On family reunions.

Two weeks ago we had the privilege of hosting my mom’s family reunion.  She has 7 siblings, whose families are spread across the country.  There is a gathering every year in July, but usually it’s been in the east, nearer a larger concentration of various family members.  Until last year, Neil was a co-director of a jr high camp that usually happened around the same time, so we’ve not been able to attend.  This year, it came to us.  Almost everyone in the family lives at least 12 hours away from us by car, so we were honored that so many people were able to make it here.   

Preparing for this event prompted us to clean out lots of places around our home, which is always daunting, but equally cleansing.  (See this post for Neil’s tech gear breakdown breakthrough).  And let me just say that my husband is absolutely brilliant when it comes to hosting larger events.  Brilliant.  Where my little introverted, structured self locks up, his extroverted, outside-the-box optimism shines.  While there were lots of things we didn’t get done like we had hoped, when people started arriving, we DID have a place for everyone to sleep, counting bedrooms, floors, and 3 campers parked behind the barn.  Everyone works together to prepare for meals, clean-up, etc.   This is a family that really enjoys being together; there is much laughter, unending conversations, and even tears. 

Click below to see a few pictures.

 

Apparently I’m not so much with the balanced

Ever heard of wordle?  It’s a fun little site that takes a bunch of words and creates a jumbled up word cloud, where the most frequently used words appear bigger… etc. I tossed the RSS feed of this blog into wordle, and this is what happened.

This made me laugh out loud.  This would be the EXACT picture inside my head over the past couple of weeks… in the ‘work’ category… as our church has walked through a major transition in our weekend worship services.  

There seems to be a strange absence of the ‘family’ category.  Which hopefully just means wordle pulled from the most recent posts. Or something.  Or possibly I don’t post everything that’s in my head regarding my family.   That must be it.  It can’t possibly be that I’ve been too focused on work at the expense of my family.

Check out wordle and have some fun.  I’m going to turn my attention to my family, as much as I can, for the rest of this week.

(h/t: scottmagdalein)

This post is a part of Watercooler Wednesday.  Check it out!

 

Family Night: the lake edition

This was a few weeks ago.  And it was the first time this summer we were all the water at the same time. Which is really quite inexcusable considering the lake is yards away from our front door. So this is us splashing around in water that is is probably 40 feet deep. And we had a great time.

A big thank you to grannynanny for being on the lake with her camera, and for the use of the boat that got us out there.

 

Worship Reflections 07.06, 07.13, 07.20

As the worship leader in our church, I like to write occasionally about our Sunday worship experiences.  Having just begun a new worship service schedule & configuration, my musings are multiplying. Exponentially.

In the shift we’ve just made, there are a few interesting factors that have become important in the health of the transition.  Today’s topic: song selection. Here’s what  the ‘contemporary’ side of our new worship world has looked like over the past three weeks:

July 6: band, vocals

• Sing to the King (Foote)
• Unchanging (Tomlin)
• Hallelujah to My King (Brown/Baloche) 

     The message this week encouraged us to take time to worship. So we did:

• Be Still and Know 
• Unashamed Love (Ten Shekel Shirt)
• My Jesus I Love Thee
• You are My King (Amazing Love) (Foote)

July 13: band, vocals, worship choir

• Joyful, Joyful:  worship choir arrangement with brass & band
• Cry Out Your Name (Moore): older, but a solid hook & great theme
• Hallelujah to My King (Brown/Baloche)
• Your Name (Packiam/Baloche)
• I Surrender All: beautiful 4-part accapella vocal arrangement (sung by 8 person ensemble from the back of the room) used as a response to sermon

July 20: band, vocals

• You Are Good (Houghton)
• Cry Out Your Name (Moore)
• You Are (Roach) 
• How Great is Our God (Tomlin)
• May the Words of My Mouth (Hughes): great response song

Prior to this transition, about half our congregation attended our contemporary service, and about half attended our ‘blended’ service.  The blended service included a few newer style songs, plus a few traditional style hymns each week.  Because of that, and because of the culture of that service, we did not use the same ‘library’ of new songs as the contemporary service.  Now that we’ve upset the proverbial apple cart, probably 1/3 of the people in the room for each of our contemporary services aren’t familiar with our standard, use-them-whenever, hit-the-ball-out -of-the-park worship songs.  So, two things become important:

1.  intentionally using 1-2 songs each week that are well-known to everyone (at least for a while)
2.  thoughtfully choosing the songs that will continue to be used (hopefully, new songs are always thoughtfully chosen…)

Walking the line between familiarity and innovation, comfort and creativity will be the trick over the next month or so.  But that’s ok.  The change in our team’s schedule, how we communicate (thanks to Planning Center, which is quite possibly adding years to my sanity), and even how we are arranged on the platform has energized us and has reminded all of us of our primary directive: we are called to provide opportunities for this church family to worship. I hope we’re doing it with a great amount of sensitivity, as change is not always easy for everyone to embrace.

If you are a part of our church, I’d love to know how you’re responding to this set of changes.

If you are not a part of our church, how do you usually respond to change?  Do your heels dig in, or do your arms embrace it?

 

Worship Transition: All Things New

Three Sundays ago our church leapt into a new worship service schedule. The background of this leap is described in this series of posts.  This is the first chance I’ve had to write about it. Here’s how it’s going:

THE BIG DEAL
Before: 8:30 & 9:45 identical, ‘blended’ worship.  11:15 ‘contemporary’ worship.
Now: 8:30 classic worship.  9:45 & 11:15 identical ‘contemporary’ worship. 

While I’m not a fan of these incredibly non-descriptive words like ‘blended’ and ‘contemporary’, there has to be some way to talk about what’s happening in the room.  So this is where we’ve landed.  Our new ‘classic’ service is truly traditional in nature, and has been very well received across the generations. My long-time co-worker in the worship ministry is doing a great job of planning this service very thoughtfully and including a variety of accomplished musicians. The ‘contemporary’ service will vary from week to week… the music sometimes being very band-driven, sometimes including a worship choir, but the overall atmosphere informal.  

ATTENDANCE  PATTERNS & SEATING
Before:  Attendance in 8:30 + 9:45 = attendance in 11:15, give or take 20-30 people, with the 8:30 service always the least attended.  Room had to be set up to accommodate the 11:15 attendance, so we had 3 huge sections of chairs with 2 long aisles.  With limited ability to rope off parts of the room, the 8:30 service always felt a bit cavernous.

Now: We anticipated a more evenly dispersed attendance across the three hours, which has proven to be true. The room has been set up in a pattern of smaller sections, which allows for some areas to be roped off for the 8:30. So far, none of the worship services feel too empty, and none feel too full.  I realize attendance patterns will change in the fall, but still believe this configuration will accommodate people more effectively.

MUSICIANS
Before: two different worship bands each week, one in each style of service.  Two different groups of vocalists rotated with these bands. Our adult choir sang nearly every week in the blended services.  Once a month, an orchestra was a part of the blended services.

Now: Two different core bands, and one pool of vocalists,  rotate week to week playing in the contemporary services.  We now have two distinct choirs: one will sing in the classic service 2 times a month, and one will sing in the contemporary service 2 times a month along with the worship team vocalists.  Once every 2-3 months, the orchestra and combined choirs will be a part of all worship services.

REHEARSALS & SOUND CHECKS
Before: 
Wed pm:  6:45-8:00 choir
                8:00-9:00 blended service band
Thur pm:  7:30-9:30ish contemporary service band
Sun am:   7:30 sound check band #1
                8:00 choir
                8:30 1st service
                9:45 2nd service
               10:45 stage re-set: move 2 rows of choir chairs, 3 large platforms, move drums & all other instruments, sound check band #2, talk through set
               11:15 3rd service

Now:
Wed pm: 6:45-8:00 classic choir
               8:00-9:00 contemporary choir
               7:30-9:30ish worship band

Sun am:  8:00 classic service rehearsals
               8:30 1st service
               9:00 band meets in separate room to talk through set, run through songs
               9:15 contemporary choir meets in separate room (if singing)        
               9:30 band moves to stage with minimal re-set, sound check
               9:45 & 11:15 worship services

It’s probably not immediately obvious, but the schedule we’re now keeping is waaaaay more tolerable and sustainable than the previous plan. We used to have 30 minutes to re-set the stage between services,  plug in, talk through the set, and sound check.  This always felt harried to me, although we usually made it.  Now, we have 15 minutes.  But.  The band meets ahead of that time to get our heads into the music and the flow of the set.  We have very little to re-set on the stage, so the 15 minutes can be all about plugging in instruments and doing a quick sound check. Somehow, in the end, it all feels more relaxed.

So??
In quite a lot of words, that is how this transition has affected us so far. What I didn’t write about is what I see happening every week in our church family. I see people gathering to worship, some in the same manner they have for years, some with greater freedom than they have had for a while.  We set out to solve a few logistical issues, knowing that we also had a chance to provide more effective worship environments for our entire congregation, which is no small thing.  I believe God has led us to a great solution for this time, for this church… and for that I am grateful.

 

Mental traffic jam.

So this weekend we’re hosting my mom’s family reunion.  About 30 people will be at our house by this evening.  We’re really excited to be a part of this, because this gathering usually happens further east and we’re rarely able to make it.  These are fun people, and it promises to be a great time.

As a bonus, this event has put pressure on us to deal with the ‘dark corners’ of our house…. bedrooms-turned-storage-rooms have been cleaned out, bedding has been found for all beds, little broken things have been repaired.  

These preparations have consumed our every waking moment (and a few moments when we should have been sleeping), which means I haven’t been able to blog about these things, which are now clogging up my head:

• the new worship schedule at church, how it’s changed musician schedules, how it’s being received, etc.  All good news, but all worth writing about.
• thoughts on what it means to be a part of a church family. Prompted by a graveside service for a premature baby. 
• newest kid quotes
• our home office remodel that my husband just finished, which is AWESOME. He is the BEST.

While I can’t take the time to write about all of this week, I will leave you with the kid quotes.

The Boy: (pointing to his bottom) Mom? Can this part of our body make noise, and, like, tell us stuff?
Me: (wha????)  No.
The Boy: then why are they called ‘buttocks’?  (pronouncing as BUTT-talks) 

At the dentist, The Boy is having his teeth cleaned.  Hygienist tells him the cleaning agent is orange flavored.  He swirls it around a bit, swallows, and says, “Orange. Yes.  I enjoy that.”

While loaded in the car to leave a friends’ house, the kids and I waited as Neil helped the friend with something.  He gets in the car, then jumps out one more time to help with something.  The Girl, head drops back on the seat in exasperation: “Ugh. AGAIN with the waiting” (this one cracks me up because this phrasing is fairly new, culturally.  how does it get to a 10 year old girl?)

What’s up for you this weekend?