keys in order to bring up a picture or document on their monitors. I can usually access a picture with a few clicks of my mouse. Come to think of it, do they even use a mouse? They must use a mouse....I just never paid attention. Or maybe it's the high-tech sophisticated systems they have. Either way, the clickety-clickety-clickety seems excessive to me. 

So that's it: nine fun observations about NCIS. Like I said, I really do like the show, so nothing takes away from the entertainment value. These questions make me think, research, have fun, and draw conclusions based on what I see. I'd love to hear your thoughts and maybe even some of your observations in the comments below. Again, keep it nice and respectful