What's happening at church...

Just trying to think through some things:

• Sunday we had a breakfast. There were 50 people. Which was twice as many as I expected. Fortunately the cooks were 'planning' on 50. So it worked out just right. The new cafe tables worked out great.
• Yesterday I spent my holiday mostly trying to figure out a new classroom arrangement. We are at maximum capacity (for # of classes, not # of people), and I am afraid some of our classes actually shrunk last year because of room size. So... I tried to match the size of the current class, plus the potential each class has for growth, with the rooms we have. That meant two of our children's classes had to move to smaller rooms. We used to have a class that only had 2 kids in it take up the entire basement. Now there will be two adult classes sharing the basement.
• Yesterday I also arranged one side of the basement a little different. On the kitchen side we have 13 or so of the cafe tables set up. On the other side it was empty. When we have dinners they set up those long rectangular tables in two long rows. So, I took this 11x12 carpet remnant we've had in storage and put it down at the far end, and took a couch and loveseat from the high school room (don't worry, they still have another one of each, plus several overstuffed chairs). We had an extra recliner that we'd been trying to hide, plus four of our old kitchen chairs with cushioned seats. I put them on the carpeted area, and lowered one of the big tables so it's like a big coffee table now. Presto... we have a classroom space.
• What I would like is to get a nice sized TV and put down there now. We could use it to watch videos, and maybe someday get some video games and stuff.
• I would also like to get a cd player or sound system of some kind for the basement. It would be nice to have music playing that wasn't coming from an old boombox that someone was wanting to get rid of.
• I don't know how well I am selling the idea of using the basement/kitchen area for more than just our annual fish fry. In fact, I can already hear a few people saying, "What are we going to do with that couch during the fish fry!?!" I know where I'd like to put it... but that wouldn't be nice. I mean... how much space do churches waste for so little use?
  
• I also put a sign on the refrigerator in the basement that pop and water are $.25 a piece. We have a bunch left over from different things. Might as well start using it. We can use the money we get from it to buy more. That is another advantage of having adult classes downstairs - we can actually use the kitchen, and it allows more space for these two classes to expand.
• Jane and I have been talking about getting a calendar out and trying to plan events for the course of a year. We do have a calendar. Just haven't gotten around to doing it yet.
• I have also started working on what I will call our "Sunday morning ground rules." Sort of a way to define what Sunday mornings are for. I think a lot of people don't know. Or at least they don't think they should be for what I think they should be for. I think they should be for worshiping God, encouraging one another in the faith, and building relationships. They are not for griping and complaining and bringing people down, or trying to sway someone to vote for or against something or someone, or selling goods and service, or conducting business of any kind. Anyway, I figure I'll have something down in a few years. At least it's on my list of things to do.
• Today I received my book order. I bought each of our Sunday School teachers a copy of the book "What Every Sunday School Teacher Should Know" by Elmer Towns. It is an old, old book. But I figured it was better than nothing.
  
• I really wish I could find someone who could straighten out our sound on Sunday mornings. Oh... musicians would be great! But we need someone at the sound board. We've got a great guy that sits there now, and I really appreciate him doing it, but he just doesn't know anything about running sound. And I don't know what it sounds like in the audience, but it is MESSED UP coming through the monitors. Argh.
• This coming Sunday we start our "70 Days of Vision Campaign." It's something our region of our denomination is doing. We're actually not doing the whole thing. I'm supposed to preach certain themes each week, and there are supposed to be small groups that study the book they come from each week. I'm going to preach the themes, but we didn't do the small groups. Part of it was because the people who went to the meeting about it weren't too excited, and I'm not excited about starting another small group that is probably going to fizzle by the end. I think it's ten weeks. I just realized today that I was supposed to have started this past Sunday. I guess that's what I get for not looking at the stuff. It's no big deal, I'll just be a week later than the flyer I put up said. It's not like anyone has probably read it anyway.
• Well... it's Tuesday. The sun is shining, the dog is sleeping, and I am...