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Sunday Notes 7/20/08

Sorry that these updates are coming on Tuesdays lately. I intend to post them on Mondays but occasionally I take Mondays as my day off and this week I was ill on Monday. My apologies; I'll try to get these written in a timely fashion in the future.

• Sunday morning's attendance was 174. I guess I'm still amazed that we have numbers this strong during the summer when each week we have regularly attending families that are gone on vacation. After two weeks of both services being equal in size, first service was again the larger group, even if only by a few percentage points. We had 95 in first service and 90 in second service, with 11 overlapping.
  
• The parking lot is now repaired, striped, ready (as of Tuesday) and looks great! Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project! We only wish we could accomplish more but the prohibitively high price of parking lot repairs prevents us from doing as much as we'd like.
• The Missions team is meeting on the first Saturday of each month at 8am to pray. They fast the day before, but no one is required to have done so to participate in the Saturday morning meeting. The next meeting is August 2.
  
• The sermon was a continuation of our series on the book of Philippians. The title, TNR-PLA came from the mnemonic device I've used to help memorize Phil. 4:8. This sermon (from second service) is now available online. You can listen to it by clicking here.
  
• Sunday School attendance was 124. That's over 71% of the morning worshipers attending classes.
  
• Wednesday Family Night resumes in August! Our kickoff is August 6 and meals and classes resume on August 13.
• Some folks asked about the white bracelet I was wearing (similar to the yellow Live Strong bracelets). There's a ministry-related answer to this which I'll share in church next Sunday.
  

Sunday Notes 7/13/08

• Attendance was a robust 176, especially considering the number of families gone on vacation. But this Sunday marked the first time that more people were in second service than in the first service. We'll continue to watch attendance trends and listening to feedback from the congregation to determine the best service times for our church family.
• A Board Meeting is this Thursday at 7pm.
  
• We had 112 in Sunday School. That's about 64% of those attending worship in Sunday School.
• Wednesday Family Night resumes August 6 with the Fall Kick Off. Classes resume the next week, August 13.
  
• Youth Group meets at 7pm on Thursdays at the church unless otherwise specified.
• The parking lot is being worked on again this week. Sorry for the inconvenience.
  
• Thank you to Alisa Y. and Marsha R., among others, who added the scripture quote to the front wall in our auditorium. Quoting John 17:3, the script is placed about twenty feet feet high on the wall to the left of the main screen.
  
  
  

Another Baptism

Friday evening we had our second baptism this week. Lexi L. was baptized into the Lord by her great-aunt, Marsha. A small gathering of friends and family were present at the baptism to witness the happy occasion and encourage Lexi and her parents and sisters.

Both Lexi and Hannah R. will come forward to make a public profession of faith on Sunday morning.

Evening Baptism

What a joy it was to see a baptism at WCCC 8 o'clock last Sunday evening.

Hannah R., 10 years old, was baptized by her grandfather, Richard, late Sunday evening. A small crowd gathered to watch the happy event and congratulate Hannah and her family. Hannah had made a decision at church camp, which was affirmed by her parents and minister via thorough discussions and prayer.



Our prayers continue with Hannah as she grows and walks with the Lord.

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UPDATED Note: We are planning another baptism this Friday evening at 7pm.

Sunday Notes 7/6/08

• Attendance at worship Sunday was 163. For the first time, the numbers were remarkably even between the two services, still favoring the early service.
• At Sunday School we had 119 in attendance. That's a robust 73% of the worship attendance. Some of our children's classes are bursting at the seams!
  
• Thank you for the kind words. Several folks expressed concern for my well being in regard to this post from my personal blog. I'm fine; nervousness is just something I've always dealt with when I preach. God bless you for your concern.
• The last week of church camp began Sunday. Thank you to those who've transported the kids and helpers or traveled to camp serve in different capacities. You efforts are greatly appreciated!
  
• We have a new copier in the office as of Monday morning. It should function normally, producing black and white copies without any special attention on your part. If you have a more complex task, please ask Jay-rod or Jared for help and we can set you up!
• We have continued our sermon series through the book of Philippians. The series will end on July 27.
  

Considering Second Service

We have a need in our second worship service.

The majority of the congregation (better than two-thirds) goes to the early service. That in itself isn't a problem; we expected attendance to be uneven. But the majority of our guests and visitors this summer have been coming to late service, which is sparsely populated by comparison (second service has been as small as 40 people).

Thus, we have two concerns. First, the second service doesn't enjoy the natural benefits of a larger group. And second, that the new people in the later service might become segregated from the larger portion of the congregation.

So we're asking the following of those who attend first service:
1. Two or three families to please consider attending second service for the next few months.
2. Individuals attending first service to remain after Sunday School to mingle and greet people informally, as the second service begins.
3. Individuals attending first service to volunteer to serve in the nursery, sound booth, worship team, greeters, communion servers, etc. until the second service catches up.

Parking Lot Repair

The parking lot is being worked on this week and access to it will be limited. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Sunday Notes 6/29/08

• Sunday worship attendance was down with several families gone on vacation. We had 134. It's nice to say that attendances in the 130's is considered low. Six or eight years ago that was a big Sunday. Just a year or two ago, that was only slightly below average. The Lord is blessing us.
  
• Sunday School attendance was up, percentage wise. We had 110 which is over 80% of the congregation present also attending a class. That's fantastic! A lot of churches would be pleased with even 50%.
• We had some speaker problems (the actual speakers, not the preacher) Sunday morning. We got over the technical issues, but we did ask the second service folks to close ranks (it's the smaller service and sitting together made the situation more manageable for our sound guy).
• If you're going to the Wilson-Champ wedding reception, please RSVP. More information is on the bulletin in the main hallway of the church.
• Our sermon series is continuing through the book of Philippians.
• Church camp (Jr. and Sr. High combined) begins next week, July 6-11. Contact Jay-rod for more info.
  

Intern Dismissed

Our youth intern, Josh, has been dismissed from his internship by the Elders. They talked and prayed with Josh Sunday night, releasing him from his responsibilities effective immediately. The Elders wish to stress that no illegal or immoral behavior was involved. Our prayers go with him.

If you have any questions, please ask one of the Elders.

Sunday Notes 6/22/08

• Sunday's worship attendance was a healthy 177. Combined with last week's 154, we've been seeing a sustained increase since the move to two services. Average attendance in May was 165.5 and June looks to be almost that high, which is great considering that May-July are usually low periods in church attendance. So far the numbers have held at a two-to-one ratio between first service attenders and second service attenders.
• Nursery attendance is an interesting number to look at. So far we are having between 6 and 12 kids plus helpers in each service's nursery, resulting in about 20 people in nursery between the two services. So far there's no clear correlation between the size of the individual service and the size of the nursery, except for right after Memorial Day when all of our numbers were down across the board.
• One last attendance note: We are subtracting folks who attend both services (we count after the sermon has started). We've had as many as sixteen people sit through both sermons and as few as five. This includes the ministers, nursery workers, Elders, and other folks who stay through the whole service.
  
• We continued preaching through Philippians. I felt that this week was a good example of why it's so hard to preach two sermons. The first service heard a lot of passion and emotion from me as I preached through what I had prepared. But the act of preaching is cathartic and it just wasn't the same sermon in second service. When we did two services years ago, I noted that the second service sometimes got the better sermon because of edits and adjustments that I made after preaching a "practice sermon." But now it seems just the opposite; the repeat performance suffers from lack of intensity after I've "gotten it off my chest." I'm sure I can work on it and improve my delivery in the future.
• Joy Circle was canceled this Monday.
• Landon R. recognized a new couple, Matt and Erica H., from our Financial Peace University class. They completed the program and we were all pleased to see them introduced and recognized in front of the congregation.
• Junior Camp (grades 3rd-6th) is this week, from Sunday afternoon until midday Thursday. We also have a Day Camp (1st and 2nd grade) this Saturday. Saturday is our church's work day at camp to mow and trim trees. We will be taking several children and staff up to this camp, as well as workers for the work day. We'll meet at 7am to leave from the church.