Tomorrow, we launch our two worship services!

Tomorrow, I get to do something I've always wanted to help a church do... go to multiple worship gatherings. It's a hard shift... but one that is so helpful for growth.

The second church that Sharon and I pastored had two worship services, but the first one we pastored didn't and we worked hard to get them to that point so that the steady growth we were seeing would continue, but the core value of community was like a snake... it kept us from going to two worship gatheirngs and shortly after we left, the growth went the other way!

I am so proud of Community of Joy leaders and folks... we are making a HUGE step for us to go this route and I pray that it will pay off in a big way immediately!

Yes, there are some trade offs, but they are worth it to see Kingdom growth!

Other great items for sale on ebay...

Here are some original painted and pen and ink turkey calls that I have for sale on ebay... all artwork done by my friend, nationally know wildlife artist, Wilhelm Goebel!

For Wil and Chris

One of the prints that we are selling on Ebay by nationally known wildlife artist and friend, Wilhelm J. Goebel! You can find these prints, originals, and turkey calls on ebay by going to my store... do a community search for bwhnter83 and you will find the store!

Time to Throw in the Towel....!

Time to Throw In the Towel….

Yes, you read that right! It is time for us to throw in the towel already!

October is a big month for us at Community of Joy! We are throwing in the towel in many ways! It will be the first full month since we threw in the towel on one worship gathering… we now have two! One at 9 a.m. and one at 10:30 a.m.

On October 7 @ 6:30 p.m. you are invited to come to the ministry center to participate in a special worship gathering called the Love Feast, which is modeled after Jesus’ last supper with his disciples recorded in John 13. In this meal that Jesus shared with his followers, he threw in the towel as a way of reminding us that we are called to serve the world. Come join us for this special time… childcare provided as well as a simple meal, an opportunity to serve one another by washing feet, and an opportunity to receive communion.

On October 21, in both of our morning worship gatherings we will have a special time of dedication for our ministry center and then an Open House from 2-5 p.m. Our District Executive Don Booz will be on hand for the festivities. We have invited area Church of the Brethren congregations and the community to come and see what God has done! This day will mark the official day when we throw in the towel on the MAJOR renovations we will do to the ministry center! We hope to have only small punch list items left to do after this date!

It’s time for each of us to throw in the towel! Read John 13:1-17 and consider how you can throw in the towel by serving others in the name of Jesus and with the love of Jesus. We truly want this building that we purchased to be a ministry center and we want to be good neighbors… so, how can you/ we throw in the towel and make an impact in the life of our community and neighbors? How can we share Jesus’ love?

Won’t you join me in throwing in the towel as we humbly love and serve Jesus?

Together on the Journey….

WOW! Gotta appreciate Earl Holland!

Just yesterday, I was thinking that I needed to call or email Earl Holland from The Daily Times concerning our Open House at the Ministry Center in October... and when the phone rang just a few moments ago... it was Earl Holland beating me to the punch... he called to check on the progress of things.

What a great reporter he is! What follow up! Thanks Earl!

The above article was Earl's first one on CoJ!

Do you know that Sunday we go to TWO worship gatherings...!

Just don't want any one to miss the fact that on Sunday we go to two worship gatherings!

We will do our more traditional flavor at 9 a.m. and it will only be an hour!

We will do our more contemporary flavor at 10:30 and who knows how long it will be???! Actually it will be no more than an hour and a half sometimes... but most times closer to an hour and fifteen!

New Series to begin Sunday....

I am again, taking a title from one of my favorite musicians... Todd Agnew's new CD is titled "Better Questions". In it he says that he has come to discover that he often has better questions than answers when it comes to his life as a follower of Jesus.

I find the same is true for me!

However this series will not only raise questions, it will ask some tough questions and hope to stimulate our lives for following Jesus on the road of mission where everything is not black and white, but often gray and cloudy.

This week's question... "Does Prayer Work?" Just asking the question project some pretty heavy baggage! Stay tuned....

Five days to go...

until our history making event of going to 2 worship gatherings!

Keep praying that this will be a huge success!

Two Worship Gatherings begin on Sunday...

This Sunday, we will make history in the life of our congregation... we will begin two worship gatherings. The first will be at 9 a.m. and will be more traditional in flavor. The second will be at 10:30 a.m. and will be more contemporary in flavor. The first is guaranteed to be an hour and the second makes no promises as to length... except that it will be less than an hour and a half... most likely closer to and hour and fifteen!

Before and After....

Took a picture of the building for Sunday's slide show... it was telling to see the before and after of the outside... even more telling when the ramp rails finally come!

What Talent....the youth room....

The youth dreamed up the design scheme for their room... and one of their own, Christian Jones did the art work... It is a fabulous additon to our ministry center... the pics are of the artist at work in a progression including last nights' room full of 17 youth enjoying their very own room!

Thanks Christian and Belinda for doing such a fantastic job!

More pics of the Neighborhood Pork Roast...

Kudos to the Master Chef!

What a great pork roast Master Chef Walt Townsend does! It was scrumptious! Thanks Walt!
These were definitely better than the ears you did last time!

Another GREAT day in the life of Community of Joy!

WOW! How can one not feel good about what happened yesterday at Community of Joy with our Neighborhood Pork Roast?!

To begin with the weather was superb! A light breeze and lower humidity... lots of sun, made for a very comfortable climate in which to enjoy the festivities, food, and fellowship.

Then there is the team of folks who put it all together! The outreach team did a fantastic job organizing and planning the day.... the games were fun, the food was delicious, the connections were great!

I wish we had a way of knowing just how many people came... but there was no way to count... needless to say, the response from our neighbors was phenomenal!!!! Some came for worship at 10:30, some came for the 1 p.m. start of the Pork Roast, and some came throughout the afternoon. Many came as a result of our personal invitations, many more came as a result of our door to door invitations in the two block radius of the ministry center and some even came as a result of our vegas style sign! I am so happy that folks took us seriously in our invitation!

We really do want to be a place where relationships matter!

It was fun to have such a great day and we look forward to many more such events!

The day has dawned....

And the neighborhood pork roast is almost here! I can almost taste the pork! It should have been cooking for a while now -- it's 6 a.m. as I write.

The crews are coming and things are really starting to happen. Can't wait to see how it all goes! I hope we have lots of neighbors come to join us!

This is a big week for us as it is the Pork Roast today and then next Sunday the launch of our two worship gatherings.

I'm sure I will post pics later!

Living Dangerously with God...

Today, while at the Ministry Center spreading out nearly 6 tons of stones to better accommodate our handicap ramp pad access for vans, I saw something that made me think.

It's really a parable of how we live our lives sometimes... dangerously with God!

A police officer had stopped a car on South Blvd. just beyond the light at Camden Avenue. The lights were flashing and the officer was standing in the street next to the car. I looked up in time to see a car coming by the Ministry Center with a young college-aged girl in it. What caught my eye was the fact that as soon as she saw the police cruiser, she quickly reached up for her seat belt and pulled it around her.

What I thought was... isn't that they way we play the game of life with God sometimes... we do things that we know we shouldn't or we know are dangerous until we think someone might see us and think badly of us and we immediately change what we are doing or try to hide the fact that we are living dangerously. We forget that God sees us all the time! We forget that God gave us the ability to discern between what is wise and unwise.

We wouldn't live so dangerously if we could just get in the habit of asking ourselves the simple question about most things... "is it wise?"

Assumptions get us in trouble...

Tonight, Jim and Carol Replogle's small group met at the ministry center to hear a friend of Dan and Pat Mahan's share about her trip to South Korea and a visit to a HUGE United Methodist Church there. It was a great program! But it was not the program I advertised.

You see, Pat told me that she visited the largest church in Korea... and I knew that the largest church in Korea was Paul Yingi Cho's church of over 750,000 members.... so that is what I advertised... but Darlene visited the largest United Methodist Church in South Korea with the membership of only 126,000! Some times assuming things gets us in trouble....

My former boss from my college days always said, "Assume Nothing!" And boy was she right! Sorry that I made the false assumption and wrongly publicized the event... however I doubt anyone but Pat and I knew it!

The Neighborhood Pork Roast is coming...

The invitations have been given out, the food bought, the big bounce ordered, the preparations made and today the sign went up inviting the neighbors who don't live in the 2 block radius that we went door to door to invite. We are anticipating a great day!

Thanks to Frank Potvin for helping me get the sign and for putting the wording up! Great Job!

I can almost taste that roast pork from our master chef -- Walt Townsend!

Pork Roast for the Neighborhood

Today we went around the neighborhood inviting our neighbors to our pork roast which is next Sunday @ 1 p.m. We had a good crew to go around... the weather broke just in time... clouds parted and sun came out... and folks were generally very responsive.

I must confess, I was not into doing this...mostly because I was concerned about the image of a church knocking on doors... but I got over that and had a great time! As did others...it's good to be pushed out of our comfort zones some... though I still don't ever want us to get the image of being door knockers... I highly favor personal invites.

Finally, at long last....

The ramp is nearly done -- totally! The brick work is all but completed... just needs some more mortar on the deck and a good wash and then it is finished... what a GREAT job Steve Bush did for us!

The rail is being made this week and will be installed soon and then we can get the FINAL inspection!

Yesterday, Jim and I worked in the downstairs restroom, getting it ready for the plumber to work in either Thursday or Friday. Then that room will be done. And we can move on toward getting the wet side of the kitchen done!

Which Jesus....???

Yesterday was the second in a series of sermons around the topic... "Which Jesus?" Taking Todd Agnew's sng "My Jesus" as the launching pad, last week, we looked at the question... who is Jesus to you? Which is a question of proximity of relationship.

Yesterday, we looked at the theme of Sanitized or Contaminated.... My bias is that we have tried to sanitize Jesus when Jesus was more concerned about contaminating the world with God's love. Think of the fair skin, blue eyes, blemish-free pictures of Jesus and the crosses you see... usually gold or beautiful wood... not the rough hewn instrument of death that they were and see some of the ways we sanitize Jesus. Besides that, we have used this sanitized image and our fear of contamination to keep us from joining Jesus in his mission.

Countless times in his ministry, he crossed the purity laws and did things to show that he was more concerned about sharing God's love than about abiding by the regulations that would keep him from being contaminated with "undesirables".

This week was the WOW factor week!

A lot of things came together this week to create a huge wow factor for us!

Here are some pics of the HARD work that several of us did yesterday... spreading top soil, stones, rolling it all, seeding the soil, creating flower beds, planting shrubs, mums, spreading a load of mulch, spreading straw on the seeded area in the front, and watering.

Look at the beautiful cement too! What a GREAT job Robert Pitts and Melvin Morrison did for us... yesterday was the first Saturday in 3 weeks that we didn't jack hammer cement and it's all thanks to the new contractors... Robert and Melvin!

The end of a long painful chapter...almost

Today, we had stone and topsoil delivered and spread... wow does it look nice! This marks almost the end of a long painful journey toward getting our building handicap accessible! Yet to go are the brick work and the railing. The rail is waiting on the brick work to be completed... hopefully this week!

The ramp is nearing completion...

YEAH!!!! The ramp is nearing completion and though it has been a real headache... it is turning out okay --- just a bit more costly than we had first hoped... but NOT near as costly as the first estimate!

Today the guys from Morrison Concrete applied the spray deck and this afternoon they will paint and seal it! They also took the forms off the new sidewalk and landing they poured yesterday... and boy does it look nice!

Now we have to get some stone and topsoil to level out the grade and finish the project!

What a great day God has given us!!!!

Thanks be to God for his tremendous blessings of this day!

The drywall guys finished a fabulous job!

The carpenter came back and installed window sills and finished the trim... they look FANTASTIC!

The new cement guys poured the new sidewalk and landing... and it is just "out of this world"! The absolute BEST concrete job I've seen! WOW!!!! And they even used a level!!!!

Tomorrow they will put the top coating on the ramp and it will transform that into a better sight to behold than it is now!

And to top it all off... we've been having electrical "issues" with the lights fading and Delmarva power had put a monitor on the meter last week for two days. But NOT the 14 days Chris Gilbert asked them for! Well, here's the icing... while I was outside under the shade tree on the corner staining the window sills, a Delmarva Power truck pulled up and the guy got out. Turns out it was my neighbor, John, he and I talked for a while and he assured me that he was pretty sure what the problem was and that they would fix it. The absolute great thing is that if they don't, now I feel that I can go accross the street to John's house and talk to him about it!

And if that weren't enough... Don Booz called to say that the District will be sending us $15,000 to go toward debt reduction and remodeling... not the $5,000 we requested for outreach, but hopefully we can find the necessary funds internally and the increased gift will help us in the long run!

WOW!!! What a day!

Labor Day Labors....

Today was Labor Day and I spent the whole day laboring.... I have neglected my yard, garage and shed all summer due to the massive work at the ministry center. So, today, I spent the entire day cleaning out and organizing my garage and shed. While Saturday afternoon I sprayed some weeds and grass that have been driving me crazy all summer.

It was good to get a full day in the garage and shed. I could surely spend more time there, but got lots done today and it makes me feel so much better!

All this was after spending Sunday afternoon and evening and Monday early morning in Ocean City with my family.. got home around 1 a.m. after doing the rides on the boardwalk with the girls and their cousins.

An up and coming drummer....

Music is so much a part of our life as a congregation... it's fun to see the little ones take an interest... couldn't resist the picture!

The bright side of masonary work!

The brick layer, Steve Bush is doing a GREAT job on the entry way bricks! It's one of the bright spots on the ramp project.

It goes on and on and on....

The concrete nightmare that is! Today, I spent 2 hours jackhammering up the sidewalk and the 5 foot pad at the end of the ramp, because the pad was not level. Then I loaded half of it on Walt's trailer and Tri came later to load the rest on the truck and haul it all away!

The great news of the day is that Steve Bush, the new mason... started laying the bricks at the entrance and I can't wait to post a picture tomorrow... he is doing a fabulous job!!!!!!!!