Time Stamps

It appears that the time stamp for posts on this blog is an hour off. I suspect the change in daylight savings time is the culprit and that everything since last Sunday has been off. I'll look into it and see what I can do.

In addition to the magnet, we tried to give a flyer with the following information to all the children:

Free Family Movie Event Featuring:
Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie

4:00 pm – Sunday, November 11, 2007

Coffeyville First United Methodist Church
10th & Elm (Just North of McDonald’s)

Drinks and popcorn will be provided.
You're welcome to bring camp chairs or a sleeping bag to make yourself comfortable.

There were also a great many children watching the VeggieTales DVD we had running during Trunk-or-Treat.

Magnets and Trunk-or-Treat

We started the night with 225 magnets giving one to each child. We missed about 25-28 children in the tumult of the rush and then had 5-10 children come through after we ran out. A conservative estimate would then be 255 children.

Update: We just found 29 magnets in someone's pocket, which pushes our conservative estimate back to 226.

238 Hotdogs for Trunk-or-Treat

We gave out 238 Hotdogs for Trunk-or-Treat. Hotdogs were given out to both children and adults, but there were many trunk-or-treaters who didn't make it downstairs for their hotdog. Hopefully, I'll have more statistics later.

UMCOR Coffee Project

As you probably already know, the Missions Committee sponsors the sale of Equal Exchange Coffee through the UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief). Paying farmers in developing countries a fair price for their coffee is a mission project in and of itself, but we got an additional bit of good news with our most recent coffee order. From Equal Exchange:

"For every pound of fairly traded products that Methodists purchase, Equal Exchange donates $0.15 to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). For 2006, that amount totaled $17,191.07. This year, UMCOR used these funds to support agriculture development in West Africa."

Church Ministry Structure being Revised

At the last Church Council Meeting, the Lay Leadership Committee (formerly the Nominating Committee) was tasked with overhauling the church committee structure. We got started tonight. We're consolidating all the ministry committees into three new committees: Nurture, Outreach, and Witness.

Consecration Sunday will be November 18

You may have seen signs around the church that this years Consecration Sunday and "Great Thanksgiving Dinner" will be November 18, 2007. Hope to see everyone there.

Lay Leadership Committee Meeting

The Lay Leadership Committee (formerly the Nominating Committee) will meet Monday at 7:00 pm in Room 102.

BHAG (Updated)

The Vision Team met with a larger group to talk about a BHAG (Big Holy Audacious Goal) for the church last night. We arrived at the following: "To be the best church in Coffeyville for ministry with all of God's children." We arrived at this general idea, not this exact wording so if anyone has a correction or a suggestion to improve the wording please let me know.

Late Update: I had a colleague who reads this blog contact me with a few questions for clarification. The First is that by "God's children." we mean children literally. The second is that "best" is less about competition with other churches then it is about what we can do best, what need is there in our community that we, as a church, are best situated to address.

Verse of the Day

"For thus says the high and lofty one
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite."

Isaiah 57.15 (NRSV)

Facing Death on the Dome

Our own April Foreman has an entry at bricktownblog.com about her journey to the attic of the sanctuary. It's good reading at http://www.bricktownblog.com/?p=12.

Front Doors of the Sanctuary Taped Off

I had a question about why the front doors to the church were taped off. And with that question I was reminded about the other announcement I had for the second service this morning. Bob, our custodian, had to take a Sunday off. Without Bob there to spend an hour and a half hosing down the front steps, they were covered in pigeon droppings. Because we didn't want everyone to have to walk through the droppings and because we didn't want the droppings tracked through the sanctuary, we taped off the doors.

$.09 / Minute

In case you were wondering, given the cost and life expectancy of the bulb in the projector in the sanctuary, it cost .09 per minute to run it.

RSS Feed

I had a request for a link to a RSS feed for this blog. Here it is.

Voice of the Day: Teaching Scripture as Story

Via Sojourners:

Teaching scripture as a story allows God's story to become a guiding light for the learner. Resources for faith are provided that can support a person's character development. Images are presented that can nurture a construction of Christian identity that is faithful to the church.... Hearers become inspired and encouraged to identify their story with the scripture. Readers are equipped to relate and broaden their personal experiences in light of their social existence. Learners are empowered to judge and redefine what is meaningful in their lives.

—Joseph V. Crockett

This was of particular interest to me because I'm preaching on how we read and understand scripture this Sunday. I'll plan to preach from the lectionary text of 2 Timothy 2:8-15.

Close Up on the Time with Young Disciples

We're going to try something new this week. Jenny and I have taken the Collins family camcorder over to the church and plugged it into the multi-media system in the sanctuary. It will allow us put real-time video of the children up on the large screen during the time with Young Disciples and will hopefully make it easier for everyone in the congregation to follow along.

Link as Promised

Here's the link to the "New Coffeyville Survey": http://www.kscomm.net/.

Quote of the Day

Via Sojourners:

"Children possess naturally the essential elements for having faith. The Kingdom of God is first perceived in the world children know best. Children, therefore, have as much to offer adults as adults have to offer children-perhaps more."

—John H. Westerhoff III
Bringing Up Children in the Christian Faith

Conference Youth are Coming to Work

We just learned that a work team of 50-60 Kansas East Conference youth and accompanying adults will be coming to Coffeyville this Saturday. We'll be hosting a worship service for them at 3:30 pm.

Chandelier Bulbs Being Replaced

The chandelier in the sanctuary has been lowered so that burned out bulbs can be replaced. Actually, all of the bulbs will be replaced while the fixture is down. Right now we're waiting for more bulbs to come in.

Voice of the Day

Via Sojourners:

"Christ, in sending the [people] to the scriptures, sent them, not merely to read them, but carefully to search and ponder them. And did he not say, "Read the scriptures," but "Search the scriptures." ... Their meaning is not expressed superficially or set forth in their literal sense, but, like a treasure, lies buried at a great depth. And those who seek for hidden things will not be able to find the object of the search if they do not seek carefully and painstakingly."

—John Chrysostom, Homily 41 (John 5:39-47), A.D. 390

Problem Found and Solved

This mornings problem with the large screen in the sanctuary was quickly isolated and solved after the service. switcher / scaler had failed. For the time being we've simply routed around it (all this means is that we can't play movies). A replacement will be shipped to us, hopefully this week.

Wow, No Posts Since Monday

Wow, I haven't posted anything since Monday. It's been a busy week getting ready for the finalization of the projection system. As you can see from the above, I've updated the image for World Communion Sunday.

Taize Service this Wednesday

This Wednesday's Gathering will be a Taize Service. We've made the decision to hold a Taize service for the first Wednesday Gathering of every month.