One of these has to be a relative

My family is from the south. Although I have only been there twice I can’t help to think that one these people has to be family.

More Anniversary Pics

Jobs I will probably never hold

Monday we were working on our rental house and it was confirmed in my and by my wife that I will never make a living at painting. I have never enjoyed it or been good at it which means that if I had to ever get another job I would starve as a house painter.

We spent most of the day getting our rental ready for our new tenants and the only redeeming factor was that it was five hours of Kid Free Bliss. Grandma graciously offered to watch the kiddies while we slammed out the tasks needed to be done. Who knows how long it would’ve taken with the kids there.

So add painter to the list of Tile layer, carpenter, and telemarketer of jobs that I will be really bad at.

1st Anniversary Service

We pulled it off in spite of hurricane like conditions. I was actually surprised how many people braved the weather and joined us. We actually had to use our overflow room. With about 190 people in to main sanctuary and 30 in the overflow we fit everyone pretty nicely. The chairs we definitely smaller but it was still nice and cozy.

I was so impressed with our workers. Everyone showed up in force and had such a great attitude. Each ministry was filled with life and joy. I was so proud.

I will post mor pictures later but this is almost half of the sanctuary. See anybody you recognize?

Full Steam Ahead

What a day! It started by having 13 men at prayer this morning. Nothing moves things like prayer. Then all of us broke down our regular sanctuary of chairs and replaced them with more "economical" ones. This allowed us to place 215 chairs in our sanctuary instead of 145. We also put 100 chairs in our Village Kids room for overflow and moved the Village kids upstairs. Rene called and told me that the overflow video and sound are great and fully workable so we are good to go.

I am pumped about tomorrow! We won’t get to do some of the things we wanted to do but it is still going to be great. No BBQ but we will have cake! Make sure to get there early as we will have valet parking in our sanctuary. If you are coming early to help park on the far side of the hotel to give our parking attendants room for the rest of the cars. If it is raining and it will be raining take advantage of our drop off tent out front of the church entrance. If you are a mother coming with kids let the parking people know so they can give you preferential parking.

God is already doing something and tomorrow will be a definitive day in those plans. See you there.

2007 Village Chapel Ministry Report

Just got our ministry report for 2007. Jeanne did a tremendous job of putting it together. If you are going to join us on Sunday you will receive a copy. You can click on the link and see it in a pdf file. Wow! What a year!

Download 2007_village_chapel_minsitry_report.pdf

Calling an Audible

We are having to change plans. The Elders of the churc met and decided that the weather was too unpredictable for us to hold services in the tent. So we are going to cram into the church on Sunday. We have rented 300 chairs and will be able to put most of them in the sanctuary and the Apollo room.

A couple of things will be different to make this happen.

• First the Village Kids will be meeting upstairs
• They will go there from the beginning of the service
• Next we will be postponing the BBQ for a couple of weeks
• We don’t have the capacity to transition from Sanctuary to Dinning.
• Finally we ask that if you come early please park on the side of the hotel
• This will give room for our parking attendants to put all the cars
• We will have a rain drop off at the front so you can drop off spouses and kid

If you have any questions call the church office at 733-2127. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation in this.

Anniversary Service Update

Here is a quick update on our service this Sunday. We will be moving the tent to the parking lot at the Hotel. It will look a lot like this one pictured. It will be fully enclosed with a heater so the odds are that it will actually be warmer than our normal sanctuary. With the tent on the parking lot we won’t have water issues like on the grass. Latest forecast that I looked at says that Sunday is supposed to be Sunny. If you could help us out by parking in the side lot of the hotel that will give us more room for all the cars we anticipate. See you Sunday.

Pastor as a Fisherman

I was listening to a podcast by Hillsong church where the pastor interviews T.D. Jakes at their annual ministry conference. Jakes had some really powerful insights into ministry. A couple of thoughts that are bouncing around in my head:

• Pastors are like fisherman.
• If they have a small church they use a rod and a reel.
• When they catch a fish they have a personal relationship with each fish.
• If they pastor a large church they use a NETwork.
• They must work with others to get the work done
• They loose the intimacy with each fish
• But they catch more fish

He also hits the point about getting out of the boat (which is his metaphor for a church). He encourages all pastors to permeate the community and expose themselves to different styles of worship. He comes against churches that say their style is the only one. Different styles are working all over the world.

He has some other good stuff in there. If you want to listen click here. You need to have itunes to hear it

Anyone Seen Noah Yet?

Still waiting to see the Ark float down Constellation. What a wash out! Went for a walk in my rain proof suit and still had water seep through.  Plans are still on for the Big Tent at the Village Chapel. We will be moving it to the parking lot instead of the marsh that is now outside our sanctuary. One bonus is that we will have walls and a heater and the odds are good it will be warmer in the tent than it usually is in our sanctuary. Our people are troopers.

The tent will now be located to the right of the Chapel in the side parking lot. You can’t miss it. Get there early and I suggest you park on the other side of the hotel. Service starts at 10am with a BBQ afterwards.