Thoughts on the Monday After....

Yesterday afternoon, Sharon asked me how I was feeling now that I had completed a full weekend of my new schedule. And I told her that I was not as tired as I thought I might be after preaching 3 times. I was/am actually quite encouraged and excited!

While we have a ways to go and some bugs to tweak, I am confident that adding a Saturday night worship gathering is a great move. It allows opportunities and makes room for growth. Our attendance for the first worship gathering was good, and the weekend attendance was about what it has been running. However, there were 7 people at the Saturday gathering that would not have been in any of the gatherings if we didn't have a Saturday and 6 of those were totally new. In addition 3 others got to participate in a full worship gathering that otherwise would not have happened.

The 10:30 on Sunday was a bit slim, but we needed to make room in it for growth, so now we have room!

The biggest thing that will take some getting used to is the restrictions that needing to be present on both Sat. and Sun. brings to our family's life! There will be lots of things we just can't do now or will have to do differently. The first such challenge is coming up when we take Caroline to Bridgewater College's Open House5.5 hours away. They only offer them on Saturdays and there is no way we can make it back for the 5:35. But I will get someone to fill in and we will go.

It was nice to be casually dressed for worship too! I loved preaching in shorts and not worrying about what I was wearing! Also liked not having a bulletin to hand out! And I liked having the lights off, except the stage area!

Here's to a great launch!

A Great Start....

Our 5:35 Saturday Night worship gathering got off to a GREAT start tonight! A few bugs to work out! So excited!

Had a good crowd! A few new people! Some for whom this was there only option to worship with us this weekend due to schedules! And one BIG surprise... Grant came! He didn't want to miss it and when he left, he was beaming from ear to ear! What an encourager he is!

Excited for what is ahead. Will be anxious to see how tomorrow shakes out! We do need to make some room in our 10:30 and the Sat. Night will allow for that to happen. It will also be a third time option and second day option for folks!

So thankful for a congregation and leadership team that is open to change for the sake of the Kingdom! Pinch me...

Doubly Blessed!

The picture above was in today's Daily Times. It shows some students from Pinehurst Elementary School getting some school supplies at Pinehurst's Back to School Night. I am pretty sure that they are some of the supplies that our congregation gave to Pinehurst!

David and Golliath....

Many thanks to Common Grounds, Tri Townsend, Frank and Doug Potvin for allowing us to join them in their outreach efforts at SU today. And thanks too, for the two coupons they allowed us to put on our flyer. Many thanks too, to Karen Townsend for baking nearly 650 chocolate chip cookies that we gave out. Thanks also, to Titus Zan, Joe Woo, Christopher and Mikalah Potvin, Belinda White, Emma Hutchison, Brittany Gosnell, Kevin and Tami Brown, Walt Townsend for helping to pass out cookies and flyers. We had a successful day!

It was interesting, though, we were located between Golliath and David. McDonalds was there serving a small 2 oz size of McCafe and Common Grounds was there generously giving away a 9 oz smoothie in two flavors and a 12 oz Mocha latte! And the pictures tell the story... The lines at Common Grounds was almost always 10 plus deep and often more like 20 and McDonalds line was short. We even joked with a friend of mine who was there with a booth, he kept going to McDonalds and when I fussed at him... he would always say... "there is no line!"

I pray that today's efforts will be a blessing to Common Grounds and to CoJ and that many lives will be touched with the acts of generousity that abounded today!

p.s. The last picture is one of the McDonald's marketing guys who sheepish came over to ask Doug if he could have a strawberry smoothy!

Words with impact....

Thinking about these words and the impact they can have on the way we live our lives.

"Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Ephesians 5:15-17

I will use these words as the basis of my message on Saturday and Sunday! Yes! I said Saturday... 5:35 p.m. -- the launch of our Saturday Night Worship Gathering at Community of Joy!

Welcoming our newest neighbors

On Thursday, we will welcome our newest neighbors -- the incoming freshman class at Salisbury University. Thanks to Common Grounds and Karen Townsend, we will be giving out homebaked chocolate chip cookies and helping Common Grounds pass out smoothies. In addition we will give a flyer welcoming the student and inviting them to our Sat 5:35 worship as well as our pork roast. The flyer also has two coupons for a free 12oz drink at Common Grounds. WOW! Hope these flyers hang around a while in their dorm rooms and then they use the coupons and then the check us out!

Praying that God will use this outreach in a positive way!

For David

David... this is from a ladder. The problem is going to be blocking the image... note the mics.

Here is what we were trying to work out.

SATURDAY 5:35 PM

Our sign is now complete! For two years it has had a space reserved for adding "Saturday 5:35 p.m." on it. When we designed it originally, I wanted to hold a spot for announcing the times of a Saturday Worship Gathering... and now we can! I have long wanted to do a Saturday Gathering. Praying that God will use it to help us connect with folks in our neighborhood!

2 Blessing Teams at Work...

Today, we sent out two blessing teams from CoJ. One went to a Habitat for Humanity build and worked there despite the rain!

Another had a "free" yard sale at Grace United Methodist Church's parking lot on Church Street. Despite the rain... it was a success. Lots of good slightly used clothing got into the hands of people who had a need for it and were VERY appreciative!

An Awesome day... We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others. Who will you bless today?

Relationships take work....literally!

Have been running over with joy this week, as I hear from several folks from our congregation who previously didn't know each other well, who have been working together this week on a project, and have enjoyed getting to know each other better!

It is so hard to be a place where deeper connections happen when the only connections come on Sunday morning(soon on Saturday night)! But when we work side by side, deeper connections happen and relationships go to a whole new level. I am so happy when I hear that that happens!

Relationships do take work and are next to impossible when you just pass each other as you come and go!

The new blessing teams we are sending out into the community should deepen our inner and outer connections as well! So Cool!

Repeated Learnings...

I don't know how many times it will take me until I get this lesson! But just yesterday, I learned something that I have learned many times before. Somehow I forget those learnings and life goes on.

The learning... personal invites work best!

The situation... for weeks, we have been announcing both orally and in writting that we could use some additional help in the sound/ computer area of worship. Only two responses. Yesterday, I emailed I emailed 6 people directly and almost immediately heard back from 4 with positive responses! YEAH!~

I knew that personal invites work best, but failed to put that into practice until yesterday.

This is also true with sharing our faith... one on one works best. And the same is true with inviting people to join us in worship... a direct invitation is best!

Big Problems....

I have a LARGE dump truck load of dirt in my back yard. $400 worth of dirt!... No it's not gold! But it is a BIG pile. As I was shoveling this morning, I was thinking... how do you handle BIG problems?

First and foremost, give them to God! He is BIG enough to handle ALL our problems, especially the large ones. Second, break them into little steps. Don't look at the whole problem. Look at it in steps. If I chose to look a the BIG pile of dirt in my back yard, I would be immobilized by its size and the gigantic task ahead of me. But when I choose to look at it in small steps, I say to my self... several shovels of dirt each morning and evening and in a few days the pile will be leveled, the task ahead doesn't seem as daunting!

Another way to approach big problems is to allow others to help out. The old adage is really true... many hands make light work. I tried to encourage Emma and Brittany to help me shovel tonight after soccer practice!

I think the same approach is a good one in all of life. Don't look at the enormity of the problem. Break it into small steps. First step is to give it to God. And allow others to help you whne they can or offer!

And if you must look at the enormity of something, then look at the enormity of God. Nothing is too big or small for him!

Blessings overflow....

What an awesome and generous group of people Community of Joy is! The school supply drive brought in the following...

25 pocket folders
46 erasers and several packs of pencil end erasers
93 glue sticks
22 scissors
16 boxes of colored pencils
354 pencils

54 packs of crayons
179 spiral notebooks
36 composition books
15 pencil cases/boxes
27 packs of loose-leaf paper

and 40 backpacks!

Totally AWESOME!

And even greater... is that we got an invitation from the principal at Pinehurst to meet with him to talk about being Pinehurst's long term partner! I have been praying for this for a while. In fact, the Leadership Team Leader and myself were going to schedule a meeting and I put that on hold until a later date with all that we are starting this fall... but now with the invite from the school... we will jump! So neat to bless others!

Something to think about...

"Faith does not grow in the house of certainty." -- William Paul Young

God is doing some cool things...

Just got back from a gathering of mostly the Camp Mardela Junior High Camp Counselors who had such an awesome week at Camp this year with the junior highers that they want to get a regional ministry going for youth! These counselors are all young adults and this is their idea! It is so cool to see what happens when a spark God ignites begins to burn....I can't wait to see the awesome fire that is about to burn brightly!

Stay tuned.... some neat ideas....

What do you tell?

When you are inviting someone to come to Community of Joy, what do you tell them?

Do you tell them what a great church we are? Or do you tell them how the experience will impact their life?

I know I am biased, because I think we are a great church... but I'd rather you tell them how the experience will impact their life? And while you are at it... the best way to tell them that is to tell them how being part of Community of Joy has impacted your life!

I love hearing stories about how God is transforming your life as a result of your connection with Community of Joy! And even more than hearing about it, I love seeing how your life is being transformed by the way you live your life. I just love seeing all the people who are working hard to be the hands and feet of Jesus where ever they find themselves!

So, do you tell or do you show? I vote for show!

Grateful to be here...

Had a meeting with some pastors today and each time I have one such meeting, I am incredibly grateful to be Pastoring at Community of Joy! It is a real blessing to be part of a group of people who don't care about going to church as much as want to be the church! It is a real blessing to be part of a group of people who are open to new ideas and willing to step out of the box for the sake of the Kingdom of God. It is a real blessing to be part of a group of people who are happy to let leaders lead! And it is a blessing to have leaders who can and will lead! It is a blessing to be part of a group of people who are willing to suspend personal preference for the sake of sharing God's love with others and inviting them to join us on the journey of discovery and sharing!

CoJ is a unique congregation and I am so thankful to be part of it!

Noise Reduction

In a book I was reading, I came upon this great question... "What is your church doing to reduce the noise in people's lives? Or are you just adding to their junk mail?"

Great questions!

The world we live in is NOISY! And there is no reason for the church to add to the noise in people's lives.

I hope at Community of Joy we are not adding to the noise level or junk mail! I don't want to be encouraging people to do something just for the sake of doing something! I want to add value to people's lives as we add value to our world! I want us to constantly be about loving God and loving people. I want us to share the many blessings God has given us with others, for we are blessed by God to be a blessing to others... not to add to the noise level in their lives!

At the Core....

In recent New Member Classes with folks who are considering joining Community of Joy, after spending some time on our Core Values, it has been gratifying to have them exclaim that they can see how we are living out those values. That is as it should be!

If we say, "that we believe every person is valuable to and loved by God" yet people who observe us don't see that being lived out, then it really isn't a belief we have it is just words on paper or the web. But when people say, I can clearly see how that in the interactions of people here, then we know that our values are at the core of who we are!

So grateful to be part of a group of people who want to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the community and world!

Blessing others gets noticed....

Was interviewed today by WBOC because they saw where we were collecting school supplies to give to Pinehurst Elementary School. We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others!

And in the world we live in when you regularly bless others, share with others, give generously, it gets noticed. All Glory to God! We are simply his hands and feet in the world.

Sometimes....

Sometimes we take people for granted! Especially behind the scenes people! Not that it is intentional, but it happens. We fill our lives with things that matter to us and forget about all the behind the scenes people that are working diligently doing things that help us out!

Week in and week out, Robbie Smith mows the grass at the ministry center. Never complains, does it always with a smile! Always eager to serve.

I realized today that I take that blessing for granted!

So, from the bottom of my heart, THANKS Robbie for the eager, diligent way you serve Christ by mowing the grass each week!

And THANKS too, from all the others are Community of Joy that enjoy your work, but don't realize what a blessing it is to have you mow!

We appreciate you!

some samples....

A grace and peace week...

This surely is a grace and peace week for me!

I am praying for God's grace and peace to calm the rising tide of overwhelm.... and just got news that already it is being calmed! Yeah God!

How much is too much?

The flip side of helping others.... (Monday's post) is this... how much is too much help? When is it okay to say, sorry, I can't help?

Sometimes the more you help someone, the more they expect and then the more they become dependant on you and your help. And it is easy to be taken for granted when you help someone too much and then you feel overwhelmed.

I don't want to ever not help someone, but at the same time, I think there comes a time when you need to put up some boundaries and say, "No, I can't."

It is all about balance!

Met with My Friend Ryan Today....

Just got back an hour or so ago from Ocean City where I had an extended lunch with my friend Ryan Braught, who is vacationing there with his family before in a little more than a month he and his wife step out of the boat. Ryan and Kim have felt God's call to plant a new Church of the Brethren Congregation in the Lancaster, PA area called Veritas. It will not be a traditional church plant but is seeking to be a missional community... very much like the original church. Calling people to a lifestyle of living the faith and sharing the faith and being the hands and feet of Jesus.

I am excited for Ryan and Kim!

I have known them for several years now and have sought to mentor Ryan, sharing ideas, books, and praying for and with him as he has made this journey. Today it was exciting to hear about the people who will join him as a core group and the pre-launch plans they have as well as the funding that is coming in. I wish I had some significant money to sow in this mission. I will sow some, but he still needs more.... his faith is strong, he is trusting God and is seeking part time employment as well.

I am on Ryan's prayer team as well. I also invite you to be in prayer for Ryan and Kim and God's blessings on them as they follow his call.... into the unknown.

As it should be....

I just love it when the body is functioning as it should be!

We are called to be the body of Christ to each other! No question... but it doesn't always work that way. But when it does, it is a beautiful picture.

A sister is in the hospital and has lots of pets to be cared for.... a small group member and some other folks from the congregation jump into action and spend hours each day taking care of the sister's animals so she can heal.

A brother and sister have major surgery and are staying at a distance from home.... several from the congregation volunteer to take care of mowing the grass while they are gone!

Another sister has a beautiful lawn, but is unable to mow it at all and a team of folks from the congregation take care of her lawn week in and week out!

Another sister needs help doing the grocery shopping each week and someone takes care of that.

A sister and brother need some financial assistance and another brother and sister share some of their blessings.

One brother needs some encouragement and another brother steps in to provide it!

And the list goes on and on....

That is what the body does!

Blessed to Be a Blessing to Others...

At Community of Joy, we believe that we are blessed by God to be a blessing to others. Therefore we send out blessing teams regularly into the community to bless others in various ways.

Here is an exciting way one team will be leading us to bless others in August...

Share your Surplus

First event

—On August 22—clothing drive to be held at Grace UM Church on Church Street.

Bring your clothing gifts to Grace Church at 10 am~ the event will start at 10:30 am! We need

nice clothing for all sizes. (But if you are not wearing it because it has a hole or a zipper is

missing~ the person that receives it won’t likely use it either).

Second event

—On August 29—at 10 am a CoJ

the chance to exchange "needed" items with

other church members. Toaster for a blender, or you can bring in your extra toaster and take

nothing back! After that initial date, we plan on keeping a running list of Needs/Have Available

and anyone on the committee can help with the changing of items. Questions? Ask Tami Brown

Your surplus matches their deficit, their surplus matches your deficit—2 Corinthians 8 12-15