Baby Steps

There is the old saying, "you gotta walk before you can run". That pretty much sums up where I am at this evening. Our church, St. John's Lutheran, has been transplanted to a new location in a brand new building over the course of the past two and a half years. We have a new neighborhood of people that we are here to serve. This neighborhood is full of young families with kids coming out of their ears, and it seems all sorts of other places too. In order to be relevant to folks of Generation X and Millennials we have to do some things in a more "contemporary manner". That effort took a big step forward this evening, with mixed results. We held our first contemporary worship service, and it turned out very well. Our musicians were great, the audio and video production was well done, and I believe that all that were in attendance came away refreshed and rejuvenated. I only wish that there were a few more of us. In our morning worship we had 115, which is about what we have been averaging over the past 5 weeks...discounting the 250+ we had on Easter. This evening we had 30. I have to look at it as a good first step, and if we continue to build it...they will come. Out of humble beginnings God can do great things. The next big step is going to have to be in the area of marketing.

Before I turn in I must say a few words about the weather. Up until the final days of her life, at the age of 91 years (at least I think that is how old she was), my grandmother would not go to bed at night without watching the weather forecast on the 10pm newscast. Even for the last 10 years of her life, when she almost never left the house, she had to know what the weather was going to do tomorrow. Perhaps you are the same, you just gotta know! So here we go...The news is good. After high temperatures only in the middle 50s Saturday and today we are headed for the upper 60s to near 70 degrees tomorrow, with mostly sunny skies. The warmer and sunny weather won't last long though as rain moves in by Tuesday morning, and temperatures take a tumble once again. Through the middle of the week highs will be back down into the 50s once again with mostly cloudy and breezy conditions and a few showers on Wednesday and Thursday. Take heart though, as it looks like the weather will improve again by the next weekend as sunnier days return and the temperatures will rise back into the 60s.