Baby dedication & concert

Yesterday morning we had a baby dedication during the Sunday worship gathering. It was nice of them to bring 23 guests. I was hoping it might get us over the "100" mark, but not quite (I know, all you church haters will think that's all pastors think about - get a life). The part where I hold the baby went well. I thought to turn the ceiling fans on. Babies seem to like ceiling fans. Afterward the family had a picnic under the pavilion and invited Jane and I to eat with them.

Last night we had the Ryan Hirschy concert. It was a nice day, but windy as all get-out, so I had it indoors instead of at the pavilion. The wind creates too much havoc with microphones, and at lunch we had trouble holding onto our plates. We seriously need to plant some trees for a wind break to the west of the pavilion.

It actually turned out to be a good concert. Ryan got some new gear - all Bose. It sounded great. He is also a really good singer, and Brad Byerly is an excellent accompanist on keyboard. I enjoyed just sitting back and listening with my eyes closed. Two highlights for me were when Brad played the Michael W. Smith instrumental "The Giving" off his Freedom album (I think it was the giving). Then when Ryan sang the old Keith Green song "My Eyes Are Dry"... and my eyes were not dry. A very good show. Indoors has a more formal feel to it, but the sound is much better.

I thought since we were having the show in the sanctuary we would wait until afterwards and have the food in the basement. I thought some of the older folk might not be cool with pizza in the sanctuary. But they were actually the ones who wanted it beforehand. So some people got it before the show, and the 4 pizzas we started with (2 pepperoni; 2 cheese) were almost gone by the time we started at 6, so Jane had 3 more delivered. Then we set up a table in the hallway and had water and pop in coolers (one with water; one with coke/diet coke). I also decided we would give it away for free, and I put out a coffee can if someone wanted to donate some money. We got rid of all but 2 pieces of pizza and about half the pop/water, and took in $53. That's probably better than we did when we charged money. I don't know which is better. Don't really care.

We also had a pretty good crowd. Probably about 60. And there were several families that live in the area who saw our sign and decided to drop in. I was glad about that. Probably a fairly even split between church people and people not from our church. I still don't understand why more church people don't attend stuff like this. Eternal mystery. Whatever.

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me

Keith Green, My Eyes Are Dry, from the album Make My Life a Prayer to You: Songs of Devotion