Another Clump of Church
I find that my church-related events tend to clump. In April, I had Youth Sunday on the same day as the Earth Day presentation by the Environmental Stewardship committee.
I’m in the middle of a clump now.
This past weekend was devoted to the Silent Auction fundraiser for the Youth Mission trip to Louisiana. We received 80-something donations of goods and services (babysitting, music for a dinner party, etc), and on Sunday night during a rainstorm (remnants of Tropical Storm Barry) we raised $3,400.
Next weekend is devoted to the All-Church retreat at Camp Johnsonburg. We’ll be there from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Carolyn and I (mostly I) will be serving as “native guides” for the trip due to our current and prior involvement with camp and the number of first-time visitors in the group.
Infertility is referred to the biological inability to conceive, after one downtownsault.org levitra generika year of regular sexual intercourse without using contraception. viagra in australia Bile/pancreatic reflux can move this aggressive acid mixture up to the stomach causing gastritis, persistent heartburn, esophageal damage, etc. For a person to order viagra have proper erections he needs to be conversant to the latest techniques and strategies of this field. Male sexual dysfunction is between the major order cheap levitra concerns of middle-aged young men. I got a gift from God this week in the form of the co-chair for the Welcome and Outreach Task Force. Jill Cifelli has been serving the church as Interim Associate for Pastoral Ministry along with Nolan Huizenga this past year while the church searched for the new Associate Pastor. Jill’s responsibilities included the new member process. She is leaving that position at the end of the month when the new Associate starts, and will be going back onto the session. She will also be my co-chair and the liaison to the session from the task force. Jill is one of the first few people that I talked to at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville about joining, and I if I’m remembering correctly every conversation that I’ve had with her has included laughter. I’m really looking forward to this.
To that end, we are meeting with the pastor on Thursday to tie up some loose ends for the task force. We still have to nail down the rest of the membership (we have one solid member, but the rest of the team is just a list of possible names at this point), and work out the beginning activities.
Things should quiet down after next weekend.
Work is also a bit busy this week, so don’t be surprised if I don’t get a chance to write much.
Whoosh! and a question on calls
Whoosh!
That’s the noise that I probably made getting through all that I had to do this weekend.
Saturday, the Youth Sunday rehearsal ran long. I was at church from 10:30am to 2:30pm. I was completely impressed with the youth. The 3 seniors who delivered the sermon hit the message perfectly and needed very little tweaking. The rest of the crew adapted to their jobs quite easily. I’ll write more on this later.
Sunday was Youth Sunday. I was the usher-herder. I also had to get prepared for the Adult Forum afterwards and eat breakfast. Everything was a rush. The service went great, and as I said above I’ll write more later.
After the service I had to run away from the youth and go finish setting up for the adult forum. I was the 1st speaker of 3 – covering the biblical basis for environmental stewardship. I think it went well (nobody came up and said that I did a good job, but they seemed to be paying attention).
After that, I ran home and had exactly 30 minutes to eat lunch, shower and change to go to the opera with Carolyn. We saw Rigoletto in Trenton. I’ll write a whole blog post on that for you. The opera was good – the lead soprano was amazing.
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Last week sometime, in my way over-churched haze, I remember having a dream one night. I don’t remember what the dream was about, but I do remember one snippet.
I was involved in something at church. My current pastor passed me a note (it wasn’t during a service or meeting or anything – he just handed me a note as we met standing up somewhere). The note said something like “Be sure to listen for a Call.”
Now I realize that I’ve recently become re-involved in the church, and that I’m a likely candidate for over-enthusiasm. If you remember my story, once upon a time I was deciding between Computer Science and Religion as my college major. Due to some unhappy church-related events Computer Science became my major, and Religion my minor. I honestly believed going into college that I might be headed for seminary.
The only word I’ve ever heard encouraging this came more recently. I told my current Youth Director (under whom I work as a Youth Advisor) my personal faith story. He asked if I’d consider seminary now. I told him that I’ve only been back a year or even a few months (depending on how you count) and that besides – I’m a bit too used to my current income level.
I don’t know what this dream means, but it is intriguing. Is this a message? Is it just the product of doing too much church in too short a time period?
So here’s my question to the professionals out there. Would you be willing to tell me (here in the comments, in e-mail, or even on your blog) what your Call was like? When did you know that you were being called to the ministry?
Busy Week
Here’s my crazy schedule for the rest of the week.
Wednesday – 6:30 – 8:30pm – Youth Sunday rehearsal
Thursday – 6pm – 10pm – Trenton Titans playoff game
Friday – 6:30pm – 10:30pm – Trenton Titans playoff game (if they win Thursday)
Saturday – 10:30am – 1pm – Youth Sunday rehearsal
Then Sunday:
8:45am – leave for church
9am – 9:30am – set up for Earth Day adult forum
9:30am – be adult shepherd for ushers for Youth Sunday
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11am-ish – as soon as the service is over, run directly to the lounge
11:15am – be the speaker for the 1st 15 minutes of the Earth Day adult forum
Noon – Adult Forum ends, go home
1:30pm – leave for opera (Boheme Opera – Rigoletto)
1:45pm – pre-curtain talk (always worth the time)
3pm – 6pm – opera
6:30pm – come home, collapse
Unfortunately, I have to miss the post-Youth Sunday service lunch with all participants in order to do the Earth Day presentation.
Youth Group Comedy
Last night, the youth group started off by attending the Taize service for Wholeness and Healing at the church. This service involved annointing.
Afterwards, the youth group got back together for a quick meeting to go over Youth Sunday which is coming up.
Comedy #1:
Youth Director: So, what did you think about the service? What did you like?
Freshman Girl: It was short, and there wasn’t a sermon.
Comedy #2:
We’re listing the parts of the worship service to get ready for planning Youth Sunday.
We’re all yelling out parts of the service:
Somebody: Assurance of Pardon
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Scribe Girl: writes “Insurance of Pardon”
Youth Director: I like that! Leave it.
(At this point I leaned over to another adult and asked “Does that make the Offering an Insurance Premium?”)
Scribe Girl: (embarrassed) changes it to Assurance
Youth Director: “Insurance of Pardon”, what does that mean?
Scribe Girl’s Older Brother: It means my sister needs a helmet!
Gotta love siblings.
(It probably didn’t help much that we’d already had ice cream at this point.)
A Little Busy
Church has me a little busy right now.
The Green Team has decided that for our Adult Forum on Earth Day, the program will include me first doing the Biblical basis, one of the co-chairs doing the science behind our environmental problems, and a 3rd speaker (I don’t remember who) speaking on what each person can do to help. We’re going to have lots of handouts (including my paper) and some samples of compact fluorescent light bulbs and such.
To that end, I have until the end of next week (April 13) to get my presentation together. I have 15 minutes to present what is in my paper. I’m planning a powerpoint presentation with the verses, and I’ll talk to the rest.
I’m also an advisor for the youth group. April 22 is not only Earth Day, it’s also Youth Sunday – with the youth doing pretty much everything for the service. I’ll be helping out with planning and execution of that as well. At this point, I’ve been appointed “King of the Ushers”. Hopefully we won’t have a Fall of the House of Usher.
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The Tuesday after Easter I have a meeting scheduled with the pastor to talk about a new initiative related to visitors, seekers, and how the church is perceived by them and the community. That is right up my alley (as my other blog posts have indicated) and I’m really looking forward to this.
The church is in the final stages of calling a new Associate Pastor – Mary Alice Lyman. She will be preaching on April 15 with a Special Congregational Meeting immediately following to vote on her call. On April 14 there is a reception in the evening to meet her, and there’s a pancake breakfast on the 15th for the same purpose.
Things should quiet down a bit towards the end of the month. It’s a good kind of busy.
Back to the Future, part 3
A while back I wrote of getting involved in the youth group at church. Two weeks ago I attended the Sunday evening meeting for the first time, and it involved so little interaction that I wasn’t really able to figure out whether or not I wanted to continue.
Last night, we met again. Due to snow, we only had 5 youth show up (plus 4 adults including me). This group had a really good session getting ready for the Mission Trip this summer to Louisiana.
We did breakout sessions and that gave me a chance to interact with the youth. I discovered a few things:
- These are great kids. No, I mean it. Really awesome people.
- I share enough in common with them to feel comfortable.
- It was fun! I’ve forgotten the joy present in a room full of people laughing so hard that tears are rolling out of their eyes at a little silly comment.
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At this point I feel called to continue for at least a few months. I feel like I can be helpful with this group, and I feel compelled to give back. My own youth group experiences form the foundation of my faith. This experience even has me thinking about taking a week this summer to help chaperone the Mission Trip.
The only hard part is that this adds to my time committed to things outside of the house. This activity puts me at or beyond the upper limit of that time. I need to think about dropping something, possibly flying.
(If you want to see these folks, take a look at the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Youth and Young Adult website. CHAOS is the group that I’m working with. Guidelines on the Mission Trip are found on the Mission page.)
Back to the Future part 2
At this point, I have to give my “Back to the Future” task an incomplete.
Last night’s meeting was nice, but there was minimal interaction with anybody. The program was on Haiti and consisted of a video shot by the Youth Director on a visit to Haiti a few years ago. Later, the pastor of a church in Haiti that our congregation supports came and spoke of his ministry and the situation there (including his being in the US due to death threats). The kids were quiet for the most part and the adults asked most of the questions.
The erection which super cialis one faces because of this medicine facilitated millions of patients across the world to cure their sexual disorder. Our IVF cipla cialis online treatment center in Delhi offer all the testing facilities along with IVF. In conclusion, there would not be a real growth if man do not have the determination and persistence to make long lasting happy intercourse with price of cialis vigor and stamina. You can keep this hormone level from drooping if sans prescription viagra regencygrandenursing.com you consume Musli Kaunch Shakti capsules. At this point I’ve decided to go ahead and fill out the paperwork for the church to certify that I’m not “A Scary Adult” and safe to work with kids. (As a deacon, I feel that I’m already covered by the rules but if it’ll make them feel more comfortable by filling out a Promise form and getting a background check I’m all for it.) I’ll stay involved for at least a few more sessions and see where it takes me. I really don’t think I’ll have a good read on whether or not this is something I want to do until I have more time and more interaction.
Another issue that I discovered last night is the time commitment and time with my wife. There might be a conflict there – it depends on how important the youth work is to me. We’ll see.
Back to the Future
This weekend, I go Back to the Future – reliving part of my life. How? I’m helping out with Sr. High Youth Group at church.
Back in my youth (as I’ve said before many times), I was heavily involved in church. Part of that included being probably the most regular member of the Sr. High youth group. My freshman year, I was probably the only one who wasn’t a junior or senior in the group – we didn’t have an Associate Pastor at the time so some of the more recent young adults were running the group. I think we had maybe 4 or 5 people. As I got older, we got a great Associate Pastor who had youth ministry as one of his specialties. We then grew to a solid 8 to 10 by the time I graduated (this in a church that drew about 200 attendees at Sunday services). I enjoyed going every Sunday evening. My parents had it easy – the Associate Pastor’s manse was around the corner from our house so I always had a ride to and from church (or actually to church and from Friendly’s after youth group).
My youth group involvement grew into becoming a deacon, attending the Presbyterian Youth Triennium in 1986, and being a Youth Advisory Delegate to the Synod. One of the most fun weeks of my life happened when I was working at Camp Johnsonburg as a CIT. One summer, I got to be the 3rd counselor in a work camp unit, with my Associate Pastor as a co-counselor and kids from my youth group in the unit. Helping to serve communion (deacons were allowed to do that back then) at Triennium and at work camp were very meaningful for me. This left me sufficient engaged with the church that I headed to college planning to make either religion or computer science my major (with the other my minor).
Then some stuff happened that I’ve written about before and I left the church. However, it was my ties to youth group experiences – particularly camp – that drew me back almost 20 years later.
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So …. this weekend I’ll be volunteering with the CHAOS (Christians Hanging Around On Sundays) Senior High youth group at Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church. Alicia from my church, camp, and who worked with me leading the Reconnecting with Faith retreat (she’s the redhead at the left end of the group photo below) talked to me about getting more involved at church and suggested helping out with this group.
I admit to some fears. While I used to work with youth once upon a time, at the time I more or less WAS a youth. It’s been 20 years, and my youth relational skills are gonna be very rusty. I don’t have any reason to have contact with kids of any age on a regular basis. (I know, be yourself and the kids will respond.) The good news is that the other youth advisors that I know are great people, and I’m sure somebody will be able to backstop me if I falter.
Wish me luck! If it works out, you may see more posts here about this group. If not, well, you’ll probably see an “it didn’t work out” post and that’ll be that.
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