How time flew this week! Here it is already Friday and I have not been keeping up with the events of the week since Monday.

What was supposed to be the last Official Board meeting took place on Wednesday. It had been a while since the last meeting so there was a lot to catch up on. Well a lot to catch up on for some of the members of the Board as the majority of the members of the Board were on the Discernment committee and already knew all about what was being presented. It did increase the amount of time spent on some of the items as those Board members not on the Discernment committee had to be brought up to speed before any decisions could be made. So we ended up not being able to go through the whole agenda, including the part where we were going to change the method of Governance of the church to the Unified Board model. Those members that are not in Discernment asked for more time to study the motion. Which means that there will be at least one more meeting of the Official Board in the middle of August.

I have been having a quick look at the information for the service on Sunday, and the only reading I know of right now is Psalm 100 so it might be slim pickings as far as song choices based on the Scripture readings for the week. One of the songs this week, "Heaven Is Singing For Joy", does not at the moment look very familiar to me and so I might just do it during the singsong so people will be familiar with it.

God Bless You!

Tonight was the celebration potluck dinner for the discernment committee. Our job accomplished, it was time to celebrate the end result as well as all of the work that went into coming up with the Vision, Mission, and Value statements (see yesterday's entry). The atmosphere was basically just like a big family dinner: great food, light banter, profound conversations, everything but the squabbles and disagreements.

I think I mentioned earlier that most if not all of us are just moving directly into the next phase and joining the Steering Committee which will start officially in the fall. I guess there still remains the small matter of dissolving (?) the Official Board and moving towards the Unified Board model. Well at least I think that it is what is happening - I guess I will find out for sure at the next Board meeting this Wednesday. Which reminds me that I should have something ready to report as the Chair of the Worship Committee/Team.

God Bless You!

Over the last 12 months (pretty much the life of this blog), I have been mentioning all the work that has been accomplished by the Discernment committee. All the work came to fruition today when a Congregational meeting approved the Vision, Mission, and Value statements. I had been refraining from putting up the finished product until it was approved, so now that it has been I can put it up here.

Vision Statement:

Esquimalt United Church
is a community of everyday people
following Christ on a never ending spiritual journey.

Mission Statement:

Esquimalt United Church:
- seeks to be a spiritual centre where everyone may find
a safe and welcoming place to explore the mystery of faith.
- welcomes all people into a relationship with Jesus Christ
- nurtures faith through worship that touches the heart
and through studying God's story.
- seeks to live our faith in our daily lives

Values:

- We believe that God loves everyone unconditionally.
- We believe in God's forgiveness and grace.
- We believe that Christ's love brings joy,
wholeness and transformed lives.
- We believe that Christ's love is shown through respect,
acceptance and support of all of the diverse parts of God's family.
- We believe in sharing Christ's love in our community
by working side by side with others.

And there you have it: a glimpse into who we are and who we would like to become.

The Discernment committee has now completed its task and will be disbanded immediately after our last meeting tomorrow night. It is a potluck supper to celebrate all of our accomplishments. Another committee is taking its place in the fall to start working on the changes that need to be done to help us become the church of the vision.

God Bless You!

PS: Our music director had a mishap with one of his pieces of music this morning: it went missing. It was on the floor and was probably picked up by our new custodian. It was a loose copy of a hymn which I have in my "The Faith We Sing" book, which is the supplement to the United Methodist church hymnal. To prevent this problem from re-occurring, I have ordered another copy of my book and will give it to Brooke.

"Here's what I'm saying: Ask and you'll get; Seek and you'll find; Knock and the door will open." -- Luke 11:9 [The Message]

I had been wondering off and on the last couple of days what I would be singing for the singsong tomorrow and nothing immediately came to mind. Imagine my surprise earlier tonight when our minister sent an email asking if the powerpoint for the service tomorrow could be changed to include some Bible readings as well as a "Bidding and Response" section. The surprising part is not really that our minister asked for a change; but rather that those Bible readings were just what I needed to come up with songs. Here are the songs I have come up with for tomorrow:

"What A Friend We Have in Jesus" VU664
"Open the Eyes of My Heart" Paul Baloche
"Cry of My Heart" TFWS2165

All that remains is to put the singsong powerpoint together.

God Bless You!

At yesterday's Worship team meeting, the topic of the singsong came up. Our minister noted that I have been expressing that I am getting tired of choosing songs for the singsong. I was asked, and I agreed to take a break for the summer and the minister and I, as well as the Worship team, will discuss it again in the fall.

Now don't get me wrong, I am glad that I will be getting a break. I have not had a break, except for the month when I went down south for the funeral of my mother-in-law and the drive back earlier this year, since I came back from my ill-fated attempt to join the US job market in May 2001. But in previous occasions when I have felt like quitting, comments made by some of the people that come to the singsong have always kept me from doing so. People that tell me that a song that was sung that week really touched them, or that they come to church early only because of the singsong. What an awesome responsibility and humbling gift to know that God is speaking to those people through the songs. So I always felt before that I would be shirking my responsibility by quitting. But taking a break is not quitting. And I cannot help but feel that the extended prelude, led by Brooke, which will take the place of the singsong will include opportunities for the people to join in singing if they feel so moved.

And speaking of shirking, I have been neglecting the faith side of my life of late. I have been spending a lot of my time playing with my computers and I feel out of balance. I need to focus again on that side. One indication of how out of balance I find myself is that I have been rushing through the devotional readings in the morning - there again I need to regain focus. But hey, who said it was easy?

God Bless You!

I have changed the time of this entry so that it will show up under Saturday's date, but I am writing this just after 2am. Up until 30 minutes ago I had no idea at all what I was going to sing in the singsong. Then I had an epiphany: why not use the 2 songs the Discernment committee has selected as most representative of the Vision, Mission and Value statements since that is what we are talking about in the service? I may also, if the spirit moves me, talk a little why I am using those two songs; and maybe challenge the congregation to see if the statements bring to mind any songs.

Well I better go to bed and get some sleep if I want to sound half-coherent.

God Bless You!

Update: I guess it shows that it is getting late, as I forgot to list the two songs I will be doing:

"I Come With Joy" VU477
"We Are Pilgrims" VU595

Things have been busy around here lately so I could always use that as an excuse for not posting, but since my wife has been doing most of the work there is not much I can say in my defense. Although those that know me will know why when I say "new computers".

Wednesday June 14 was the wrap up meeting for this year's Love Your City event. We watched a rough copy of the Love Your City video for this year; it will be really great when it is finished (which is supposed to be Friday next week). We also discussed what went well and what could be done better. The fact that we were all together as one "Church of Esquimalt" this year was what was noted as being the best thing that happened this year. Probably the only thing that people mentioned could be better is the fact that we did not hit has many locations this year and that we should see what can be done about it. Once suggestion was that maybe we could have roving teams that would not stay in one place but go from place to place to perform their servant evangelism.

Pretty much everyone also agreed that we should do this more than once a year; although we could not decide on a date. The one suggestion that garnered the most interest was to have events happen around the end of January as it was mentioned that it probably was the worst time of year for low income families. The Extreme Outreach Christmas dinner was one thing that was mentioned could be moved to January since there are a lot of things happening around Christmas but nothing or next to nothing in January.

In any case, it was decided to meet again on September 13th to start and seriously look at what can be done. Oh, and it was also mentioned that the Ministerial would make a concerted effort to try and reach those churches that did not take part in the event last year. Even if the clergy is not involved from those churches, we are hopeful that some lay people could be found to lead things at the church level.

God Bless You!

As I have probably mentioned here before, the Discernment committee has finalized the Vision, Mission, and Value statements. Tonight's meeting was all about finding hymns that, for the lack of a better word, "portray" what the statements stand for. After much discussion, the following two hymns were the ones that best exemplified our statements:

"We Are Pilgrims (The Servant Song)" VU595
"I come with Joy" VU477

We will think about those two songs over the summer to see if they are indeed the songs we want as "theme songs". They will also be used during the summer so the congregation can have a say.

This is the beginning of the next phase in the life of the church. Beginning this fall, a steering committee will start studying to ascertain what to do with the statements as we apply them to figure out the new direction of the church.

I have said that I would be part of that steering committee; but I must confess that what I am looking forward to the most is the summer break. The idea is to recharge my batteries to get ready for the work that needs to be done in the fall.

God Bless You!

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I do have a confession to make (and it is not about me forgetting to start the slides for the Gathering Words). Brooke asked me about the tune being used for VU573 (Eternal Spirit of the living Christ) in the service. I repeated to him what I had written in an email earlier in the week: that I did not think the tune for VU581 (When we are living) fit well with the words of VU573. So he decided to go ahead and use the tune for VU501 (Break now the bread of life). I think it would have gone very well if it had not been for the fact that, since some of the hymn phrases did not fit on one line, I used the tune for VU624 (Give to us laughter) as the basis for the phrasing on the overhead slides. I guess unconsciously I liked VU624 better than VU501 and I assumed that Brooke would as well. Unfortunately, that meant that some of the words of the hymn in the phrasing for VU501 were on different lines which I think made singing more difficult. There definitely seemed to be some difficulty in singing the last couple of lines of each verse.

There was one change in the line-up of songs for the singsong: instead of singing VU390 (How great the mystery of faith) I ended singing VU356 (Seek ye first the kingdom of God) as requested by our minister. I had decided to sing VU390 because the tune was not known. Turns out it had been decided to use a well known tune instead of the original tune so there no longer was any need to go over it in the singsong. VU356 was requested by our minister as it really fit with the direction her reflection took.

There was a little bit of excitement during the reflection when one of the people in the pews started to feel unwell. An ambulance was called, and my wife (who is a nurse) looked after him while we were waiting for the ambulance to show up. Our minister was not phased by the events unfolding and changed her reflection and the flow of the service to ease the care of that person. Interesting that it was my wife's first visit at church in a while and it would be then that her gifts would be needed.

God Bless You!

I usually, during the singsong, go over any new music that will be sung in the service. So the task of picking music for the singsong is very easy this week as there are two hymns that are new to the congregation (well at the very least new to me) and one that has only been done once in the singsong before. I have therefore decided to do those three hymns. As of right now, the order in which they will be sung is:

"How Great the Mystery of Faith" VU390
"Deep in Our Hearts" MVS7
"Blessed Be Your Name" Beth & Matt Redman

I am looking forward to tomorrow's service as we (and by we I mean the minister) will start preaching on the Vision, Mission and Value statements that the Discernment committee has laboured over this past year. I have two reasons for looking forward to it. One, I am eager to see how the congregation at large will respond to the statements (we have spoken to different groups in the church already with positive reactions), and two, I think this will help get excited all over again over the work that we (and by we this time I mean the Discernment committee) have done.

God Bless You!

I am getting way too much enjoyment out of not having had any meetings to go to in the evening this week. So much so in fact that I have pretty much done nothing but just vegetate in the time that was freed up by not having those meetings. That did not help much on the "I better look at those Bible passages before the next Discernment meeting" front, or even on the "I really should pick songs for next Sunday" front. So now that the weekend has arrived it is time to start work on both of those fronts.

It is kind of hard to have much to say as I have not done much. I guess I will close then.

God Bless You!

I have received the Bible readings for this Sunday's service. This is good news because I can now start looking for songs to include before the service. The Bible readings this week are:
Romans 8:22-28
Matthew 4:13-25
Matthew 7:12-29
I wonder if I can read into this selection of readings that our minister thinks more highly of these particular passages as a basis for the Vision, Mission and Core Values statements as that is what she will be covering for the next three weeks. That would be an easy way out of having to go through all the readings she has given us to look at for the next Discernment meeting which is next Monday, June 12th at the church. But that would be cheating. Besides, I have read the first passage and it did not speak to me.

Which brings me to a worry that I have. At meetings that we have at the church we read a Bible passage and we are asked to come up with words that strike us, and what the passage says to us at that particular moment. Lately I have had trouble coming up with anything. I always seem to be stuck in the literal and do not really get anything out of the passages, well at least not anything like the other people at the meetings. It seems to me that I used to be able to get into the readings - I wonder what has changed and why.

Well I better go get some sleep.

God Bless You!

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I was really sorry the other day that I did not have my camera with me. While waiting for the morning bus I saw a young man wearing a sweater and on the back of that sweater were the words "Jesus loves even me". It was great to see.

I think Love Esquimalt / Vic. West / View Royal will really miss Laura from YWAM; she kept on top of things and generally made sure that all of us knew what was going on and what was expected of us. She was a great help and she will be missed.

I have been keeping up with my devotional reading for the last 6 weeks or so; so hopefully I am getting into the habit again. We are approaching Father's Day however and since that is when I received that Bible last year I hope that having read the devotionals before will not deter me. I am not too worried as I do not really recall any of them at the moment. Or maybe it is time to start reading the Bible itself instead of devotionals based on the Bible.

God Bless You!

I was thinking about what I would say about "Love Your City" if I was asked questions, and particularly "Are you not just doing this to get more people in your church?". If that question had been asked of me a year ago I would have said "Yes" because at the time that is really what I thought the focus was. But after having been on the Discernment committee for over a year, my focus has changed. I think now that the reason we do the "random acts of kindness with no strings attached" is so that the people at the receiving end of the acts of kindness will be moved to investigate what drives us to do it. Having them establish or re-open their relationship with God is the focus.

Today was Pentecost and obviously the church service centered on that. There was also a baptism and I think that our minister did a very good job of tying the two together. I enjoyed the drama as well as the reflection. For whatever reason, I really was in the mood to sing and I had a great time singing all of the hymns as well as the choir anthem. Brooke, our music director, as a real interest in Gospel music so we have been singing some gospel music for the last few weeks. The anthem for this week was "Down by the Riverside" and we certainly had a good time singing it - well I had a great time.

Now that the "Love Your City" events are behind me, it is time to start looking at the next meeting of the Discernment Committee which is a week from Monday on June 12th. We are supposed to review Bible passages to find a biblical basis for the Vision, Mission, and Core Values statements. Needless to say (but yet I will say it anyway) I have not yet begun to look at the passages.

God Bless You!

I guess I should start by talking about Love Your City since we have just completed all the events today. The Friday night rally was great; I enjoyed most of the music that was played during the rally and the message was very well done. Now when I mention that I enjoyed most of the music, what I mean is that some of the songs the Praise Band played were not songs that were easy to pick up for people that had never heard them before. I think that if you want to get people to get the message you are trying to get across they should not have to worry more about learning the tune rather than just singing. Some of their songs were great in that respect. "Freedom" for example had an easy to pick up, repetitive verse and chorus that most if not all people were able to sing. For at least one song, I felt like the Praise Band was singing to us, rather than getting us to sing with them.

The Saturday events went very well; I had been second guessing myself ever since we had decided to increase the number of bottles from 600 to 1000, but we went through all of the bottles (minus 35 that we had forgotten about) in less than 3 hours. And from all of the comments that were made at the celebration service afterwards we were not the only ones that were very successful. And by successful I mean that we reached a lot of people.

On to Sunday. I obviously did not spend a lot of time selecting songs since I spent most of my waking hours working on / taking part in Love Your City. My song selection was made much easier by the fact that one of the songs we are singing in the service tomorrow is not known by the congregation and I have been asked to teach it to them during the singsong. Another song was selected because it was one of the really good ones used at both the Friday night rally and the Saturday celebration service. And the last one I wanted a song that said something about dancing; the reason being that the choir anthem has a line that says "put on my dancing shoes" and by using that song in the singsong it sets the context for the line in the anthem. And the three songs are:

"Dance with the Spirit" Jim Strathdee
"Loving Spirit" VU387
"Shine, Jesus Shine" Graham Kendrick

God Bless You!

As I write this, there is about 19 hours before the kickoff rally for Love Your City.

I have been pretty busy this week; so busy in fact that I never got around to checking one of my email accounts until tonight. That was unfortunate because it was the email account where I was communicating with the person coordinating the singing for the rally. I had sent her (late of course) music suggestions for the rally. She was out of town so did not get my email until early this week and by that time the songs selections had been made. She did, however, offer for me to sing one of my song suggestions as special music before the speaker brings the message. Of course, I did not get her message (which she sent on Tuesday) until late tonight (Thursday) which probably means it is too late. I did reply and said I would be willing to sing "Draw the Circle Wide" if that is still possible. I will have my guitar in the car just in case.

I have bought some of the water needed for Saturday. 700 bottles have been stored in one of the Sunday School rooms until they will be labeled and handed out on Saturday. I will go get the other 300 probably before the rally on Friday. If not, I will go by and get them early Saturday. I am actually going to get 350 more since that works better with the size of the water cases, and that way I have a few extra to hand out to the volunteers since they do not need the kindness cards. That and rubber bands are all that is left to buy for the event on Saturday.

You might remember that we had decided on 600 bottles of water. But since we are going to be at more places than last year, we (the minister and I) decided to increase the number of bottles to 1000 so we might have enough. That does leave us with having to cut an extra 400 kindness cards - I am thinking that can be done by the volunteers labeling the bottles on Saturday morning. This is of course assuming that we get the extra cards Friday night at the rally but since that is the logical place to get them I am not worried.

God Bless You!