church
- Organize a Benevolence Fund. Caring for the poor and needy cannot be done in a willy-nilly fashion… it’s amazing when we put our money together what we can do!
- Establish a Father Program. Many children in our churches today come without a father… over the years my four daughters would bring children, mainly girls, from school to the table to eat with us. For many of these girls it was the first time they were at a table with the father present.
- Provide language training for new immigrants. A number of our women had professional training and detrees in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), and they said we should do this. We were wondering, “Where are these people going to come from? We haven’t seen any immigrants in the neighborhood.” Nevertheless, we put up a sign reading “English as a Second Language.” Within one day we filled the whole program.
- Provide hospitality to poor and needy members. People love it when they come to your table for a meal. And the Lord Jesus instructs His people to invite certain kinds of people for a meal: “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” (Luke 14:13).
- Provide the poor with cars, furniture, and household goods. How often we’re getting rid of a car, selling a car. Don’t sell it - give it to someone!
- Raise awareness of poverty both local and global. Even if your assembly is middle class or upper middle class, there are bound to be people who are suffering financially. But you must have your eyes open to see it.
- Acknowledge the reality of the AIDS epidemic. One of the greatest tragedies in world history is right here before us…
- Leaders must set a vision before the congregation. We need to set a vision before our people that pulls us out of our self-centeredness. Our people need to be stirred to a compassionate care for our congregation, and a compassionate awareness of a world situation that is almost unspeakable.
- Worship leader & musicians
- Sound equipment
- Sound technician
- Recording gear to record sermon
- CD for playing before/after service
- Words for the songs (either song sheets, hymnals, or overhead projection)
- Lapel/wireless microphone for pastor
- Collection plates/buckets/box/whatever
- Ushers
- Counters
- Treasurer
- Budget
- Receipts (donors will want receipts!)
- Bulletin
- Communion service
- Nursery workers
- Children’s church workers (if you have it)
- Sunday school teachers (ditto)
- Security
- Clean-up crew
- Set-up crew (if you’re packing in/out)
- I’ve stuck you, my blog readers, with far too many links this week and not enough other stuff. Now, that being said, they are all good links. You’ll find good stuff if you visit them.
- Finally thinking about Christmas shopping. I think it’s gonna be a Amazon year. I have some good book ideas for almost everybody.
- Chatted with Ryan for a while yesterday and it’s interesting to see us progressing remarkably parallel paths of theological thought and reading. Makes me wonder what it was in our common upbringing that’s moving us that way.
- In the same chat conversation there were enough ideas come up to give me an outline for one of those books that I’d love to write but keep lamenting I never have the time for. I really should make an effort.
- Tonight we’re doing Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Becky’s been looking forward to steak all week. Hooray for Christmas bonuses!
- Church plant update: the lease agreement for the building was signed yesterday. Assuming the other party signs it (which they should), we’re officially in the building and will be starting January 5. Awesome and scary at the same time.
- You know, if you go back to the real definition of awesome, something that inspires “an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like”, then the scary part I juxtaposed in the previous bullet is pretty much redundant.
- How do you think it’s been going? Good? Bad?
- Have there been any times that you felt unprepared or out of your depth?
- Is there anything I can do to help you do even better next time?
- How are things going in your life otherwise?
- How you actually think it went.
- Suggestions for improvement.
- Encouragement to continue well, and a reminder of why we’re all serving.
- Introduction
- Part 1: Don’t Overload the Workers
- Part 2: Active Oversight (this post)
- Introduction
- Part 1: Don’t Overload the Workers (this post)
- Part 2: Active Oversight
- Introduction (this post)
- Part 1: Don’t Overload the Workers
- Part 2: coming soon
- Part 3: coming soon
D-Day Timeline
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.
It's a big day
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!)
Becoming a Caring Church
Alex Strauch provides some practical guidance for becoming a church that truly cares for people (from the Summer 2007 edition of Emmaus Bible College’s Journey magazine):
Songs for the Inaugural Service
Imago Christi’s inaugural service is just over a week away - January 5, 2008. As I noted previously, it’s a bit of a challenge to pick the music - something appropriate for the first service of a new church, setting the tone for services to come, and having something accessible for those who are coming who may not be familiar with the songs.
I’ve settled on these four:
Blessed Be The Name of the Lord (Clinton Utterbach)
Praise to the Lord, The Almighty
My All In All (Dennis Jernigan)
Jesus, I Come (with new tune from RUF Hymnal)
I think this keeps things relatively simple, yet incorporates some new and old lyrics of praise of the Father, praise of the Son as the Lamb of God, and a beautiful expression of the Gospel in the final hymn. I pray it will be a blessing to those who attend.
Details to remember for your first worship service
Yes, the title is overly-long Google linkbait. But one thing I have been astonished with is just how many details there are that need remembered to plan for the first (or for that matter, any) worship service at a church plant. So, without any further ado, here’s my running list. I’ll update it as I remember more things.
Music-related
Giving-related
Service-related
Children’s ministries
Etc
What items do you have to add?
Selecting music for an inaugural service
We’re going to have our first worship team practice for Imago tonight, which means I need to have music selected for our first service. Selecting church music is normally a bit of a challenge, but selecting music to kick off a whole new church? Intimidating. I’ll need to pick a mix of old hymns and some more modern stuff; I’m thinking of some Chris Tomlin and maybe Praise to the Lord, the Almighty. Any ideas? Feel free to leave them in the comments. I’ll post the list when I get it finalized.
Building a worship team
One of my big initial tasks for Imago Christi is to figure out the worship team situation. Music is going to be an important part of our church “feel”. I had to select a word carefully there. Music won’t be the most important part of the church, not by a long shot. Nor will it be the most important part of the worship service. But music sets the tone, the “feel”, for the service and the congregation. Our music at Imago needs to draw from both ancient and modern, to be current musically while capturing the richness of two millenia of church tradition, wisdom, and teaching.
With that mental framework in place I start to look for musicians and vocalists. In the end I picture a small band; drums, a guitar or two, keyboard, bass, and a few vocals. But we’ll start smaller than that. It looks like our inaugural service will be keys, (conga) drums, and maybe an acoustic guitar. Three of us on vocals. We’ll see where it goes from there. I’m a lousy recruiter. I hate asking people to do things. I want people who are self-motivated and want to participate on the team. When God brings them, we’ll add them in. Am I being naive about this?
First practice is Thursday night. I can’t wait.
Bullet Points for a Friday Morning
Ideas for Effective Ministry, Part 2: Active Oversight
I was going to make this part 3, but this all really ties together too much, so let’s just talk about it now. What about oversight? Too often I think of “oversight” with a negative flavor; the person overseeing is the one who either a) gets to be the disciplinarian when things go poorly or b) has to take the blame when things go poorly. No fun either way. But if oversight doesn’t kick in until things go poorly then we are failing.
So back to those evaluations where people said the Sunday morning service was good. I think one of the key reasons the Sunday morning service was good, and got better, was that we held weekly meetings on Mondays to critique and review. As a staff we sat down for an hour and discussed the music, the sermon, the rest of the service. What was good? What was bad? What could be done better for next time? Those meetings were good learning times for all of us. I can’t think of a single time, though, that we did that kind of evaluation for any of the other ministries I’ve been involved in at the church.
Why don’t we do oversight? First, I think it’s the negative connotation. We don’t want to be the bad cop who’s offering criticism when something is done poorly. Now sure, it’s more comfortable not to offer criticism, but we don’t usually shy away from it. Why do we shy away from it in church ministry?
1. We’re afraid of losing volunteers. If the gal who runs the overhead projector or the guy who greets at the west door get criticized for doing a poor job, they may just decide that it’s not worth it at all. Then we may be out a couple of volunteers… and isn’t having someone that does a hit-or-miss job better than not having anyone? There are a couple responses to this one: first, teaching and shepherding of our people to have them understand the importance of service; second, making sure that we talk to folks regularly, so we have opportunities to praise them for doing an excellent job… which makes the sting of constructive criticism easier to take later on.
2. We feel guilty for overworking our volunteers It’s the old 80-20 rule, right? 80 percent of the work gets done by 20 percent of the people. In some churches it’s probably more like a 90-10 rule. So when one of those 10 percent, a faithful, hard-working volunteer, is doing a poor job in a ministry, we hesitate to mention it because, you know, they’re already doing too much already, but we really need somebody to do this, and, well, they’re busy, and it’s hard to get it all done… so let’s cut them some slack. I am one of those 10 percent people. Even today I have responsibilities that I am doing poorly because I have too many things on my plate.
So what’s the response to this one? First, don’t overload your people. If somebody’s volunteered for too many things, tell them so. Then help them to prioritize so they can do a few things really well. Then get some of those 90 percent people to fill the gaps. If there’s no one to fill in, leave a hole there for a while.
3. We feel guilty because we haven’t trained well I’m as guilty of this as anyone. To my silly engineering mind, most of these tasks are “easy”, so I tend to let them go with just a little bit of training. “Here, it’s just Powerpoint. Turn on the projector, use the remote to flip the slides, turn it off when the songs are done.” To most people, things aren’t that obvious. The best solution for some of these tasks is apprenticeship - get a new volunteer to work with an old, experienced volunteer for a while to learn the ropes. In times when that’s just not possible, set up a time to work with the new volunteer and train them until they’re comfortable with the task. Don’t just throw them into it on a Sunday morning and leave them hanging. I’m ashamed to say I’ve done it before… and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Active oversight
So here’s my call for active oversight of for every volunteer in every ministry going on in the church. Maybe a weekly meeting is infeasible, but a conversation or phone call every couple of weeks would work. As a leader, ask these questions:
As a leader, be prepared to offer some feedback, too:
It is not the responsibility of the pastor to talk to all the volunteers every week, either - this oversight responsibility should delegate down. Let the nursery coordinator be the one that contacts the nursery volunteers on a regular basis. Let the head technical person keep in active touch with the folks who run sound and video every week. Then let the elder overseeing the nursery ministry talk to the ministry coordinator, etc. Flow things up. If everyone gets in the practice of talking to their two or three on a regular basis, everyone stays on the same page, and improvements get made. Just keep in mind the end goal: effective, well-done ministry, in service of God’s people, and for God’s glory.
The rest of this series:
Ideas for Effective Ministry, Part 1: Don't Overload the Workers
This seems like such a no-brainer that it shouldn’t even need to be mentioned, but based on my experience, it does. Sundays aren’t even the best view of this. Look at it through the week. Are the same people that are teaching Sunday School the same people that are hosting a Bible study at their home on Monday, leading kids' clubs on Wednesday, volunteering in the church office on Friday, and showing up on Saturday to help with the work project and get things prepared for Sunday again?
Another place to look carefully here is at the impact not just on individuals, but on families. At one point in time at Noelridge we had six women serving as deaconesses, and of those six, three were elders' wives, and the other three were deacons' wives. Now I’m sure this isn’t too uncommon - after all that heart for service really should run together in couples, but as a leader, be acutely aware of the combined family schedule, especially for younger families that still have children at home. More than once I have had someone wonder why I thought I was so busy when I was only committed to two or three different activities per week(!) at the church. When I asked them to figure in my wife’s commitments, and then remember we have small children at home, well, suddenly expectations change a bit.
Discernment is required here to understand who truly has the time and desire to serve greatly and who is working from feelings of compulsion and guilt. We do not get the best service from our people when they have a dozen things on their plate. Something will get missed, and something else will be done poorly. To my shame, I have done this often enough myself. As leaders we need to be willing to protect those overly-willing servants by telling them when they have enough on their plate, and then to fill the gaps we need to get a fire lit under those who aren’t helping out.
I visited a friend’s new church website the other day and under the tab titled “what we do”, I found these refreshing words: “At Grace Central, we basically only do three things.” Wow, I thought, only three things? Now those spread out a bit in ministry, I’m sure - it’s not like there are only three events on their calendar every week. But still, the focus: only three things. If it doesn’t fit in one of those boxes, it’s not essential, and we’re not going to do it.
From their website again [emphasis mine]: “…we want to try very hard to limit what we do to only those things which we are convinced are essential. That way people are encouraged to take what they are learning at Grace Central and go out into their lives to apply it and to discover the radical implications of God’s grace. We think being a responsible church means our people should have time for relationships and activities outside of our church as well.” Amen.
Also in this series:
Ideas for Effective Ministry - Introduction
Last week Richard (my pastor for the past 8 years who is also leading our church plant effort) asked me this question: What do we need to do to have more effective ministries at the church? He shared with me that in the past 15 years when he has had the opportunity to conduct “exit interviews” of folks who have left the church for one reason or another, the predominant theme he gets is that the Sunday morning service is good, but that the ministries that go on through the week leave something to be desired.
So that got my wheels turning. Why is there this disparity? What can we do to change things to make it better? This is crucial both for our existing ministry at Noelridge and our upcoming ministry at Imago Christi. Are there processes we should put in place that would help? Are there things in place right now that are unnecessary hindrances to the effort of ministry?
I had a few answers for him there in our conversation, but I want to take the chance to explore them more fully here on the blog. So over the next few days I am going to explore some areas where I think we can improve things in our ministry - and I’m hoping it’s applicable and useful for my non-Noelridge readers as well as the locals.
As a note to my Noelridge readers: please don’t read any of this and feel that it’s a criticism of you, of your efforts in ministry at Noelridge, or of your dedication to the Lord. The responsibility for this stuff falls on the leadership. We are the ones that need to take a hard look and then, if need be, change things. It’s entirely possible that some of the ideas I explore here won’t even be good options for Noelridge. What I am hoping these accomplish is to get us to think on some things and have a productive discussion. So please, leave comments and discuss.
Also in this series:
Should this really be our fight?
“Clergy fight same sex marriage”. This headline stared out at me from this morning’s copy of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The sub-heading (which was used as the title of the online version of the story) gives more detail: “Iowa church leaders planning rally ‘defending marriage’”.
A coalition of church leaders today announced plans for an Oct. 28 prayer rally and other actions to defend traditional marriage in the face of a district judge’s ruling striking down a same-sex marriage ban – a development they warned could convert Iowa into the nation’s “Rainbow Vegas.”
“This is a call to arms,” said Dan Berry of Cornerstone Family Church. “The sleeping giant is being awakened.”
Later in the story, the Rev. Keith Ratliff of Maple Street Missionary Baptist Church in Des Moines said the “…campaign is not geared toward hate or fear of homosexuals, but rather seeks to preserve the longstanding, family-based and Bible-backed tradition of marriage as being a union between a man and a woman.”
The final, colorful quote in the story comes from Chuck Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center, who warns that if the same-sex marriage ban is permanently reversed, Iowa will be come “the Rainbow Vegas”.
We have gotten all too familiar with hearing pastors and Christian leaders like these over the past two decades. On a national level, radio hosts like Dr. Dobson, televangelists/presidential candidates such as Pat Robertson, and leaders of movements like the Moral Majority (the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, an OK guy in my book), and later on the Christian Coalition (Ralph Reed, who turned out to be a bit more crooked), urged their listeners or viewers to call their congressman, write their legislator, to stop this piece of legislation, encourage that one, or to decry a recent judicial ruling.
There is a place in the life of a Christian for speaking the truth to our community. In many cases that should and will include involvement in the political arena. At our church this past week we had a petition on the table in the foyer urging Iowa lawmakers to pass a state constitutional amendment in “defense of marriage”, and to urge them to support an amendment to the federal constitution as well. One of our elders, during announcement time in the service, asked folks to consider signing it. Many did. (I didn’t. I’m not so sure that we should change the constitution for something like this.) But I fear for the sake of the Gospel and our churches when what our pastors are known for are leading the “sleeping giant” into the political arena when those rascally judges finally go too far. (Why is the church “sleeping”, anyway? Maybe that’s problem numero uno.)
Particularly disgusting to me was the quote from Mr. Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center, pulling out the scare tactics to warn good little church people that their beloved, safe hometowns will become a “Rainbow Vegas”. “Ooh! Run away!!! Gay people!!! Be afraid!” I don’t know whether Hurley is a pastor or not, but the IFPC website is pretty plainly espousing Christianity, including on their site a Prayer Request page with a quote from John Bunyan. Mr. Hurley, I see plenty of prayer requests on that page for new donors, success in the courts and the legislature, and politically active people. But where’s the prayer request that these people who you fear so strongly would hear the good news of Jesus Christ and be freed from their bondage to sin? If we’re going to rouse the “sleeping giant” of the church, why are you only rousing them to join the political fight against your adversaries rather than rousing them to minister to and serve those same people?
Our primary command as believers in Jesus Christ is the Great Commission: to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel. We are not to huddle in a spirit of fear, desperately attempting to protect our little enclave against the evil world around us. Christ has already won the victory. It’s over. Instead, we need to go to “those people”, and love them. Serve them. Find out who they are. What makes them tick. Show them the love of Christ in action, so that when we find avenues to share it verbally, they will already understand. We are not to fear “them”, but rather to fear for them, knowing that we, too, were once hopelessly ensnared in sin. Our new righteousness is not our own; we dare not boast in it. Only in Christ.
Change comes from the inside. Pass all the laws you want, legislate your own specific understanding of perfect morality, but if you don’t change the hearts, laws aren’t gonna do any good. (See: The Prohibition.) However, if lives are changed by the power of God, pass or repeal all the laws you want; people living for Christ will make whatever country they live in the kind of country that you probably want it to be. I fear that the siren song of political power has been too attractive to the Church. Let’s stop being distracted by it, and focus instead on loving our neighbor.
Changes in the works
I presented this letter to the elder board at Noelridge last Thursday:
To the Elders at Noelridge:
It has been my privilege to serve the body at Noelridge with you for the past eight years, first as a deacon apprentice, then for a time as a deacon, then for a few years as an elder apprentice, and now for the past 18 months as an elder. You are dear brothers and friends to me, and I have learned much from each of you. However, the Lord has burdened my heart to serve fully in the upcoming church plant in downtown Cedar Rapids. As the day of the first service draws near, I find myself needing to devote more time to planning and preparation for that mission, and straining to try to remain consistent in my duties at Noelridge. I therefore request to be released from my responsibilities as an elder at Noelridge Park Church, effective immediately.
After much discussion with my wife, it is our plan that our family will attend the new church regularly and not Noelridge; our desire is for effective ministry balanced with church stability for ourselves and our daughters. I will work to make arrangements to transfer my various responsibilities to other church members over the coming weeks. I anticipate that I will continue to assist in leading music for the time being; Dave Tessier and I will work out plans to ensure that both Noelridge and the new congregation are well-led musically. We all covet your prayers as we embark on this great mission in the service of our Savior.
In Christ’s love,
Chris Hubbs
This is a big change for us. But we’re excited about this church plant, and ready to see it happen. To my brothers and sisters at Noelridge who will undoubtedly read this and may have it be the first you’ve heard of it: yes, it means changes. We do have plans in the works that will mean I’ll still be leading music at Noelridge once a month or so. And we’ll still be around on Wednesday nights, so you haven’t seen the last of Becky and the girls, either. :-) Pray for us and this church plant. We want to see great things for God’s kingdom.
Sunday Sermon
This morning I had the privilege to preach at the Noelridge Sunday morning services. My text was Exodus 18, entitled “A Father-In-Law’s Lesson” - based on the lesson that Jethro had for Moses. I think it went pretty well, I was excited to have the chance to preach again. For those of you interested, you can download the sermon (mp3, 7.1 MB) or stream it here.
Edit: It sounds like I screwed up the audio; instead of converting it to mono, I managed to just delete one of the tracks. I also need to amplify the whole thing a bit. Maybe tonight. Still, if you can stand just listening to it in one ear, go for it.
I uploaded the new audio just now - converted it to full mono and amplified it so that it is about the right volume. Gotta love Audacity.
Which comes first: committment or vision?
In the midst of a church meeting last night discussing our church’s future plans, a question came up that I imagine we will be wrestling with in future weeks. I’m not entirely sure what I think the answer is yet, so I’ll post it here to see if any of you have comments.
The question goes something like this: in the context of a church, which comes first? Do people first have to get “the vision”, and then will respond with committment? Or rather, do people first need to be committed to serve, and then begin to see the vision of the church ministry?
Still chewing on this one…
One last time...
This Sunday will be my last Sunday to lead worship at Noelridge for a while. It has been a while since I made the official announcement, and I think in the interim some good strides have been made to get things organized and prepared for my departure. I’m sure there will still be some kinks to work out, some things I’ve forgotten and the like, but they’ll get the figured out, and I’ll be available to answer questions.
I’m looking forward to the break. Suddenly my Monday afternoons are free from staff meetings (though I may still attend from time to time), my Tuesday nights are free from planning services, my Wednesday nights are free from worship team practice, and my Sunday mornings are now flexible so I can attend one service of my choice. There will definitely be some schedule adjustment, I think for the better.
So, this Sunday is the last one. We’re celebrating the church’s 50th anniversary this week. We’ll have a few of the former pastors in attendance, and a bunch of old-timers. Should be a neat time.
Things are changing
I made this announcement after both services at Noelridge today. I didn’t read from a script, so this isn’t verbatim, but is the gist of the message I had for the folks.
After much prayer, thought, and discussion, I have come to the decision that the best thing for me and my family right now is that I step back from my role as the worship leader here at Noelridge. Now, that’s not a fun announcement to make, but let me explain a little bit.
The key factor playing into this decision is time. This hit home the most to me when I recently realized that my current life schedule of work and ministry is the same or busier than it was seven years ago when we moved to Cedar Rapids. However, in those seven years God has blessed us with two little girls. And while Becky’s schedule has changed drastically since the girls were born, my schedule hasn’t changed at all. And it needs to.
I also want the time to be able to get involved in community things. My entire social life and structure has been within the church, and that’s not good. I need to have the time and freedom to be able to be involved in the “real world”, to reach out to my community. You have also entrusted me with a role as an elder here at Noelridge, and I want to make sure I have the time to do that well.
Let me emphasize that we are not going anywhere. Noelridge has been a great blessing as our home church for seven years now, and our desire is very much to stay here, I will just be in a different role. Sunday mornings will look at bit different; we have many other talented musicians in the church here who are capable of helping with music, and we will be calling on them. Worship team may also look different for a while, we’re still having discussions on that.
So thank you for letting me lead these past years, and for understanding as I move to fulfill responsibilities in a new season of my life.
It is a big relief to get this off my chest and officially announced. I’m looking forward to see how God will use the folks in the church to fill in and minister in different ways.
Park Concert coming up...
This coming Sunday night my brothers Aaron and Andrew and I will be doing a concert for my church. Noelridge has annually had a church potluck in the park on Labor Day Sunday; for the past several years we’ve had the Faris family (talented bluegrass types from Kansas), but now they’ve moved up in the world and we can’t afford them any more. (Good for them!) So as their amateur replacements, the Hubbs brothers will be providing the musical entertainment this year.
I’m looking forward to this immensely. I have blogged before about the fun of playing music with my family, and this is no different. The music will be stuff that we’ve goofed around with before but never really performed; stuff by Caedmon’s Call, Derek Webb, Andrew Peterson, Andy Osenga, and others.
I only have a couple of more tasks in preparation: I need to try to drum up an electric piano we can use for the night (I know who to call, I just have to make the call) and I need to practice. I need to practice a lot.
What: Noelridge Park Church potluck and concert in the park Where: Noelridge Park Pavilion When: Sunday, September 3rd, 5:30 PM Bring: a dish to share and a lawnchair.
It's time for a break...
I was reading back through some of my old blog posts this morning, tagging them appropriately, (100 down, 300 still to go…) when I found this post that I’d written back in April about burning out and refreshing. In that post I talk about getting burned out with worship team, and how nice it was to get at least one week a month off.
That was in April. That week that I had off in April was the last Sunday that I’ve had off since then. Basically, for 4 months. My usual substitute leaders and musicians have been gone on vacations and with family issues and illnesses, and the end result is that when you’re the leader, you’re stuck with it if nobody else is available. And I feel like I’m starting to fray around the edges.
Now, I know that there are people from my congregation who will read this. Let me assure you all, I love leading the music. But there is a point at which some things have to come into balance. I have a full-time job outside the church that will entail more travel over the upcoming months and the potential for overtime hours. I have a wife and two young daughters at home who need to have me around. I have (or will soon have) an elder/deacon list of folks who I am responsible for as their elder. Then there’s the whole realm of responsibilities to myself, like taking the time to exercise regularly to stay healthy, and taking enough time in recreation (and think of it with a hyphen: “re-creation”) to stay sane. When the commitments of worship team are added in, too, it’s a lot.
So basically, I’m back to the “something’s gotta give” spot that I was in back at Christmas. I should apologize to my wife right now. She has noted in the past how I manage to get things better for a while, but then everything creeps back in and I’m busier than before. I’m there again. It’s creeped back in. And now I have more work stuff on top of it. I’m sorry, Becky, I’ve let it happen again.
I know what my pastor’s reaction will be to this when I talk to him: he’ll say that I should make the effort to get other leaders lined up so I don’t have to do it all the time. And he’ll be right, of course. What I need his help with is in urging others to be available to lead to give me time off. There are at least half a dozen men at church fully capable of filling the pulpit when Richard is gone. Lord, where are the musicians?
I have at least a little enforced vacation coming up - the weekend after labor day we’re leaving the kiddos with my parents and going to Wisconsin Dells for a couple of days. And I will be gone on that Sunday. My brother Andrew is in town for the fall, so he will be able to provide some relief, I think, provided that I can get him trained up in all the surrounding tasks. (He can do the music just fine, it’s just the administrative details he will need to learn.) But he probably won’t be around past Christmas. I need to find a longer-term fix than that.
So I’ve gone and spilled my guts on the blog again. Now I need to do something in the real world to make it happen. What do I do to break this cycle? I can’t afford to do this every year. Seriously, folks, if you have suggestions or thoughts, I want to hear them. Thanks.
Random Thoughts on Church Attire
OK, so Dan put me up to this. Pick a topic, and just start writing. So this topic came to mind. How did it come to mind, you ask? Well, I was thinking about our church’s service in the park this Sunday. And how much I enjoy it. And how one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is because it’s appropriate to wear a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals, even when leading the music. And that led me to thinking about church attire in general.
So what do you wear to church? I’m talking about Sunday morning, when you attend the regular weekly service. At Noelridge, I usually wear a pair of khaki pants and some sort of collared shirt. If I’m feeling sloppy I’ll wear jeans with the collared shirt. One time I even left the shirt untucked. But usually it’s khakis and a collared shirt.
Now, this isn’t a universal dress code for our church. Our pastor usually wears dress pants, but may match those with a golf shirt in the summer, other times a shirt and tie, and on rare occasion, add the jacket for the full formal look. On any given Sunday you will see lots of folks in jeans, and in the summer you will see a fair number wearing shorts as well. Given that our air conditioning doesn’t keep up very well in the summer, shorts seem like an attractive option at times.
Having said that, I just can’t bring myself to wear shorts to church. Why? I suppose part of it is thanks to my mother, who was firmly against wearing shorts to church, even for Wednesday night activities. Old habits die hard. Another part of it is that if I’m up leading music for the service, I figure not everybody wants to have to look at my bare legs. And I suppose another part of it is that I know there are people in the church who probably are against wearing shorts on Sundays, and as part of the leadership I don’t feel the need to push the point. I’m not caving in to their legalism, I just don’t feel like making an issue of it.
I had a discussion on this topic with my in-laws some time back when they were visiting. They come from the “dress your best to honor the Lord” school of church attire. Interestingly, they were also missionaries in Indonesia for a few years. So I wanted to ask if just going in a loincloth and other similar tribal garb would be OK. They didn’t bite. It’s based on culture, they said. We should look our best to honor God.
But what about that verse that says “man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart?” I asked. Well, yeah, sure, that’s true. But hey, we’d dress nicely if we were going to meet the President, right? So why do we dress sloppily when we go to church? Do we have more respect for the President than for God? At this point I’m shaking my head a little bit.
Then they noted that the youth pastor at their church (a megachurch in Charlotte, NC) got some very bad reactions from older folks in their church because he didn’t wear a tie to their formal service. He was wearing a jacket over a polo shirt for the “informal” service, which had just gotten over, and he just wore that to the “formal” service as well. And they mentioned this to me as an example of people being disrespectful with the dress code. I think about that time I asked how much improved the service would be if the pastor just left on his polo shirt but the old folks started thinking about God instead of worrying about the pastor without a tie. I think the discussion went downhill from there.
So if you happen to be in Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 10:30 this Sunday, you’ll probably hear me playing my guitar, leading some singing. Pretty much guaranteed I"ll be wearing cut-off shorts, a t-shirt, and my sandals. And having a lot of fun doing it.
And thanks, Dan, for the suggestion. It’s the most fun I’ve had blogging in quite a while. I’ll have to do it again sometime.