Being the Church

It's Monday and I feel the need to brag on my church - I don't think I do that enough.

Yesterday morning, I got to the church early to enjoy breakfast with the Men's Club and followed that up with my routine of turning on the sanctuary lights and laying out everything I would need for worship.  One of our Trustees was also in the sanctuary, trying to figure out why it was 54 degrees indoors and the furnace wasn't kicking on.

Our sanctuary runs on two furnaces and two A/C units.  The furnaces are older than I am - probably installed in the 1950's.  One furnace has been out for about 3 weeks now and the heating & air people have ordered a replacement burner that will hopefully be here this week.  Over the weekend, the other furnace decided to end its life as well, leaving us with a dilemma.

In 20 minutes time, the people of this church pulled together and moved worship into the Fellowship Hall.  It required a reset of the chairs in the hall, transporting hymnals and bibles from the sanctuary, and setting up the altar.  You'd think we had done this dozens of times considering the great ease that it seemed to be done with.

We worshipped yesterday morning in an unfamiliar place for worship, but the Spirit was moving.  Nobody complained, everybody was involved, and worship seemed to be a little more lively.  To tell the truth, I think throwing us out of our routine actually worked to our favor.

After the service, there was more time than usual spent fellowshipping and making friends of new visitors.  Before I could collect all of my things from worship, every hymnal, bible, and pew pad was back in its place in the sanctuary.  The altar was carried back and set up.  The chairs and tables in the fellowship hall were rearranged to be ready for the week. 

Sunday could have been a lot more stressful.  Thanks to the teamwork of about 50 men, women, and teenagers, we breezed right through and still put our best foot forward with our guests.

For any members who are reading this post, I thank you.  The world would be a better place if every follower of Christ could work with this sort of teamwork and commitment to putting our best foot forward.  You all ministered to me on Sunday.

To all my friends that are church planters, you can't have my setup people.  Keep your hands off.