More From Max Lucado

"Colorado aspens provide a living picture of the church. Have you noticed how they grow in groups, often on the otherwise bald sides of mountains? They are sunseekers and root sharers. unlike firs or pines, which prefer shade, aspens worship warmth. Unlike oaks, whose roots go deep, aspen roots go wide. They intertwine with other roots and share the same nutrients.

Light lovers. Root sharers. Sounds like a healthy church.

Oddly, some people enjoy the shade of the church while refusing to set down any roots. God, yes. Church, no. They like the benefits, but resist commitment. The music, the message, the clean conscience - they accept church perks. So they date her, visit her. Enjoy an occasional rendezvous. They use the church. But commit to the church? Can't do that. Got to keep options open. Don't wait to miss out on any opportunities.

I propose they already are. Miss the church and miss God's sanctioned tool for God promotion. For church is a key place to do what you do best to the glory of God."

- Max Lucado in A Cure for the Common Life

An Offering

Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life - and place it before God as an offering.

Romans 12:1, the Message Bible

Thoughts From the Road

Now this is COOL. We are traveling down Hwy. 72 having just crossed the state line into Alabama. Brooke is driving and I have my laptop up and running. I am blogging, we are all listening to music (the group Alabama no less) on the laptop and I am currently tracking our position with my GPS which is hooked up to my map program on the laptop. (We need to turn right in 57.5 miles!). Now if I just had a wireless card so I could be on the Internet, too! Now my wife just called me a major nerd.
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We arrived in Alabama a little after noon today, tired but safe. We unpacked, grabbed a bite of lunch and talked with Dad and then I took a short nap...from 1-6pm. I felt a bit better after that.

We are thankful that Brooke's back is beginning to feel better. She missed a step coming down the steps while decorating for VBS last week and had BAD back pains all week. She finally went to the doctor this past Monday and two prescriptions and many prayers later seems to be on the mend. She was sore after being in the car for so long, but she is definitely doing better.

Brooke and Amanda are in bed, Mom is in bed also (she always goes to bed early) and Dad is asleep in front of the TV (which is also the norm). Since Mom and Dad have high speed Internet now (yea!), I'm going to finish up some camp registration stuff, update the info online and do some surfing.
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Thank you to those of you taking care of our house, turtles and dogs while we are gone so that we can have a vacation! We're off to a good start.

How Else Do I Say It?

To say I was frustrated would be an under- statement when I read that the needed Senate vote fell one short today to pass a Constitutional ammendment to ban flag desecration. You can read about it here. I thank God that we have the First Ammendment protection of free speech, but when that ammendment is used to attack the government that guarantees this freedom...how does that make sense?

Somehow people have come to believe that we have to be so open-minded that we accept anything. We cannot judge something as wrong anymore because, after all, who am I to tell you that something you are doing is wrong? And now our country is so "open minded" in areas like immigration policy, gay 'rights' and free speech that we are allowing things that are harmful to our country.

It's like doing drugs: just because you can do it doesn't make it a good idea. We need to ask ourselves, "should America fight for the right of the individual to her collective hurt?" How else do I say it? We are becomming so "open-minded" that our brains are falling out!

- Rob

Praying for a Friend's Luck to Change

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

We sang the refrain from this song in service this morning. It was the same service where we heard about one of our members, Don, who is in the hospital after having a liver transplant this week. He had the transplant and things seemed to be going well. Then yesterday things started going not so well...at all. I don't understand all of the medical jargon, but two of our pastors when to visit Don and pray with him. In the middle of their prayers, Don started singing "Look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord has done. He healed my body, He touched my mind, He saved me just in time". The doctors had just told him he was having serious problems, and this was his response.

When we heard the doctor's report, the chruch prayer chain started praying. In our service this morning, we were also able to report that, after the bad report Saturday morning and after the church began praying, the doctors came back and said things were looking up. They felt they could treat the symptoms he was having. (Side note: last I heard, Don made such a miraculious improvement today that the doctors wanted to send him home this evening).

But back to "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus". We sang this song in church today, and we heard the story about Don's trust in Jesus. I couldn't help but think about the Humanists that I debate with from time to time online. One guy in particular, a big wig in the American Humanist Association, has e-mailed back and forth we me a number of times. He's cordial enough, but he definitely holds to his beliefs (holds to his unbeliefs?) as strongly as I hold to mine. It's hard to debate with and/or witeness to him because he has it all figured out. He has certainly thought through his belief system (I keep calling that, but again, I guess could be better described as a 'lack of belief' system). Sometimes it seems like he has everything on the planet neatly compartmentalized. He sees no need for God. So as we sang this song today, and heard Don's testimony, I thought of the Scripture in Ephesians 2:8 that says, "For it is by grace you have been saved-through faith-and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

Looking at this dichotomy (Don who trusted Jesus even when everything he could see was not good vs. my Humanist friend who 'has it all figured out' on his own), I had a fresh understanding of the idea of faith being a GIFT from God. I guess my Humanist friend would just say that Don was 'lucky'. I would much rather trust Jesus than rely on luck.

The longer I am a Christian and study God's Word, the more reasonable my faith becomes to me. But my e-mail address came from a Scripture God reminded me of when it comes to faith and reason. "Those who come to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who dilligently SEEK HIM." (Hebrews 11:6). It has to start with a step of faith.

So I'll share Don's story with my Humanist friend and pray that he, too, can receive God's gift. Without trust in Jesus, he is doomed to figuring it all out for himself and living with the unfortunate consequeces of that effort on the day he stands before God in judgement. That would be pretty 'unlucky' for him.

- Rob

It's Been a While...

...since I've posted a geocaching story, so I'm gonna share one. It all started this past Friday when we were cleaning up from Vacation Bible School on the church playground. As we walked out the gate of the chain link fence that surrounds the playground, Amanda pulled the cap off of one of the metal gate posts. "Look Daddy, this would be a good place to hide a cache." I agreed that it would.

So fast forward to Saturday. Amanda has a friend spend the night and tells her friend about geocaching. Since her friend also likes being outside, they asked me to take them geocaching. (Now just STOP right there. Yes, THEY asked ME to go geocaching...it was not the other way around). Of course, being a good father, I could not deny this this 'educational opportunity' and so we headed out to do a couple tame caches.


The first cache we did was at a part, and it was a multi-leg cache. We followed the original coordinates to a sign and used the numbers from the sign to solve a simple puzzle to get the coordinates for the second leg. The second leg was a mico (i.e. small) cahce hidden in a tree. We found it right next to the wasps flying in and out of a hole in the tree! We opened up the cache container and the girls read me the coordinates the third and final leg of the cache. I loaded them into the GPS and off we headed. We travelled about 700 feet and the GPS unit said we were supposed to be at the location of the cache. I saw the horse shoe pits but saw no place where a cache could be hidden. I was about to decide that there must have been some sort of miscommunication between the girls and myself entering the coordinates into the GPS when Amanda walked straight up to the chain link fence around the horse shoe pits, pulled the top off of a metal post and said "Found it!". I could not help but laugh...somebody had the same idea for hiding a cache that Amanda had come up with on her own the day before. I tell ya, the kid's a natural. Makes a father's heart proud!

The fence-post cache

Teamwork!

Amanda's friend, on her first geocaching outing, was the first to
spot this cache (it was hidden before we took it out for a picture)

All That With a Toothpick

When I get up early in the morning to play racquetball, I try to be quiet when I leave. Our front door has made this challenging because the little plate that goes around the sliding mechanism of the doorknob is loose. When I try to close the door, that plate sticks out enough that the sliding mechanism does not want to slide in when it touches the door frame, so the door BANGS open instead of closing. I have tried to tighten screws that hold the plate to the door, but the wood has 'stretched' too much and the screws do not tighten anymore. I mentioned the problem to my friend George, and he suggested something I had never heard before...toothpicks. He suggested sticking a toothpick or two into the hole and then screwing the screw into it allowing the toothpick to fill in the gap. I tried it, and it worked like a charm. Cool!

So what does that have to do with the picture here? I went looking for a picture of a toothpick to go with this fascinating story and I found this link to some guy that made Ripley's Believe It Or Not for all his toothpick creations. You can click on the link above or to see all the crazy stuff he has carved or you can click on the picture and see the 9 car train he carved into that toothpick. Just thought I'd throw that in for free.

- Rob

You are You-nique!

"Every single baby is a brand-new idea from the mind of God."

"You were born prepacked. God looked at your entire life, determined your assignment, and gave you the tools to do the job."

"You cannot be anything you want to be.
But you can be everything God wants you to be."

"God never called you to be anyone other than you. But he does call on you to be the best you you can be. The big question is, at your best, who are you?"

- Max Lucado in Cure for the Common Life

Just Chillin' With the Ladies

It seems there is always something going on. This week is VBS at the church, so our days are pretty full. Last night, Amanda and I did a few geocaches while Brooke laid down with a migraine and sore back (doesn't that sound like fun). Tonight we stayed home. After dinner, I took the dogs out to play in field behind our house. We have not had them out much without their leashes so I was not sure how it would go, but they stayed close, came when I called them and had a great time running around. When we came in, Amanda wanted to go outside and play, so we took the dogs back out, played 'Monkey in the Middle' (Amanda, Sully and me), ran around with the dogs and then came back to the back yard to let the turtles out for a stroll. After that, we came in, Amanda got a bath before bed and I sat down with Brooke to watch the Mavericks lose the NBA playoffs. I'm not a big basketball fan (I'm not a sports fan period), but tonight was just a good night to chill out with the ladies in my life.

- Rob

Study Your Skills to Reveal Your Assignment

"When I was six years old, my father build us a house. Architectural Digest didn't notice, but my mom sure did. Dad constructed it, board by board, every day after work. My youth didn't deter him from giving me a job. He tied an empty nail apron around my waist, placed a magnet in my hands, and sent me on daily patrols around the building site, carrying my magnet only inches off the ground.

One look at my tools and you could guess my job. Stray-nail collector.

One look at yours and the same can be said. Brick by brick, life by life, God is creating a kingdom, a "spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5 CEV). He entrusted you with a key task in the project. Examine your tools and discover it. Your ability unveils your destiny. "If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. 4:11). When God give an assignment, he also gives the skill. Study your sills, then, to reveal your assignment.

Look at you. Your uncanny ease with numbers. Your quenchless curiosity about chemistry. Others stare at blueprints and yawn; you read them and drool. "I was made to do this," you say.

Heed that inner music. No one else hears it the way you do."

- Taken from Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado

We Need God in America Again

That's the title to a song by Carman, but that's not exactly what I was referring to. When I read news stories about terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever in the Middle East, America is referred to as an infidel, etc. The terrorists claim they are in a holy war and their god (Allah) wants to punish us. I sure think it would be awesome if America would turn back to God and would say (as a whole nation, with pride) ONE NATIONS UNDER GOD. Why? Well, there is the obvious benefit of God's blessings and protection. But I'm being a little less heavenly-minded I guess. I would like to see America united as one nation under God so we could say to these terrorists, "Your god wanna pick a fight with our God? OK, let's rumble!"

Of course we would have to make a LOT of changes as a nation in order for this to happen, and my "cool scenario" could not be our motivation for doing so....but it would be cool, wouldn't it? I'm not talking about destroying another nation being cool, but I am talking about being able to live like Israel did (at times) in the Old Testament where they could sit back and watch God fight for them because they were God's people. How cool would it be to have America say, "We choose (to live for, obey and run our country like) the God of the Bible"? Hmmm...I guess this would be easier to accomplish if the Church would do it first, huh.

II Chronicles 20:17 (NET Bible)
"You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you."

But what made me think about this, again, today was reading Isaiah 46. It is a little more accurate picture of where America is with God today. Sure would be some good advice to follow as a nation.

Isaiah 46 (NLT)
The idols of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, are being hauled away on ox carts. But look! The beasts are staggering under the weight! Both the idols and the ones carrying them are bowed down. The gods cannot protect the people, and the people cannot protect the gods. They go off into captivity together.

"Listen to me, all you who are left in Israel. I created you and have cared for you since before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime--until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.

"To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal? Some people pour out their silver and gold and hire a craftsman to make a god from it. Then they bow down and worship it! They carry it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there. It cannot even move! And when someone prays to it, there is no answer. It has no power to get anyone out of trouble.

"Do not forget this, you guilty ones. And do not forget the things I have done throughout history. For I am God--I alone! I am God, and there is no one else like me. Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. I will call a swift bird of prey from the east--a leader from a distant land who will come and do my bidding. I have said I would do it, and I will. Listen to me, you stubborn, evil people! For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now! I am ready to save Jerusalem and give my glory to Israel.

- Rob

You Can Watch It, But You Can't Like It...

I had to laugh when I read this (origianl story here, full story copied below):

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Phnom Penh patriarch Non Nget has told Cambodia's 40,000 Buddhist monks to remain passive while watching World Cup soccer games or be defrocked.

Non Nget said Monday monks should not watch the games in public, cheer or bet on matches as such actions were against Buddhism.

"It is very difficult to ban them because new technology means the games can be aired live and seen everywhere," he said. "They may watch, but must be calm."

"But if they make noise or cheer as they watch, they will lose their monkhoods," Non Nget told Reuters.

Pros and Cons of Turtle Ownership

My friend Stephen posted a comment under the posting of Little George O'Mally's picture. Stephen said: Okay so give me the pro's and con's of having a turtle. We are thinking of letting the kids get one but I have heard they are fairly dirty and hard to own. Truth to that?

So here's all I know/have experienced about Box Turtle care.

• I read online that Box Turtles are hard to keep, but it hasn't been too hard for me. I'll tell you what I do to take care of them below.
• As far as dirty. I also read that they can carry salmonella, so we always was our hands thoroughly after handling them.
• From what I read, it is much easier keeping them outside. If you keep them inside, you need a LARGE container and an aquarium will not do. If inside, you also have to purchase a special kind of light because they need sunlight (and you have to provide something artificial inside). Also, you would need to cover the bottom of your pen with dirt, leaves, etc because artificial surfaces can cause their legs to be deformed, their 'beaks' to get too long and their toenails to get too long.
• So I keep my turtles outside. We have two turtles now and they are in pen that is 15 foot by 9 foot.
• A chain link fence will not work for a turtle pen because they will drive themselves crazy trying to get through it. What I read said you needed 16-18 inches of wall to keep them from climbing out, but cinder blocks would work for our turtles. But then again, I don't know how big they will get 5 years from now (they can easily live to be 50 years old).
• Box Turtle care: I did not know this, but Box Turtles need humidity/moisture. If they do not get it, they develop eye and ear problems. You can soak your turtle (throwing them in the pool for a 'swim' would not work due to the chemicals) or you can do what I do and water the pen area 1-2 times a day making sure to soak the turtle as well.
• Food: with a big enough pen area, turtles can find quite a few bugs to supplement their diet. Little George always comes out after I water the pen because it seems easier for him to find bugs. I usually feed them every-other day rotating Romain lettuce and superworms from the pet store (about $6 for 50 worms). They supposedly eat other apples, strawberries and an occasional banana, but I've not had much luck with that. The lettuce has to be the dark green stuff like leaf lettuce, Romain or some kind of greens. Spinach is not good for them (don't know why) and Iceberg lettuce is not either because it has no nutrients. I usually feed the little turtle 3-4 worms and the bigger one 4-5. Pet stores sell turtle food in pellet form. My turtles don't seem to like it, but the dog does!
  
• Water source: As you can see from the pictures below, I dug a hole in the turtle pen and placed a plastic trash can lid upside down to provide water. I guess they drink out of this, but they also drink out of temporary puddles on the ground when I water their pen. They can also swim in this, but ours rarely do this. Water should be dumped and refilled daily to reduce likelihood of salmonella. I have heard that they make tablets you can put in the water to kill the salmonella, but I don't do that.
  
• Winter time: In the winter, you have one of 2 choices 1) Let the turtle go in the wild so it can hibernate, but since you are getting it for the kidos, you will be 'evil' if you choose this option. 2) Figure out how to hibernate them yourself. I have read online about how some people almost 'pack up their turtles for the winter' and go through all of this elaborate packing them in with bags of leaves,etc. What I found that makes the most sense to me is till up the ground in their pen and let them dig themselves in for the winter. It seems they only need to go a few inches down to make it through Texas winters. I am going to till up a section of their pen real well and with the dirt that loose and moist, they will be able to dig down several inches (turtles are good diggers so I'm only tilling the middle of their pen so they can't dig under the pen wall and fence).
• I guess that looks like a lot, but I enjoy the turtles and don't think of it as a pain. There was the initial time investment of building the pen (gave give you instructions on how to build a SIMPLE pen like this if interested). Feeding them every other day is not too time consuming and I usually do it with Amanda to spend time with her. Watering the pen doesn't take much time and I have the hose readily available, so it's no big deal. I don't know about the hibernating thing yet. I just know you are supposed to make sure they have plenty to eat before they go into hibernation so they can make it through the winter. The superworms are kinda nasty, but it's not bad.

So I guess I did not label any of that 'pro' or 'con'. You can apply your own labels. I read Box Turtles are hard to care for, but our seems to be doing ok and I don't think they are too much trouble. They seem to be doing ok. I think having the outside helps. That's all I know. Here are some pictures.

Grumpy O'Mally (left) is a Three-Toe box turtle
Little George O'Mally is a Texas Ornate box turtle
(Little George is small because he is younger)

Outside of the turtle pen. 16 inch walls along the side to keep them in. The cinder blocks are a little for support, but mostly to cover up low spots where they might get out.

Inside turtle pen. Upside down platic trash can lid for water, round stone for sunning and putting dinner on, log pile for Grumpy (his favorite spot to hang out) and cinder blocks to cover low spots and a place where Little George likes to hang out to get out of the sun.

- Rob

This is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING 'SPEAK ENGLISH'

..."They don't know how lucky they are. All we're asking them to do is learn the English language," said Geno's owner Joseph Vento, 66. "We're out to help these people, but they've got to help themselves, too."

Vento, whose grandparents struggled to learn English after immigrating from Sicily in the 1920s, said he posted the sign about six months ago amid concerns over immigration reform and the increasing number of customers who could not order in English when they wanted Philly's gooey, greasy specialty — fried steak, sliced or chopped, in a long roll, with cheese and fried onions....

Read the rest of the article here.

- Rob

Just Out For a Walk

Little George O'Mally going for an after-dinner walk today

It Went Off WITH a Hitch

Generally speaking, having something go off WITHOUT a hitch is a good thing unless you are perform a wedding in which case the hitch (getting hitched) is pretty important.

So tonight, there was a hitch and the hitch had a name...Bobby and Rachel Rodriguez. Bobby and Rachel grew up in the youth group when I was youth pastor. Both were active in the youth group and have stayed active in various ministries in the church since they graduated from high school. When they approached me several months ago and asked me if I would perform their wedding ceremony, I was honored. We have spent the past 5 weeks in pre-marital counseling, the rehearsal was last night and the big event was at 6:30pm tonight.

The wedding tonight was extra special for me. Not only was it cool seeing two of my youth group kids getting married, but I got to do the service and it was my first wedding. There were lots of things that made me sad when I transitioned from being youth pastor to administrative pastor a little over a year ago (like 'leaving' kids I loved and spent my life for), but I had only one regret...I was leaving the youth pastorate and I never got to do a wedding for any of my youth group kids. I was honored that Bobby and Rachel asked me to participate in this part of their lives.

The pre-marital counseling went well from my perspective. What you learn about marriage comes from experience and not from listening to somebody talk about it, but I hope I gave them some things to watch out for and perhaps some 'preventative medicine'. The rehearsal got started late last night, but we were done in time to get to the dinner, and the rehearsal ran smoothly. The wedding tonight was great. Rachel looked lovely and I got to hold hands with Bobby! Actually, I just shook his hand in the wedding pictures, but we had to hold the pose and we both laughed about it.

Speaking of laughing, there was one funny part in the service, but I'm not sure if anybody who was not on stage caught it. Bobby and Rachel chose big bands for wedding rings. When I took the rings out of the box to give to the best man and maid of honor before the service, I thought how VERY similar they looked. During the service, I took the rings back from the best man and maid of honor. I held them in my open palm and told Bobby to take Rachel's ring and put it on her finger. He took a ring and as I was about to start reading the vows for him to repeat, I heard Rachel say, "It's the wrong one!" The rings looked so much alike, Bobby grabbed the wrong one. We made a quick switch and I'm not sure how many people caught it, but it was kinda funny.

So tonight was a good night. Family and friends got to witness two 'kids' pledge their lives to each other, place Christ in the center of their marriage and ask God to bless them. Marriage was God's idea, and it was fun celebrating this 'great idea' tonight. It went well, and it went off WITH a hitch.

- Rob

A Day Without Volunteers

Not long ago some people attempted to make a statement by staging a "Day Without Immigrants". As I was sitting in church this past Sunday, I thought about what a "Day Without Volunteers" would look like at the Vine Fellowship. Our volunteers at the Vine would never organize something like this, but I did think about what the service would have looked like on a Day Without Volunteers.

The first thing that would have happened to our guests on a Day Without Volunteers is...nothing! There would be no usher to open the door for them, no greeter to greet them, nobody to hand them a bulletin and nobody to offer them coffee. We serve Starbucks coffee at our church, but it is made each week by volunteers. Sorry, no coffee this week. And how many people would want a bulletin that wasn't folded and had two inserts per page because nobody had cut them? No volunteer to do this.

And if we had guests, it would be easier if they had no children and arrived early because there would be no greeters to tell them where to take their children, and even if they figured it out on their own, there would be nobody in the nursery or helping in the children's department. And if they arrived late, they would probably just turn around in the parking lot and go home because there were no ushers put out cones and a sign showing them where to park after the parking lot filled up.

But supposing they came early, they had no kids and they didn't really care for coffee. I hope they don't mind finding their own seat in a sanctuary full of strangers because there would be no usher to help seat them. Of course, once they found their seat and service started, it would probably be much different than anything else they have ever experienced. Hopefully they know the words to all the worship songs because there are no volunteers to run the worship software and project the words onto the screen. And hopefully they like one-man-bands because Brad is the entire worship team on a Day Without Volunteers. Maybe people can make requests for their favorite instrument: Brad can play guitar this week, drums next and the piano every third Sunday.

Then there would be the offering. I'm not sure if offering would be up or down. After all, there would be no ushers, so Pastor would have to have each row come down front one by one while he held out the offering basket. Would a guest give just because they have to face the pastor and not put money in, or would they withhold what they were going to put in the offering because they were too intimidated to go up front their first Sunday?

I guess communion would have to be served in a similar fashion to how the offering was taken up...everybody come down front to Pastor. Actually, it would be more like "Here, pinch off a piece of this pita bread and take a swig out of this half gallon grape juice jar" because there were no volunteers to prepare the elements for communion.

At least announcements would be short. There would be no Retro, Young Marrieds, Silver Edition, youth or children's ministry announcements because there would be no functioning ministry on a Day Without Volunteers. Actually, people would have a lot more time on their hands...no ministry activities or outreaches and no Life Groups without volunteers.

But maybe the extra time in the service would be good so that there was time at the end of the service for people to wait in line to be prayed for. If only 15 people wanted prayer and Pastor had to pray for each one himself, that might take a while.

I guess the paid staff could have done some of this...they do serve each week. Let's see, Stan is a coffee drinker and a people person. He could have made the coffee and greeted all of the guests. Rob is an organizer, so he could have run ALL the sign up tables (except they would not be needed if there were no volunteers to run the events/outreaches). Tammy could have taken the bulletins home after work during the week and cut, folded and stuffed them. Maybe Brad really could play a different instrument each week. If Eva served communion to everybody, at least she'd make sure no crumbs got dropped on the floor since she's the one to clean it up. Maybe Brooke could have been in 4 classrooms at one time and overseen all the children's ministry, and certainly Shaun can handle 70+ students at one time by himself with the youth ministry. If Jason came to church before the sun came up, he would have time to set up cones in the parking lot before getting all the sound stuff ready for Brad's one-man-band and worship. And I'm sure Pastor could take up the offering, preach, serve communion to everybody AND pray for everybody who needs individual prayer. Sunday is his only work day anyway, right? Oops...who's going to help take up all of the chairs after service? Ah, if the female staff members help, it won't take more than half an hour!

So I have to admit, at various times during the service on Sunday I was distracted. Every time I saw a volunteer doing something, I thought about how the church could not function on a Day Without Volunteers.

- Rob