VBS for this year:
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SUNDAY MORNING from the pastor August 11, 2002 It is a little past 6:30 a.m. and I’ve just walked in from my back patio where I’ve been completely baptized in the quiet liveliness of a new day. In the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, I felt pulled out of my sleep, out of my worries for the upcoming worship services, out of my own self-absorbed little world--and into an enchanting world of plants and animals, ambushed by a spirit of play, peace, and plenty. Today is my mother’s birthday. And this past week was my parent’s 49th wedding anniversary. We move from mile post to mile post in our lives. And when we are in "community," we share fully in each other’s mile posts. Christianity is largely about community. True, it is also personal and deeply inward. But one of the things that makes Christianity distinct is the command Jesus gave to all of his followers: that we love one another. And to love and be loved is in part to salute one another during the journey. And so I look forward to calling my mother later today and sharing in her birthday. Things have continued to be busy around the church. The new carpeting has been installed in the nursery rooms. A special thanks goes to Beth and Terry Morgan and all the folks who have helped them paint and redecorate our nurseries. The rooms look bright and fresh and we are eager to share that space with our small children. The coordinators of children, youth, and spiritual formation (Mary Bauling, Todd and Lisa Searing, and Bob de Jong) have been working this week on lining up Sunday School classes and teachers for the coming fall. The fall quarter for Sunday School begins the first Sunday in September. Children and youth will go into their new classes that Sunday. We will be having a rally day sometime in October, set later so the classes can help us prepare for it. There will be an extra children’s class this fall--for toddlers. And we will also be starting a young adult class for college age and twenty-somethings. Our cast of teachers, to be announced in a few days, includes familiar faces--as well as several new and ‘returning’ faces. Several have asked about our worship times. The 8:15 and 10:30 worship times will continue indefinitely. Even though we made these changes IN the summer, we did not make them exclusively FOR the summer. And though we can’t please everybody, there does seem to be a trend that folks like getting started and GETTING OUT a bit earlier. The fellowship time between the early service and Sunday School is intentionally designed to overlap the early service--and that has felt awkward to some people. It is also a concern--with our tightened schedule (we have gone, theoretically, from a three and one half hour Sunday morning schedule to a three hour and fifteen minute one) that Sunday School time is pinched. The solution to our current awkwardness and pinching is to further shorten the worship services, try the fellowship structure for a while, and be more disciplined in starting Sunday School classes on time. And as always, we continue to evaluate how things are going and remain open to better ways. --Mike Archive of sermons and Sunday morning letters by Pastor Mike |
