An observation

Being the treasurer of a church sometimes seems like a thankless task.

That is all.

Our motives when singing in church....

Can I add the disclaimer up front that I'm sure none of the song leaders in our church are really thinking any of these things when they are singing in church.

That said, I think there is something in this to think about for all of us who sing in church (not just those up front). I know for me there are times when singing can be a lot more about my emotional response to or like/dislike of the song rather than about truly worshipping God.

Making room for new relationships...

Our church is getting ready to plant a new congregation. It's been planned for a while, but the kick off date for the new church plant is now only three weeks away. Exciting times ahead. And sad ones, as we say goodbye to some good friends who are leaving us.

We are staying with the group who meet at our current location. The new church will be further away from our home so it made sense for us to stay where we were. The last Sunday where we will all be together is in two weeks' time, but we will still be away on holidays then, so next Sunday will be the last Sunday for us in the church as we currently know it.

We've been with this church for almost seven years now. It was very small when we arrived and has grown to become very large over the time that we've been in it. God has been good to us.

One difficult thing that I've found about the growth in numbers over the past few years is that it gets much harder to get to know people at church. In a small crowd, you know everyone and can catch up with them every Sunday. As the crowd gets bigger, it gets trickier. New people arrive and you welcome them and you might want to get to know them better, but if you already have lots of friendships on the go (and if, like me, you cope better with a smaller quota of friends) then it's harder to catch up with all the new people and establish new friendships with them. Sometimes it's just easier to hang out with the old friends, but that doesn't make it easy for the newer people to feel like they belong.

I think it's important for us as Christians to make space for new friendships in our lives. It builds our church as a community, and challenges us to think about how we can serve others and look outwards. It stretches us out of our comfort zones, perhaps more than a quiet type like me would like, but in a way that helps us to grow and become more mature as Christians.

Yesterday we had lunch with some friends from church at the home of a younger couple who only started attending our church in the last twelve months. The wife is a fairly new Christian, and her husband is from a Jewish background, is not yet converted and would probably describe himself as an atheist. He has attended services at our church for special occasions (like Christmas carols) in the past, but yesterday was the first time he had come to a regular Sunday service. Catching up over lunch afterwards was a lovely time of chatting and getting to know them both better. We pray that over time he'll come along to church some more. I hope that building good friendships will encourage him to do that.

Bring on the changes. And the opportunities for new relationships that they will bring our way. Please pray that we'll be open to growing in new directions and reaching out to others.

When going to church doesn't feel joyful

It actually feels more like I'm just barely hanging in there at the moment. Not sure why. Maybe it just seems like there are a lot of people in our church family who are struggling right now. Conversation feels difficult. Yesterday, a friend and I stepped outside after church was over to keep an eye on our two little girls playing together and to enjoy the sunshine. This friend is a shy and quiet person and I thought it might be good to join another couple of people having a conversation. As I half hovered to see if there was an opportunity where we might be able to join in, the snippet of conversation I heard seemed to involve a deliberate choice to walk away and continue their talk elsewhere. Obviously it was a private chat that wasn't my business, but it felt awkward nonetheless.

I've been trying to stay on track with reading my Bible and praying at home lately, so I don't feel as if it's a time where I'm personally going through a hard time in my Christian life. So I've been trying to work out why church feels so hard. I was discussing this with my husband and wondering whether I was finding it this way because we've been part of this church for a long time now. It's been almost seven years, which is the longest time we've ever spent within a single church. We've moved towns every few years since we were married nearly fourteen years ago, which has meant that we often end up leaving just as we're getting to know people well. This time around, we're more heavily involved, we know people much better so consequently we know their struggles a lot better too, we've been through a lot more ups and downs. This year has been hard. It's six months today since my friend's little baby boy was stillborn. Several people have left our church with little explanation and we're not sure why. New people are starting to come along but they're not necessarily fully committed to participating yet. Financially, the church is going through a difficult time.

It's hard to keep on persevering when these things happen. You wonder whether it's going to get better and you try to tell yourself that life on this side of heaven isn't meant to be easy and devoid of suffering. But it doesn't feel easy. Maybe this is what it's like to feel a bit burned out by all the stressful situations that we've not really had to go through before because we've never been around long enough.

What does the Bible tell us to do at times like this? Well, Ephesians 6:10-18 seems appropriate for the moment:

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. ¹⁴ Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; ¹⁷ and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, ¹⁸ praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.  (ESV)


A helpful reminder that our strength does not come from ourselves but from the Lord alone.

On leaving graciously...thoughts from those left behind

Over the past twelve months, we've had some people leave our church. People who were part of our congregation for many years and quite involved in things. They left not because they were moving out of the area (the main reason we've changed churches previously), but because they're now going to another church down the road.

I always feel a bit sad when this happens. In some ways, it feels like a family member has disowned us. They've decided they don't want to hang out with us any more, they'd rather spend time with a different bunch of people.

I've noticed over the years that there are a couple of ways that people tend to leave when they are moving on to another church. One is the very public dummy spit about what's wrong with the current church. In one case I'm aware of, a guy who was rostered on to pray got up and mid-prayer had a bit of a meltdown about how the church was grieving him and he couldn't stay any longer. Not ideal. A little bit awkward for those of us sitting in the congregation who really had no idea how to react to this. Do you keep your eyes closed or do you open them and look around to see what others are doing?

The other form of departure I've encountered is the quiet disappearance. People just stop coming, you think they must be on holidays or something, and then you realise you haven't seen them around for a long time. Eventually someone makes a comment about them having moved to some other church, or the penny drops in some indirect way. In this particular instance, I saw that their photo wasn't in our new church directory which came out last week. And then I asked a friend of mine about them and discovered she'd sent them an email saying she'd been missing them at church. She'd received the response that they were away at the coast for the weekend. Nothing more than that. We haven't seen them since they disappeared. Well, except on Facebook. More on that later.

I'd like to suggest a better way to leave. Be upfront about it. Not in the public dummy spit kind of way. And not necessarily even with everyone in the church, but I think for those people who've known you for a while it's kind to offer some sort of calm and reasonable explanation. It prevents those confused feelings on the part of those you are leaving behind about why you've gone. The most important person to provide this explanation to is the pastor of your church, and he can decide whether the reasons should be shared about it or not. Even then, I think some kind of brief comment up the front about the people no longer attending can be helpful. It provides closure and removes the uncertainty (and hopefully decreases the gossip) about what's happened.

People change over time. I get that. Sometimes people find their needs may be best met in some other church family or denomination. A new season in their Christian lives and growth may be what's required in some instances. But for those left behind, it can really hurt if no explanation is provided about what's happened. In one case, a family left our church and their kids were quite good friends with our boys. Luckily our guys don't tend to ask too many questions, but if they did ask where they'd gone, I wouldn't be sure what to answer.

Just one thing that you probably shouldn't do if you are the person leaving and moving on to another church. Avoid taking to social media (Facebook, twitter, blogs or anywhere else) to say how fantastic your new church is and that the people, the message, the singing or whatever are absolutely wonderful compared with those "other Christians" who do things differently. It's all too painfully obvious who you are talking about.*

*and yes, I do realise that this could be a case of the pot calling the kettle black here. I'm trying to work out whether to say something and if yes, then how or what. Happy to take suggestions....

Today at church...

...a student from my uni tutorial group turned up.

I hope she wasn't put off by seeing me there and that she'll come back again. We don't have lots of University students at our church but there are a few of them, and the number is slowly growing.

Today at our congregational meeting at church there was discussion about starting a second congregation because our main one is getting quite large. Maybe we should be looking at a Unichurch option. There are a couple of Universities around here. It could be a really good ministry to get into.

Phillip Jensen on the purpose of church

Simone has posted this interesting article from The Briefing website by Phillip Jensen called What is Church For?

There are some good points in it. It seems to be directed mainly at those in paid pastoral ministry, but I think it has plenty of application to those of us who don't fit into that category as well.

Since I'm tired at the moment and lose concentration after the first few paragraphs of anything requiring some thought that I try to read, the part I found most thought-provoking was in the second paragraph. This was about how spending all our time in church, with church people, and running church activities can get in the way of evangelism. I worry sometimes that this is the case in our church. I don't think it's intentional, but it's easy to justify not doing evangelistic activities because we're too busy keeping the church activities happening from week to week.

He goes on to suggest that viewing the church as being for evangelism is like looking at things the wrong way around. He argues that evangelism should be happening out in the world, and it is through this activity that the church (and not necessarily our particular church community, but churches generally) are built up.

Interesting stuff. Worth looking at but probably good to make sure your brain is switched on before you read it.

Watching....

...this. Bob Kauflin on playing the piano in contemporary worship. Helpful stuff.

Just finished Part 1. I was feeding while I was watching it so I missed a bit. Might have to go through it again another time.

Sigh. There's so much I still have to learn about playing the piano. My chord knowledge is average at best. And time for deliberate practice....hmmm....well, maybe I could squeeze a bit more in, but there are usually a thousand other things competing for my attention and time in this stage of my life.

Off to have a little play around on the piano now before the next feed is required...

Loving...

...the meals that wonderful friends in our church family are bringing to us at the moment. It's so good to feel this loved.

And it's very exciting getting a surprise dinner each night. I'm usually the menu planner in our house, so I nearly always know what we're having to eat for dinner. It's refreshing being surprised.

Dropped off the radar for a while there....

A big week of being sick, followed by having to back up for church camp over the weekend. Another bunch of new faces and people to get to know, so now I just want to get back into my cave for a while. It's great that our church is getting so much bigger but it means it's harder to keep track of who everyone is than it used to be.

So we had lots of music and great talks from Phil Campbell this year. And five of us played in a little ukulele band at the campfire on Saturday night. It's amazing how many songs you can do with C, F and G7 chords. There is a lovely old gentleman in our church who learned to play ukulele growing up in the Pacific islands, and he gave me a folder full of music, songs and chords that I can't wait to get started on. It even has "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in it, but I will need to learn a few more than three chords for that one.

The only low point was Liam's midnight vomit on Saturday night. After being caught out when away for a weekend previously, we always bring the children's Panadol with us when we go away now. But sadly, we'd left the vomit bags in the car. So we were left with vomit on lots of bedding and clothing, but at least most of it missed the carpet in the little unit. And we were in one that had its own bathroom and toilet. Would have hated to be dealing with that while running back and forth to the toilet block. Fortunately he made a quick recovery. I think it's because he drinks too many sweet drinks whenever we're away from home and there's no one watching his food and drink intake.

The kids were excited about going away for the weekend (well, not Rosie, I think she was a bit overwhelmed with the whole thing) but predictably, by Sunday afternoon, some of the kids who usually manage to socialise without arguing with eachother were starting to grate on eachother a little bit. And Aidan had a huge meltdown last night when we got home.

Back to the real world....

We now have drums for church on Sunday

And that is good.

No rain!!

Apart from a few spits (which could hardly even be called showers) we survived Carols at the Markets this morning without getting wet. We were inside a tent to sing and play but it wouldn't have been fun if it was pouring outside the tent. And because it wasn't raining people sat down and ate their food and drank their coffee and listened to us for a while. We even had some applause from the crowd, and that wasn't just from the people who came from our church to watch us.

God is good.

I still have plenty of room for improvement but for a first attempt I think it was okay. Improvising on some of the carols and adding variety with a few instrumental carols that are different from the sung ones is what I'll need to work on, I think.

Exhausted now...and we have to do it all again in two weeks time!

Weather forecast for Carols at the Markets

Rain, rain and more rain.

But we have to turn up rain or shine. I was hoping that if it's really torrential rain they might cancel so we could sleep in instead. Hopefully all the sound and electrical equipment we are taking survives any downpours that might happen.

It won't be very pleasant for people to sit around on the grass and listen to us sing and play if it's pouring rain.

Please pray that if it does rain, it won't be heavy non-stop rain. Showers I think I can cope with. Pouring rain is another story. And it's not like we've ever done this before so there's already all the issues around us doing our first real public/non-church performance.

But I'm going to try not to be anxious. Today I've been reading in Ruth about the shelter of "God's wings." It would be good to have some of that shelter tomorrow.

Christmas carol overload

And it's not even December yet.

Getting ready for our markets performance this Saturday. There will be no songs about Santa, even if audience members make requests. I think "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Deck the Halls" could be OK though. I also enjoy "Ding Dong Merrily on High" but playing the "Glo.....oo.....oo...oo...ria" bit is tricky. The rest are at least passable, I'm hoping that the bass and bongos will cover any minor errors.

I hope our next door neighbours are enjoying the entertainment. They usually give me positive feedback about my playing/practising Christmas carols in the lead up to Christmas. But this year they may be over it all by the time Christmas day actually arrives.

Christmas carols 2010

This year, a group of musicians and singers from our church is going to perform Christmas carols at the markets at our local high school. We are doing two Saturday sessions in the lead-up to our Christmas carol service at church. This is a new thing for us to do, and we are doing it as a way of inviting people along to the carols service.

Each session goes for five hours. It will include some a cappella singing, some instrumental songs, and some items with both instruments and singers. It's a lot of time to fill up.

I am the pianist. Obviously most of the songs are familiar but because of the length of time we need to be there I am also practising some others that I don't know so well, which is time consuming (and hard work). But fun too, since I'm discovering some old carols I haven't heard for years. And even one or two that I haven't ever heard before. I'm thinking of using some of the less familiar ones as part of an Advent calendar type thing at home so we can play and sing them together as a family.

Please pray for us as we do this outreach into our local community. And that our hands and voices don't get too tired! Piano's not so bad, but I think our bongo drum player might struggle a bit...

Mission week at church

This week our church is having a mission week. You can find out more about it here.

There are lots of different events happening. It should be fun.

It did get off to a slightly tense start in our home when the email about the cooking party (to make meals for people from our church who need them) came with the information addressed to women only. As Chris does lots of the cooking in our house, it irritated him enough to cook a meal for our friends who've just had a baby. That was good, since then I didn't have to do it.

We're praying it will be a good week to build connections with the local community. Church on Sunday will then be an open day that we hope will encourage new people to come along. We are singing lots of our favourite songs in the service. I am playing the piano that day so I am excited.

I'm hoping to get the kids involved too. I'm taking them to the local special school after school one day this week to help cover books. And I am also taking Rosie to a puppet show in the park for preschoolers.

Please pray that this will be an opportunity for many to come to know Christ and for us to make Him known.

ANZAC Day

Today was the first ANZAC Day in a long time that I didn't go to a remembrance service. I woke up well after dawn services were over, and then had to play at church this morning so I stayed there with Rosie while Chris took the boys to march in the later parade with their school.

It felt like something was missing from the day. I like to go along each year, even more so since my Grandad died a couple of years ago (he served in PNG during WWII). I never heard him talk about the war at all, so I asked my Mum for some info and she loaned me some books to read about the Australians in PNG during the war. Apparently the battalion he served in(49th) gets a bit of a dodgy rap in most of the literature, perhaps somewhat unfairly given they seemed to have received very little training and support.

However, church was good too. I made a resolution to try to take notes during sermons (thanks to friends Kristy and Anna for the idea!) more often because it helps me take in more information and concentrate on the sermon rather than being distracted by whatever cute thing Rosie happens to be doing. I managed to take notes on about half of it before Rosie started whingeing so I figured that was OK for a first effort. And it was a good sermon.

Last night, I also took advantage of Chris being busy sorting out a glitch in the computer program that does the church accounts to borrow a couple of girly DVDs, which I'll review tomorrow.

Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend.