Stewardship

Where have I been since August 16th? Getting my guys back to work, a trip, company, canning, another trip, more company, more canning, an interesting weekend, more company (I am one blessed Auntie 'Ginia!), another trip and a LOT of rest!!

This morning I woke up to hear someone on the radio talking about tithing. They were talking about tithing money and about the blessings God promises when we do. I had two problems with what was said and I wonder what you think about this.

First, they were restricting their definition of the tithe to money. My understanding of the Old Testament culture is that tithing was everything you had. It was the produce from your land and your flocks. You were expected to use your artistic talents for the benefit of the temple. You were expected to expend time and energy to keep the temple and the city maintained. So how much time are we spending working to maintain our church? How much of our energy goes into training a class of 13 year-olds during the week? How much time do we spend using our talents, whether that be artistic or scientific, to improve our church building? Writing a check for these things is not that difficult, even when our finances are not in great shape. Being the one to take the initiative and teach a single mother how to grocery shop economically, or change her oil and rotate her tires for her when it needs to be done (not necessarily on our twice a year schedule if we even have such a program) is another matter entirely.

The other problem I had with what was said was the assumption that the blessing God states He will pour out on us when we are faithful with our finances is more money. More money? Better financial stability? If that is the blessing, what do we say to the vibrant, committed Christians living in China, Sudan, and Indonesia who have nothing? These people who take money they could use to improve their family's diet and instead give it to another Christian who is suffering? Or the Christians who have no church to give their money to? Shortly after a man I know lost his home to hurricane Katrina, he was traveling in a third-world country to preach and teach and help pastors in that country. When one of those groups found out about his loss, they took up a collection to help him. These were people who in one year will make less than most of us will make in a week. This was a man who had resources like insurance, extended family, and governmental programs to help he and his wife recover. He was taken aback by this desire to help but the translator insisted that he could not refuse because it would remove a blessing from those wanting to give. The people who helped are not in much better financial shape now than they were then. However the joy and the grace that they received from this act is immeasurable. The blessings that God promises are so much more than money and "financial peace". To interpret them to mean that is limiting God and denying ourselves an opportunity to experience what He means by the word "blessing". It is time we moved beyond this limited thinking and started growing in our understanding a bit more. God's blessings of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are far more valuable than having a healthy checking account, a big home, an extra car and several months worth of food in our freezers and pantries!

Recently Mark and I have been thinking and talking a LOT about stewardship in our home. I'll leave you with a verse that keeps coming to mind as we think and talk about this...this is the verse that is on our dry-erase board in our kitchen.

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself (poured Himself out), taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men." Phil. 2:5-7

Pour yourself out for the glory of God today!

"Radical" ideas

Isn't it interesting how you can be thinking about something and then within days hear a sermon about that topic? Sometimes the sermon confirms what I have been thinking and sometimes it corrects my thinking. And yes, sometimes I have walked away shaking my head and wondering why that pastor isn't as smart as I am. Then I am reminded that he is smarter!
Over this past week or so Mark and I have talked about heaven and the skewed view that many of us seem to have. Somewhere I heard the question, "What are you most looking forward to about heaven?". I started running through my mental list of things. A reunion with my Granny and Grandaddy and Grandma. Getting to know my Grandpa. A sinless life! An eternity in a perfect world. I stopped short when I realized what I was doing. Did you notice? Did you catch what is missing? Where does being in the presence of God and glorifying Him fall on my list? My list is horribly self-centered and self-absorbed. Heaven is NOT about ME. Heaven is about GOD! I did the study a few years ago of Randy Alcorn's book. I have listened to sermon series on the topic. I have attended enough funerals in my life-time to have heard a lot about the subject of heaven. Yet over and over and over again in the church in our culture (I can not speak for other cultures), the teaching may start with focusing on God but it seems to veer away from this to the benefits that we will enjoy. Yes, there are benefits to be found and they will certainly be enjoyable. But those benefits are not the primary reason heaven will be so wonderful. The primary reason heaven will be wonderful is that we will be in the presence of GOD and will see him clearly for the first time. WOW doesn't even begin to express that, does it?

Last night Mark and I began working through a sermon series that our pastor did last fall. This is the Radical series. As we began the first sermon, our pastor talked about the fact that in the American church today we too often see Jesus as a means to an end. Jesus will keep us from hell. Jesus will get us into heaven. Jesus will save us from our sins. Jesus will make our lives easier (and if you believe that I suggest that you go re-read John 15:18-21!). Jesus does indeed save us from hell, make a way for us into heaven, and save us from our sins. But Jesus is NOT the means to these ends. Jesus Himself is the end! When we see Him as the way of accomplishing an end or goal or purpose, and forget that He is very God of very God, we are failing to understand that He is worthy of all our praise and worship just because He is Who He is. Yes, we are thankful for what He does for us, please don't misunderstand me. But He is to be worshipped and praised just because He is Jesus. We don't worship Him because He does or is something, or even for doing or being something. We just worship Him.

Homestead TV: Special Guest!

Last week was a crazy week with us out running errands from Friday, July 31 through Saturday, August 8 (with church thrown into the middle of that of course). Whew! It's good to have a few days at home and get caught up with the latest episodes of Homestead TV.

Marvelous Mark has been very marvelously busy today putting up the new ceiling fans on the front porch. Hurray!!! The porch is wired for three fans (it is so long that it takes that many to be effective) and the old fixtures were in horrible shape. Just motors hanging from the ceiling with no blades. We discovered that one of them had been turned on for who knows how long and had seized up. So it was using/wasting electricity and creating a fire hazard but not much beyond that. I hope to see a change in the power bill after fixing that.

The new fans are up and they make a lovely difference when we sit in the anniversary chairs. While Marvelous and I were sitting in the living room and he was getting the fans ready to put up, he stealthily got up to look out the window and whispered, "LOOK!". I tried. I really did. But I was not stealthy enough or fast enough, or something. I grabbed the camera, though, and went and sat in the anniversary chair (with the fan on, thank you very much) and waited. I heard something here.


I waited. And waited. And soon he came out.


Yes, it is definitely a he. No female would have such thin legs!


Or be so proud of them. (Well, OK, maybe...)

He sat for a long time before getting spooked and leaving.


I also caught this picture and I can not decide if the cloud looks like a baby sucking its thumb or Snoopy thumbing his nose. I guess it depends on the mood of the moment.


Finally, I am including this picture because not only can you see the pole beans that are planted for decoration and food (we believe that it is fine to play with your food as long as it isn't on the table yet), but I think the red sky to the west is a pretty backdrop.


Just for the record, Kermit did make a repeat appearance last night but it was too late and dark for any pictures.

Monday morning

Monday morning is starting early today. The temperatures here are getting a little closer to normal for August ~ we had been running much cooler than normal through June and July. With the temperatures cranking up today (and let's not even talk about the heat index!) it seems prudent to do the outside stuff as early as possible. Usually on days like this I would get laundry going by 5:30 am, but I slept in today and did not get up until 6:00. Marvelous Mark is out there fighting the grass. The downside of working outside early is that the grass is still pretty wet. Oh well, beats trying to do it after 9 when it gets hot, humid and miserable.

Yesterday was a terrific day at church. Our church is starting some Bible classes so Mark and I will be taking one 2 hour class together in the fall and Mark will be taking a theology class (without me). We are looking forward to these. I'm excited about the fact that our church is excited about doing this. The pastoral staff has made it clear that these are classes for the sake of preparing God's people to share the Gospel both here in town and around the world. There is an emphasis around our church family of asking the question, "What does God want me to do with this (talent, knowledge, ability) that can have an impact on the world for His glory?". This is a question that we hear from the pulpit, no matter who is preaching, and from the people walking out of the sanctuary on Sunday.

The link to this week's sermon is here. Dr. Bart Box brought the message this week since our Pastor is out of town. Rather than try to summarize it, I would encourage you to go listen to it.

I'm off to drink some more water and get Marvelous Mark a glass of tea. Have a great week!

Yard Sale Pictures

It is only Friday night and already the weekend is getting too long. Sad to be so old, isn't it?
I am not going to try and go to the Vestavia Hills High School event tomorrow. It kind of makes me sad because I think it is such a great and creative idea and because I love the whole Diet Coke and Mentos thing. Instead, Marvelous Mark and I are going to take a brief look at a couple of local yard sales in the morning and I am going to enjoy my home the rest of the day! That way, I won't be too tired for Sunday (see my logic?). OK, that being said, here are the pictures of my yard sale treasures from Thursday. If I find anything Saturday I will post as soon as I can.

First, I found these cookie cannisters and jars and plate hangers for a whole $1.00 for everything. I love the Animal Crackers tin.


The pansy tin has already found a good use:

Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies, anyone?

Mark found these for a good friend. They have had a tradition of finding each other's marbles over the years, so he couldn't resist this buy. Now Hugh will have a few more marbles to add to his collection.


Then we have the three apple boxes for $1.00 each (!) and a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy for $6.00. Did you have to read The Inferno in sophmore lit at college?


Mark found this suitcase for another $1.00 and the suit bag for $3.00. He may be doing some traveling soon, but if not, he read recently about using the suitcase for home organization and storage. I don't think we could find cheaper storage containers!


I had one other find that I am not going to post a picture of yet. It's a special gift for one of the very special men in my life, so I don't want to run the risk of spoiling a surprise. I will post the pictures and tell the story behind it as soon as I can.

My final picture is my BIG treasure. I found this at a little place that was hosting a bunch of antique shops cleaning out their inventory a little bit. It is not more than 100 years old (and probably not quite that old), because it does have some metal hardware in it in two places. I fell in love with it. The curve of the seat and the way the back is constructed makes it one of the most comfortable chairs I have sat in for a long time. It is going in the front room/craft room for now but will eventually go in the living room. No, I am not going to refinish it, because I like the way it looks. It is certainly not perfect; it is missing some of the spindles under the right arm rest and there are a couple of cracks here and there, but I do love it. Won't this be a good place to hold and rock great-nieces and nephews and any other babies God may put in my path to love on?

Just a couple of quick updates; I'll post pictures of my treasures from the sale later today.
First, we did not make it all the way to Chattanooga, let alone Dunlap. Sigh. I had hoped I could see my sweet friend Jennie, but maybe soon Marvelous Mark and I can drive up there for the express purpose of seeing her. I did find some super things and Marvelous and I both came home tired and a little sunburned, but very happy.
Secondly, thanks so much to those of you who have been praying for Layla Grace. Her second surgery went well, her belly is getting back to normal size and she is feeling a little perkier. However, the surgeon cautioned her Mama that there is a good chance she will have to have a second surgery for this fluid build up. Please pray that the surgeon will see that God is the healer of Layla Grace and she will not need any further surgery.
Finally, I got a huge honor yesterday from my sweet friend Ashley on her Sassy Gal blog. Sassy Gal is an incredible God-reflecting lady, wife, Mama, daughter, friend and example. She let me guest blog my peach preserves recipe. I had forgotten how challenging writing down a recipe can be! I was reminded of my Junior High students when we did a unit together on how to write directions to do something and most of them chose to write a "simple" recipe. Each one of them got a laugh from all the others by leaving out one crucial step (like putting the top on the blender before you turn it on!).
Have a fun morning and check back later for those pics!

Huge Weekend

It's gonna be a huge weekend around here, folks, and I am excited!! Here's the game plan.

Thursday begins the World's Longest Yard Sale, also known as the Highway 127 Sale. Many years ago we lived on Signal Mountain, Tennessee and later down in Chattanooga. We used to follow the sale along the mountain and enjoyed every moment of it....when the slow drivers weren't frustrating us (sorry, had to be honest there). Once again we live in the fairly near vicinity of this and will catch the end from Gadsden, Alabama maybe up to Dunlap, Tennessee (Maybe...hopefully...are you home, Jennie??). We have a few things we are looking for but we are mostly looking forward to enjoying the fun of it.

Friday is library day, always a big time in our home! Yes, the library is in Jefferson County, Alabama (have you been reading about them in the news recently?). No, to date they have not messed up the library system with their nonsense.

Saturday. Ah, Saturday! I am so excited about Saturday that I giggle every time I think about it. A local high school band in the 'Ham is having an innovative fund-raiser this Saturday. They are charging $5.00 admission per person. For the modest fee of $5.00, I get to go to the high school stadium and take part in (are you ready for this?) an attempt to have the world's biggest Diet Coke and Mentos fountain. Whoo-hoo!! I am so excited about this I would pay twice as much (gladly) to get to do this. Diet Coke and Mentos? World's biggest fountain? I'm in!! Possibly literally. And yes, I will be taking my camera and try to protect it while taking pictures. Do you think a large zip-lock would let me take decent pictures while protecting my treasured camera?

And then of course, there is Sunday. I really like my church and getting to go to Small Group and worship there on Sundays is huger than Diet Coke and Mentos. Wow!!

Garden Update Part I

So the clothesline picture was not the greatest shot in the world of the clothesline (it was hot and I was lazy...and a little worried about finding another yellow jacket!). So I thought I would tell you why there is a mountain in the driveway. My brother, Remarkable Robert, is a tree surgeon. He denies that and says he is really a tree mortician. Either way, he works with trees. He cuts down the dead ones, he trims off damaged branches, he gets them off houses and roads and cars when they fall down, etc. He has a very busy business. Every few days he winds up with a dump truck load of wood chips. Marvelous Mark suddenly had a thought one day and asked Remarkable if he could have a dump truck load of these chips. A chance to get rid of a load? Sure!!


So one day the truck made the climb up the street and voila! a load of wood chips in the driveway. This shot shows a diminished mountain, because the guys have been busy and taken care of about half of it already. Marvelous got busy (so did Dashing Dan) and started spreading them around the garden for mulch. Since our soil is not the best, this has been terrific. Instant compost!


Then Marvelous started thinking about how much he does not enjoy mowing and edging and weed-eating in the hot Alabama sun. Then he started thinking about how the grass is not doing too great in parts of our clay-y front yard and how much it was going to cost if we had to get a load of top-soil and grass seed or (worse yet) sod. So he and Dan started spreading the compost along the front sidewalk


and the grass-less parts of the front yard.


The master plan is that we will eventually have flower beds where there is now mulch (although I am really hoping for a vineyard) and that the mower will be used for a small bit of grass in the front and under the clothesline in the back. Hurrah for wood chips! Yippee for Remarkable Robert!! Scuppernongs, here we come!

Boo, Yellow Jackets!!

OK, if you are a Georgia Tech fan, don't get too upset about that title there. I like Georgia Tech. Not as much as I love my Vols, but I like Tech. Marvelous Mark's Dad went there briefly and was a huge fan the rest of his life. I'm not a big UGA fan, so I like Tech. But I do NOT like yellow jackets!!
If you had been riding up my street this morning around 10 am you would have been startled to see me scampering across the sidewalk to the front door with my hand on my rear. I got stung! Stupid yellow jackets! Marvelous Mark planted beans real close to my clothes line and at that time we did not know that the nasty little critters really like green bean flowers. They become very possessive of those flowers and don't want anyone getting near them. So if you get a little too close while hanging clothes on the line, they get pretty territorial. Stupid bugs! Fortunately it was only one. Fortunately the stinger did not get left in. Fortunately my Mama taught me to always wear a slip (one more layer of protection!). Fortunately I am not allergic to the little nuisances. But I do NOT like yellow jackets. Boo!!

Anniversary

Here is a neat picture that I thought you might enjoy tonight (or this morning). This is the gift Marvelous Mark and I gave each other for our recent twenty-second anniversary. Wow! Y'all come and sit a spell.

Thanks for your prayers for Layla Grace and please continue to hold her up in your prayers.

Please pray for Layla Grace. Layla is not quite two years old and was diagnosed this spring with an aggressive form of neuroblastoma. Her progress so far has been a miraculous result of lots and lots of prayers. However, this weekend has been a very difficult weekend for her parents. She is back in the hospital and having some problems. Her web-page is here and she can also be followed on Facebook (there is a link to her Facebook page from her web-page). The most critically important thing that we can do for Layla and her family is to pray, and then pray, and then pray some more!

The Great Pumpkin

If you ever call me on my cell phone and I don't answer, send the rescue crews to my house. The pumpkins will have gotten us! These things are monstrous and are growing at a truly alarming rate. This one reminds me a little bit of a dragon. Those long white things on the right are going to turn in to roots. These babies put roots down at each leaf and just keep moving along. Marvelous Mark has a way with plants and he has grown some state-fair-quality pumpkins in the past. These are Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkins. They are more aggressive than kudzu. Now you understand my fear. He planted this one within 20 feet of the front porch. I am worried! There is one itty-bitty pumpkin on it at this point; I'll post pictures as it grows.

Marvelous!

Marvelous Mark strikes again! This wonderful man really can fix anything. My "new" sewing machine (it's only 21 years old) broke several weeks ago as I was finishing up a new dress. I asked Mark if he could cannibalize some parts from my Grandma's old cabinet machine that I had inherited several years ago and never used. This poor machine has been sitting unused for at least 15 years and quite possibly longer than that. It has been moved from Georgia to Vermont to North Carolina to South Carolina (lived at least 2 different places there) with Grandma (and it may have been in Switzerland before that, I'm not sure when Grandma got it); to Georgia where it was stored in a damp, leaky barn, then in a hot and dusty garage; off to Alabama where it was stored in an exterior storage room and then to our basement in our new home. Poor machine! We went down to the basement to look at it and on a whim, I plugged it in and to my great delight and surprise it worked!! Mark looked it over and strongly suggested that I go to using it more since the parts are all metal (the newer model has plastic gears) and should last for many more years. After we got some parts from Mom, I was able to finish my dress. Then it broke. Mark looked it over, cleaned it, oiled it and...it still did not work. We were disappointed because repairing a machine can get pretty pricey. Two days later, Mark went in and the machine works. It's either Divine intervention or the oil finally soaked in, but I'm giving thanks and praise to God either way! So this week I will enjoy the steady rain we are hoping to get while I "Sew! Sew like the wind!" and finish up
1. A gift for a sister
2. A skirt
3. A dress
4. A couple more slips (I do NOT like nylon slips in the summer!)
5. Some bishop gowns to then be pleated and smocked.
Think that's enough to keep me busy?!

Night Time Homestead TV

I can not believe what just happened; Marvelous Mark, Dan and myself just got a glimpse of the space station passing over our home! What a fun and exciting edition of Homestead TV tonight. I'm a little surprised at myself being so excited about it, but it was really neat to see it racing so brightly across the sky. Here is a link to night-time viewing that you might find interesting. They have a map that lets you find the coordinates to your home and shows you on a star map adjusted to your home where to look for different things. Great fun! Another resource (if you are interested in night-time sky viewing) is a book by H. A. Rey. Yup, the man who wrote Curious George also did a terrific astronomy book titled, "The Stars: A New Way To See Them".
Anyway, that is our excitement for a Monday evening.

Mark and I went to the library today to pick up some books we had on hold. As a side note, isn't putting things on hold at the library the neatest thing EVER?! We can browse the catalog and find a book. A great deal of the time it happens to be at one of over a score of other libraries in our library system. So we just say to the library computer, "Excuse me, but would you please get that book for me and send it to the library of my choice?" And the computer says, "Why certainly! This book happens to be in Avondale (or Bessemer or Irondale or any one of a number of other places that we don't plan to visit in the near future). Shall I send it to Hoover for you, since that is the library you visit most often, or is there another location that would be more convenient to you?" Once those pleasantries are taken care of, the computer magically makes the book go to the library of our choice and then lets us know when it arrives! Not only that, it is so sweet and patient it gives us 4 days to pick up the book (unless we ask it for a little longer, please) and THEN lets us keep the it for 28 days and THEN asks us on day 24 if we are coming back to town or if we would like to renew it for another 2 weeks. Wow. Are we spoiled, or what?! I hope you have a nice library like we do!

Anyway, on to the topic I really meant to write about tonight. We found a book (it was on hold for us) titled, "Made From Scratch" by Jenna Woginrich. It's a nice book; very engaging and readable. It is the story of the author's foray into country living. She had a friend who helped her get started in this adventure and would often invite her over to her home to visit. Her friend had something she called Farm TV where they would sit on the porch and just watch all that would happen with the different animals. Sometimes her friend would get up to go do something in the house and say, "Summer re-runs; I caught this show the first time".
Mark and I have been enjoying our own version of homestead TV. Our porch has two new adirondack rocking chairs, thanks to our recent anniversary. We enjoy sitting on them in the cool of the evening and telling the hummingbirds good-night and welcoming the cicadas. Tonight we had a guest appearance. He passed by briefly last night (I thought I heard the announcer saying, "Tomorrow, on Homestead TV, a special guest appearance by...."). I managed to catch a picture even though it was starting to get late. I did find that he does not like the green flash that appears just before the camera flash goes off!


I suppose I ought to ask you to send in suggestions for a name. He (she?) does have one friend we have seen and possibly others (two is enough for me for right now!). So send a suggestion if you have one and if you are blessed to have a porch and a chair, let me know how your Homestead TV is going.

What's an Auntie to do?

What am I supposed to do? I went to the zoo and the babies were so cute, the big kids were so cute, the animals and the flowers made for some amazing shots....one hundred and twenty-two of them, to be exact! Even after culling the ones that were blurry or just not good, I still have over one hundred pictures. How in the world am I supposed to show one hundred pictures to you? Because of course, they all deserve to be seen. After all, these are the two cutest pre-schoolers around! I'll pick my top faves of each subject, but I wish you were here to look at the album on my computer with me.

Moses the Tractor Man


Makenna, aka, "Goldilocks". The last trip most of my pictures were of her little sister Miriam and the time before that most of the pics were of Moses, so this time was Makenna's turn and boy, do I ever have a bunch of cute ones of her!



The Aunts getting a little goofy after a long day in the sun. Or else Anne is tired of Auntie 'Ginia snapping her picture!


This time we saw the butterfly house, an exhibit that we usually bypass on our way to ride the train.


I'm sure that there have been times in my life when I have seen lily-pads in blossom, but I sure don't remember them. I don't know which I like better, the color of the flower or the pretty shadows they cast.


So those are my favorites. Today. Who knows what I will think tomorrow?! Next time you are in the vicinity of the Birmingham Zoo, I highly recommend that you stop and take a few moments to enjoy it.

Zoo Day!

I'm always ready for a trip to the zoo, especially when it includes time with Moses and Makenna. When my sister Liz called last night with the suggestion that we meet there today I was thrilled! Moses and Makenna's parents and baby sister are out of town this week, which means that Nana Liz is spending time with them before she has to leave them for a long while to go overseas. I can hardly wait to help Moses and Makenna show Nana all about the Birmingham Zoo. Pictures tonight or tomorrow!

First, a report. The Pell City Farmer's Market is rather small. If you are looking for big and showy and artsy-craftsy, you probably want to skip it and just head to Pepper Place in downtown Birmingham on Saturday mornings (and you need to get there before 8:30 because it gets really crazy by 9:00). In Pell City there is a local honey vendor, which is nice. I have tried to get local honey for a while to help my guys' allergy problems. Unfortunately, it has to be very local to help allergy problems and too often what is advertised as local means "within 350 miles". The county extension agent also has a booth at Pell City with lots of printed material available. I was amused; it was a little windy today so they had ziplock bags with dried beans as paper weights. It seemed like just the thing a county agent ought to do.
I had intended to take some pictures to show you. Unfortunately my camera died this morning. No big problem, it just needs new batteries, but I did not manage to get those before going to the market. Oh well, maybe next time!
Today I may well put the happy hat on and do the dance of joy. The stove-man cometh this morning; Banana Bread, here I come!

Last night I almost put on my happy hat and did the dance of joy. After several weeks of stove-only cooking because the oven was broken, the new oven arrived! Hurrah for Melvin, the remarkable realtor, who managed to get us a home warranty at the last minute on closing day! Without that I would be camp cooking for many more weeks. Anyway, the lovely new gas stove was delivered by Patrick and Michael last evening (I told them they are now two of my favorite people). They are the reason I did not put on the happy hat and do the dance of joy; Mark was afraid that this would make them jump back in their truck and peel out of the driveway as fast as they could go (I don't know why; Mark's reaction to the hat and the dance is not that bad). So today the installer will come and hook it up (I hope) and hopefully I can treat the guys to meatloaf for supper tonight and banana bread tomorrow.
We found out Sunday that Pell City has Farmer's Market on Wednesday afternoons, so we are going to head that way this afternoon (unless the stove person calls) and check it out.

Mark and I are small-church people. We have really enjoyed the times we have been part of a small community church. Once upon a time, Mark's criteria was that we lived close enough to the church that we could walk to it. Life is different in the big-city! The church where we have found ourselves at this time is anything but small, being in excess of 4,000 members! We are confident, however, that this is where God wants us at this time. We realized at one point that when we get to heaven we are going to be in a congregation much larger than this. Managing a church this size, even when you have a large sanctuary, is a challenge for the church leadership. Our church has had to go to multiple services (like many other churches). Mark and I choose to attend the evening service because it allows our son (who is a member of another church) to attend with us. The evening service is smaller, too, and the pastor feels a little less constrained to finish on time. Understand that smaller means just a few hundred folks, but when you are in a very large sanctuary, that feels like a lot less. That makes Sunday mornings a little interesting for us. We are not used to being at home on Sunday mornings. Sometimes we go visit other churches in our area, sometimes we listen to sermons on the internet, sometimes we just sit around. Sometimes when Mark starts talking about how it feels funny to not be at church on Sunday morning I start singing "Tradition!" from Fiddler On the Roof. It is important to not get so bound by tradition that we are doing something just because we think we are "supposed to". At the same time, my heart is not perfect and 100% in tune with the Spirit 100% of the time. There are times when I do things (like attend church and/or Bible study) for all the wrong reasons and God is still able to work in me and change my motivation so that He is honored by my presence.
But it still feels peculiar to attend church on Sunday night and not Sunday morning!