Celebrations

This is a day with a lot to celebrate- there are times when I feel frustrated with certain things about being a pastor, like dealing with certain people or situations, and the small petty things that come up occasionally in church life.  Then there are days like today when I really see God working in the life of the church and I catch glimpses of the spirit moving.  These are the days that make it all worth while.

Today we had 152 people in our 11:00 am Prayz service.  WOW!  Just think...4 years ago there were maybe 50-70 people attending that service, and today there were 152.  I don't even know what to say about that!  Seriously!

And the Prayz band rocked out today.  I mean, we sounded good, no one was fighting, no one was annoyed, no one complained about the volume.  We are getting things done efficiently.  We were a normal praise band.  Now I know this might be short-lived- in a few weeks some kind of drama will probably occur, but I have to celebrate these times when the clouds part and the light comes in, you know?  Amazing.

Another celebration was that confirmation class was actually fun today- we played United Methodist Jeopardy- they learned, they laughed, they actually knew a lot of the answers after my short lesson.  They looked and acted alive- I'll take that over zombie teenagers any day!  Totally worth the morning I spent making the Jeopardy game yesterday.

There is life in the church.  Sometimes you have to look for it.  Sometimes it's right in front of you, waiting to be discovered.