We had some wicked weather yesterday. We received several inches of rain, with a lot of lightning and thunder. We had, and still have, standing water in places I have never seen with standing water in my year and half here. It was both awesome and lousy, does that make sense? We still had a very good day of ministry in spite of the weather. Now to the musings …

-The weather yesterday reminded me that pastors may be the only group of people who desire mediocre weather. If it is too bad, like we had yesterday, people stay home. If it is too nice people go do something else. But if it is not too nice and not too bad then it seems more people attend. But then one way to overcome that is to just have great things happening in the church.

-We have great things happening in our community, not just in our church, but in other churches in the Canton area as well. In spite of the weather we experienced a great time of worship and fellowship.

-I had some awesome conversations with several people following our worship service yesterday. At least 3 of those conversations are leading to follow up times this week. The purpose of the follow ups is very encouraging. Many people are asking great questions and desiring to minister in some wonderful ways.

-We had a few sound glitches again yesterday. We are praying for, and planning on, making some major sound equipment upgrades this summer. The prayers are for the finances to purchase the equipment.

-Our small group got together just for fun last evening. The torrential rain curtailed some of the outdoor fun we were hoping to do, but the conversation around great food was outstanding. I had to grill in the garage because of the monsoon like weather. The garage really smells like smoke still this morning, but it was worth it.

-We had a work day around the church property on Saturday. While disappointed with the turnout, I was thrilled with the amount of things that were accomplished. Those people worked hard. I love working with like-minded people.

-The amount of major physical needs among people in our church and people we are connected to has been overwhelming recently. I added up the number of names on my prayer list yesterday and was stunned and even more determined to be faithful in prayer.

-I am very encouraged by the number of people who are taking the challenge to pray very seriously. Only great things can ultimately come when a group of people gets serious about praying for real needs and not just comfort items.

-I got busted yesterday calling someone by the wrong name. The guy just looked at me and said “Who?”. I repeated the name and he said that is not me. I said yes it is, then he told me his real name. I said did you hear me call you the wrong name twice this morning? He said yes and just smiled. I told him that he now has an alias and if he ever gets blamed for something he can just say it was the other guy and use the name I gave him. If you would like alias just let me know, I will be glad to help out.

-Our attendance was down from the past couple of weeks but was still well above where we were last year at this time. It really showed our growth, because everyone felt like we were way down, then they heard the number and realized that it is significantly above what it was just a few months ago. Good things are happening in so many areas.

Well I need to work on some stuff for our church board meeting that is tonight. Here’s to hoping you find some encouraging words coming your way this week and that you pass them along to others.

Dennis