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Oh, this is good stuff. Lessons for young (30-and-under) leaders in churches dominated by boomers.(tags: church leadership)
- Just realized I never gave you all any feedback on the first service at Imago Christi. It went pretty well – had 60 in attendance. Music was OK, though I starting singing the wrong verse of one hymn at one point, which threw everybody off.
- Just started my new book list for 2008. You can find the link on the sidebar. Only one book on it so far.
- I have resolved to not get any more books from the library until I read through the pile that’s next to my bed. It has grown to where it won’t fit under the lip of the bedside table any more – must be 15 books there. They’re good things that I want to read, I just keep preempting them with newer stuff from the library. Gotta whittle that pile down.
- Just heard that Andrew Peterson will be doing a concert in Cedar Rapids the day after my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! Hey Andrew and Heather, when will you be back in the area for spring break? Want to come down to CR?
- Speaking of Andrew and Heather, we’ve been plotting (well, Becky’s been plotting) our trip to WA this summer for the wedding. It’s looking like fun.
- Next note on the wedding: I’m gonna have to buy a suit. I haven’t owned a suit in years. The blazer I wore during college hasn’t fit me through the shoulders since probably 2000.
- It’s harder than it should be to remember that the Saturday night service at Imago wasn’t a one-time event. I’ve got to plan music for this Saturday… should do that today.
The biggest adjustment this week in preparing for the Saturday night service is starting to think of it as a weekly routine. We’ve done other one-time events down there in the past, and it would be quite easy to think of last Saturday’s service as just another one-time event. Except that it’s not – I need to get music planned, get the worship team lined up and ready to go, get the lyrics prepared for the bulletin, all the usual tasks… again this week.
One thing I think would help in this regard is setting a regular schedule throughout the week for my planning and preparation. Something like this:
Saturday night: worship service.
Sunday: prepare sermon recording for website, listen to it again and evaluate.
Monday: make sure the website is updated for the week.
Tuesday: choose music for the following week and email to worship team.
Thursday: prepare bulletin.
Saturday: practice with the WT and do the service.
Repeat.
I think it might work. However it happens, I sure need a routine.
Saturday was the big day – first service at Imago Christi! A timeline of the day:
7:30 am: Wake up after sleeping in. Feels good. Making mental lists of what I need to remember for the service.
9:45 am: Everyone is fed and dressed. Making a couple final tweaks to the bulletin.
9:55 am: Headed to Noelridge to print the bulletin and pick up the drums.
10:30 am: Setting out 2008 giving envelopes for Noelridge while the bulletins print.
10:50 am: Loading congas, microphones, mic stands, and a small podium into the van.
12:10 pm: Girls are taking a nap, Becky and I are watching Heroes. Almost done with Season One.
12:30 pm: Nate calls and wants to know when we can meet so he can drop off the sound equipment. Any time before 3:30 will work for him.
1:15 pm: Meet Nate at Imago. Set up speakers, amp, adjust the EQ.
1:45 pm: Heading back home.
3:15 pm: Leaving to pick up Andre and head to Imago for worship team practice.
3:30 pm: Made it to Imago, setting up microphones and the keyboard. How will we arrange all this stuff on the stage?
4:00 pm: Finally ready to practice the music. Getting a nasty hum from the passive pickup in Morgan’s guitar.
5:00 pm: We’re as practiced as we’re going to be. Plugging in the iPod. Andrew Peterson will provide background music until the service starts.
5:15 pm: Changing into my ilikeandy.com t-shirt and a jacket.
5:30 pm: Service starting. Must be about 50 people here.
5:35 pm: We’re up. Music starts. People are clapping on the first song. Woohoo!
5:39 pm: This second song is a mess. Timing is off, and I messed up the lyrics to the second verse. Not my A game. Grrrr.
5:50 pm: Music set is done. Still pondering what song to use as the musical meditation at the end of the service.
6:40 pm: Richard has finally wrapped up the sermon. Taking mental notes to give him a review later. I’ve decided on a song.
6:50 pm: First service is over, and we survived. Thank God. Heading down for a fellowship time.
7:15 pm: Tearing down sound equipment. Fortunately we have a closet where we can store it there at the church.
7:45 pm: Everything is torn down and put away. Now to lug those congas back out to the car so we can use ‘em at Noelridge in the morning.
8:10 pm: Home. Exhausted. Putting the girls to bed.
8:30 pm: Watching the last three episodes of Season One of Heroes. Pretty good ending.
We’ve been working towards this for over a year now, and tonight it comes to pass: the first service at our downtown Cedar Rapids church plant, Imago Christi at Central Park. I think we’re to the point where we’ve planned about as much as we can; now we just have to go for it and trust God to see us through. This is the point where the butterflies set in.
Pray for us today that we would be effective, and above all else, that God would be glorified.
(5:30 pm if you’re in CR and want to come!)
I’ve basically narrowed down our web-based CMS search to two programs: Church Community Builder and PurposeWare. I’ve worked with the online demo of CCB for a few days now and liked what I’ve seen. It is very feature-rich and detailed. My fear is that it might be too detailed and might scare away potential users. I haven’t seen PurposeWare up close yet; they will schedule a live demo for me with a sales person, but I can’t just go do it myself. No time to do it this week; I think I’ll set aside some time next week to get the demo.
Both companies have reduced pricing in place for church plants; PurposeWare says they’ll give it to us for free for a year, but haven’t told me yet how much it’ll cost after that. I have a price on CCB that I think we could handle if it’s the best choice. I’m shooting for next week sometime to get a decision made and get signed up.
One year ago I decided that my blog was the must useful place to keep my reading list, and that proved to be a good choice. I’ve tried keeping reading lists in the past, but was never consistent in recording. This year, though, I managed to record each book and a couple sentences of synopsis and review. I don’t do much in the way of Top 10 lists, but this seems like one place where I have enough data at hand to make a year-end summary. So here goes.
Full list of books I read in 2007.
Total books read: 85.
Total fiction: 68.
Total non-fiction: 17.
Total re-reads: 1.
The one notable series for this year was Harry Potter. I managed to resist the series until this year, but finally decided it was time to give them a try. I was glad I did; they were some very entertaining reads. I started Book 1 on July 11 and finished Book 7 on August 23, and managed to sneak six other books in during that six weeks as well!
A look at my non-fiction stuff betrays my interest in history and science, with a dabbling in music. No real surprises, I guess.
My Top 5 non-fiction reads of the year, in no particular order:
- The Everlasting Man – G. K. Chesterton. This is a classic, took me a while to read, but Chesterton is worth it.
- Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin. Goodwin makes history interesting. Very readable, interesting insights into an amazing man.
- Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior – Dick Couch. I’m a sucker for special forces/military stuff anyway, and this is an excellent look at what the Army Special Forces folks do.
- No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II – Doris Kearns Goodwin. Got started on DKG, read a second book. Good stuff once again.
- A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country – Larry J. Sabato. Some very interesting ideas here, including changing the number of senators/representatives and the lengths of their term, a proposal for a single six-year (extendable to eight-year via national referendum) term for president, and others.
My top 8 fiction reads, again in no particular order (I was going to list 10, but couldn’t find two more that lived up to the standards of these 8):
- Variable Star – Robert Heinlein & Spider Robinson. The title character goes on a “galactic bender”… yeah, and it’s a great story.
- Sun of Suns (Virga, Book 1) – Karl Schroeder. Schroeder manages to create a very believable, imaginative world for his story. I’ve got book 2 sitting in my to-read pile right now. Can’t wait.
- In War Times – Kathleen Ann Goonan. Goonan combines time travel, jazz, and World War II in a way that blows my mind. Easily my favorite non-series book of the year.
- The Children of Húrin – J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien does the classic epic better than anyone else.
- Magic Street – Orson Scott Card. Card has a gift for storytelling and imagination. This novel weaves some of the plot and ideas of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a delightful modern fantasy.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) – J. K. Rowling. I promised myself I’d only include one HP book in this list, and it had to be this one. It caps off the series brilliantly.
- Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present – Cory Doctorow. Most of the sci-fi short stories I’ve read up to this point have been older; it’s fun to read something written recently – the current-ness of the technology and ideas makes them even more believable and frightening.
- The Road – Cormac McCarthy. No, I didn’t read this one because Oprah recommended it. Andrew Peterson recommended it, too!
Chilling, spare, and yet ultimately hopeful.
Apparently I am a sci-fi nerd. It’s not that all I read is sci-fi… I guess those just stick out the most to me.
I’ll start a new list for 2008 once I finish my first book. Gotta see how my reading preferences change from year to year.
A birthday that is always easy to remember, coming as it does the day after New Year’s. Aaron turns 25 today. A full quarter-century. Feeling old yet, bro? I have a feeling 2008 will be a memorable year for ya. Happy birthday!