It was a warm Summer afternoon in Indiana. A wedding was
about to take place upstairs in the sanctuary of the non-air-conditioned
church. I wandered downstairs to the fellowship hall and found members of
the UMW working frantically to stabilize a cake whose sections were sliding
sideways.
The room was so warm and humid that the different layers, like ground during an earthquake, were moving left and right. From my vantage point the reception volunteers had a tough job on their hands!
Do you know what I remember about that day? The party was a great success even though the cake looked a little off-center.
That is sort of the way life is, I think. Circumstances are rarely perfect. What we end up with is often something different than what we had planned. And yet when we trust God and offer grace to one another life can be good, the party can be great, even when the cake sections are moving in different directions!
I thought of that wedding reception and that shifting cake this week as we prepare to step into a new Sunday morning schedule. The schedule we have adopted certainly isn’t perfect, and in some ways it isn’t the schedule we thought we would have. But I am convinced God can use this new schedule to create room for new visitors who have yet to find First/The Open Door.
I believe this new schedule will allow us to better serve young families and children as our Sunday School hour will now serve both the sanctuary congregation and those at The Open Door.
Please keep our ushering teams, Sunday school teachers, childcare volunteers and staff, and musicians -especially our Chancel Choir- in your prayers as we work to make this work! These are great people and they have been doing their best to adjust to this new way of throwing a party for God!
Jesus, in John 2, is at a wedding reception when the wine runs out. It isn’t a good moment. The host and hostess are certainly embarrassed. Then God steps in and changes the water
-provided for ritual purification- into wine. The party gets even better!
See the Sunday morning schedule listed below. Join others at 8:15 in the Great Hall for a lay-led experience of fellowship and worship at First Up. Worship in the Sanctuary at 9:00 or 10:15. (Please exit via the Washington Street entrance or the south doors at the front of the sanctuary.) Or celebrate Christ at The Open Door at 11:15 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
You might want to know that a new guest in worship told a member of our staff how thrilled they were with the love and community and worship here at First. “I don’t know if you are aware of this,” he said, “but out in the community there is a buzz that says something good is happening here.”
In Christ and for Christ,
Mark
The room was so warm and humid that the different layers, like ground during an earthquake, were moving left and right. From my vantage point the reception volunteers had a tough job on their hands!
Do you know what I remember about that day? The party was a great success even though the cake looked a little off-center.
That is sort of the way life is, I think. Circumstances are rarely perfect. What we end up with is often something different than what we had planned. And yet when we trust God and offer grace to one another life can be good, the party can be great, even when the cake sections are moving in different directions!
I thought of that wedding reception and that shifting cake this week as we prepare to step into a new Sunday morning schedule. The schedule we have adopted certainly isn’t perfect, and in some ways it isn’t the schedule we thought we would have. But I am convinced God can use this new schedule to create room for new visitors who have yet to find First/The Open Door.
I believe this new schedule will allow us to better serve young families and children as our Sunday School hour will now serve both the sanctuary congregation and those at The Open Door.
Please keep our ushering teams, Sunday school teachers, childcare volunteers and staff, and musicians -especially our Chancel Choir- in your prayers as we work to make this work! These are great people and they have been doing their best to adjust to this new way of throwing a party for God!
Jesus, in John 2, is at a wedding reception when the wine runs out. It isn’t a good moment. The host and hostess are certainly embarrassed. Then God steps in and changes the water
-provided for ritual purification- into wine. The party gets even better!
See the Sunday morning schedule listed below. Join others at 8:15 in the Great Hall for a lay-led experience of fellowship and worship at First Up. Worship in the Sanctuary at 9:00 or 10:15. (Please exit via the Washington Street entrance or the south doors at the front of the sanctuary.) Or celebrate Christ at The Open Door at 11:15 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
You might want to know that a new guest in worship told a member of our staff how thrilled they were with the love and community and worship here at First. “I don’t know if you are aware of this,” he said, “but out in the community there is a buzz that says something good is happening here.”
In Christ and for Christ,
Mark
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