A Hint of Good Things to Come...

An Inkling
This week’s offering is an attached You Tube video that we used to introduce our soon-to-be Associate Pastor, Sarah Marsh, to everyone at Sunday’s congregational meeting. The Search Team shared their enthusiasm for Sarah, but the congregation also got a feel for Sarah through having her speak for herself.
We thank God for his guidance through this search! If it’s like most things with God, he’s given us a hint of the good things he has in store – but only a hint.
Heeeere’s Sarah…
Keith

The God of Heaven and Mirth

An Inkling

Last weekend Sarah and I took in “Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage,” a marriage conference led by Mark Gungor.  It’s aptly named.  I’m one of those who cries when I laugh hard, and by the time we left I needed to wring out my handkerchief.

Mark has a marvelous comic gift, and of course marriage has no shortage of funny subjects, nor of hard truths that need to be spoken.  So Mark uses humor like Mary Poppins’ “spoon full of sugar that helps the medicine go down.” 

But I think it’s more than that.  There’s something about truth itself that sounds of mirth.  That’s because the One who gives truth – indeed, who is the truth – is also mirth-full.  And we are made in his mirthful image!

Sadly, along with every other facet of God’s image in us, our mirth has been distorted by sin.  And so the heavenly laughter of delight gets twisted into a demeaning laughter of scorn.  Witness much of the humor in our culture, which derides and puts others down, pulling us all down in the process.  The humor of hell will be such a downer – forever.  But God’s kind of humor, even if the occasion is our own foibles and foolishness, lifts us up. 

Which reminds me again of Mary Poppins.  Do you remember Uncle Albert’s song, “I Love to Laugh”?  (Here’s the link -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx7lz5X2vKk )  The more they laugh, the higher they float, which only increases the laughter.  Such will be the mirth of heaven, as we are all lifted up in the Lord’s joy.

Thanks be to God, that in Jesus Christ he redeems even our mirth!

Ha, ha, ha-lelujah!

Keith

Marriage Matters

An Inkling

Marriage was much on the mind last week as our extended family vacationed together at the lake.  One evening we celebrated three August anniversaries with a cake.  Numerous conversations anticipated Dorothy and Brandon’s October wedding, as I helped plan their service, and Sarah helped plan reception details, etc.  Then over the weekend my cousin, Tracey, remarried.  Rob is a gift to her in this season of life, and I know she is a gift to him.  So in a single week our family saw marriage anticipated, commenced anew, and celebrated.

We also saw marriage debated every time we turned on the news.  Our culture is entangled in a complex debate about the nature of marriage, using only the language of constitutional guarantees and individual rights.  Good luck with that! 

Marriage, as a gift of God, cannot be understood with legal paradigms alone.  We Christians have the challenge of adding our scripturally informed perspective to the cultural conversation – no simple undertaking in a nation that favors no one faith.

If we’re to gain a hearing, we must speak the truth in love.  It’s the love that wins a hearing for the truth.  We must also speak with humility.  It’s not as if we Christians either fully understand or perfectly practice marriage ourselves.  Witness the many broken marriages in the church.  And we must speak with grace, the very grace which gives promise to our marriages.

Might God use us to re-establish a biblically based understanding of marriage in our land?  I hope and pray so.  And in the meantime we can seek to live such marriages in our homes – to his glory and our joy.

Here’s to my bride!

Keith

Sanity on Display

An Inkling

Sanity landed in the church house this week.  It’s down the hall from my office.  Actually, it doesn’t look like sanity – it’s noisy, chaotic, and fun.  It’s Vacation Bible School.

In contrast my office looks sane.  It’s certainly purposive.  The books are organized by category, with indexing that helps with sermons.  I have a calendar, a to do list, and a computer connected to a world of information.  In the quiet of my office, I can crank out the work.  Not so down the hall – at least not the office kind of work.

Jesus said, “Unless you come as a child, you’ll never enter the Kingdom.”  He spoke that word to adults who were purposive, who accomplished things.  Organizing life to accomplish worthy goals is a good thing.  But apparently, when it comes to entering the Kingdom, it’s not the key. 

Not everyone down the hall is a child.  There are a good many adults and teens serving in various roles.  For some tasks at church, it’s hard to get enough volunteers.  Not so VBS – plenty show up to help.  And these are people with organized lives, who accomplish things in their own realms.

What’s the draw?  I think it’s the different kind of sanity, on display as our children encounter Jesus.  Their simple responsiveness to his love and life displays the sanity of the Kingdom in ways that our ordered lives cannot.  It’s refreshing.  It breathes life back into the ordered patterns of adult living.  And it cannot be manufactured, no matter how well organized and purposive one is.  Kingdom life comes only as a gift.

Thanks, kids!

Keith

The Real Business, a la Robert's Rules

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“Madam Moderator, I move Jesus.  And if I get a second, I’d like to speak to it.”

“Second!”

“You've heard the motion.  Now it is time for debate.  The maker of the motion has the privilege of speaking first.”

“Madam Moderator, members of the assembly:  it is my deepest hope that you will adopt this motion.  Heaven knows we’ve got problems:  sin and sickness, poverty and hunger, war and death.  Each generation has fancied itself the one to solve these problems.  Politicians, kings, and scientists have led some amazing efforts, and at times the prospects have looked promising.  But even our best efforts of have proven to be transient in effect.  We cannot save ourselves.  Thus we need one who can break the power of sin and death, and who can usher in a new era of peace and wholeness.  There is but one who can do it:  Jesus.  Thus I urge you, for your own sake, and for the sake of the whole world, to vote for this motion.”

“Are there others who would like to speak to this motion?”

“Madam Moderator, I would like to offer a substitute motion.”

“Madam, substitute motions are usually in order, but in this case it is out of order because there is no adequate sub­stitute for the original motion.”

“Madam Moderator, I would like to offer an amendment to the motion.”

“Sir, amendments are usually in order, but in this case it is out of order because no amendment can improve upon the original motion.”

“Madam Moderator, I move that we table the motion until a more advantageous time to decide.”

“Sir, a motion to table is usually in order, but in this case it is out of order because you have no guarantee that you will have another opportunity to decide.  Members of the assembly:  are you ready to vote?  All in favor of Jesus say ‘Aye!’”

Cast your vote now,

Keith

Perspective Via Prayer Request

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God is never without the means to lend perspective. 

I was sitting here pondering on our larger church, and thinking about how to follow up on my last post, when into my in box popped a prayer request from a missionary doctor friend who lives in a Muslim nation.  He faithfully sends these prayers each week, requesting that we join him in prayer.  Typically they arrive Tuesday morning, and each time they provide an opportunity for me to recalculate just how “huge” my worry du jour really is.

Here’s this week’s prayer request, with place identifiers removed:

God of mercy, who forgets not the poor and oppressed, we pray for Nupur, a 14-year-old tenth-grader who lives with her family of six in a one-room slum dwelling on the _____ side of _____.  She dreams of attending college.  Her father, an unemployed drug addict, beats her mother to demand the $2 a day she earns unloading sand from boats on the _____ River.  Lord, with your mighty hand break the bonds of poverty and oppression that grip Nupur's family, ease the pain she has felt watching her mother be beaten, and help her realize her dream of higher education.  We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught us that in faith all things are possible.  Amen.

Hmmm.  And I was worrying about what will become of our denomination as an institution…  Thanks be to God for his regular reminders about what matters.

Which is not to say that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) doesn’t matter.  For one thing, that’s the part of God’s larger church that supports my friend in his service.  If the church unravels, lots of important missions will get rocked.

But the basic issues in contention, sexual ethics and the uniqueness of salvation in Jesus Christ, matter for another reason too:  they impact the well-being and witness of Christians in such lands.  Many Muslims never give the gospel a chance because they associate it with the sexual chaos of western societies, which they see as Christian lands.  We would protest that our faith can’t be judged by our nation, but that is their perception.  And they are very clear that if the Koran is right about the divine, then we are not.  Historic and global Christianity would rightly want to add, “and vice versa.”  So for the gospel even to get a hearing, and then for us to have some clarity in that conversation, these basic issues matter – a lot.

But here’s what matters most:  these ongoing contentions not only threaten the institutional viability of our denomination, they threaten the possibility that we might have the privilege of bringing the best of all good news to Nupur.  So I continue to pray for our sick ol’ mother church.

And I do so with gratitude to God for the perspective he provides on what is most important – Nupur, and millions like her.

Pray for Nupur,

Keith

Essentials, Non-essentials, and Charity Amiss

An Inkling

I’m still processing our church’s General Assembly last week.  I wrote twice from the midst of the Assembly, and now I write in reflection.  Distance is beginning to lend perspective.

It’s a well-known maxim:  In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.  I’ve seen it attributed both to St. Augustine and John Wesley.  Whoever coined it, many have found it a wise word for how to make life work in the church.

I wish it were true of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  At points in our history it has been.  But for now here is what we’re trying to make work:  In essentials, liberty; in non-essentials, unity; and in all things (except church property), charity.

Let’s start with non-essentials.  General Assembly wasn’t all business.  There were also plenty of occasions to talk shop with other pastors and elders.  We have so much in common in education and ethos.  We face many of the same organizational challenges in our congregations and presbyteries, and we try many of the same innovations.  I had several instructive and satisfying conversations about such non-essentials with people who are opponents on our most contended issues.  Camaraderie came easily on non-essentials.  It almost felt like unity.

Then there are the essentials.  We are clearly on divergent paths.  I say “clearly,” but not all would agree.  Some say there is room for liberty here, and that we can disagree and still walk together.  The matters about which we primarily contend are sexual ethics and the uniqueness of salvation in Christ.  (There is much more to say about each of these, but that will have to await additional blogs.)

Here’s the short of it:  those who want to revise the historic Christian sexual ethic say agreement is not essential.  And those who would recast salvation in Christ as being one of several salvation paths believe that even divergent paths are ultimately the same path.  Those who hold to the historic beliefs in these areas say that they are essential, along with about 99% of the global church.  I agree.  And to indulge ourselves in the fantasy that we can continue as a denomination with liberty on matters so close to the center of our faith and practice is denial on steroids.

Then there’s the matter of charity.  We’ve congratulated ourselves at length about how polite we were to each other at General Assembly, and for the most part we were.  That is to the good.  Where we seem not to be doing so well is in the presbyteries where some congregations have decided they must leave.  What is it about “who gets the property” that tilts otherwise charitable Christians toward mean-spirited actions?  Whoever gets the property, both sides lose in these cases, and the Lord is dishonored.

When the church has unity in essentials, she can handle an amazing amount of liberty in non-essentials, and charity comes as a bonus.  But right now the PCUSA is trying to live outside that pattern.  It won’t work.  It can’t work.

What will happen?  Either God will move to restore our unity in essentials, or there will be some sort of split.  I pray for the former and dread the latter.  Without a miracle, I believe the latter is inevitable.  God has done miracles in the life of his church before.  Maybe he will again.  We’ll see.

It’s a good thing Jesus saves – even the church.

Lord have mercy,

Keith

Bring on the Coal

An Inkling

Woe is me.  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

So prayed Isaiah when he found himself in the very presence of Almighty God (Is. 6:5).  It was and is a good prayer for a person like me who lives in the midst of a people like us.

I did today what I have done most years when I’ve been at General Assembly on Sunday – I skipped the official General Assembly worship service and found another.

Back in 1990, when I started going to Assemblies, I attended these services.  Their size is always impressive, for most of the Presbyterian congregations in the area join in the service.  You can also be sure that the service and its music will be planned with great care.  But after four or five years of this, and realizing that I left the service depressed each time, I decided for the sake of my own weak spirit that I had better find an alternative. 

Most often I have found a local congregation where I knew the worship would be distinct from the Assembly worship, i.e., one where I knew that the preaching would not likely denature the gospel, where the liturgy would not be more concerned with the odd standards for non-sexist language* than it was with honoring God, and where we would not spend the whole service congratulating ourselves on how diverse we are.**

Usually I’ve found a local congregation of Presbyterian flavor that was having its own service.  Once I attended an Orthodox Church across the street from the convention center.  This time I could find no ready local church option, so I went to a gathering of about forty friends in a hotel meeting room, all of whom had decided for reasons similar to my own, that they would do better to have their own service.

It was both wonderful and sad.  It was a wonderfully unself-conscious time of worship.  Language was unguarded, natural, and affectionate toward God.  Prayers for each other and the larger church flowed from the heart.  The songs were mostly a capella, but they were heart-felt and God-honoring.

I didn’t leave depressed, as I often have from the Assembly services.  Nonetheless, there was a sadness too, as I realized that I was in a part of the body of Christ that felt the need to worship separately from the larger part of that body.  We thereby gave expression in our worship to the very sort of divisions that mark us as a church these days.  Lord have mercy.

Or better yet, Woe is me.  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.  Lord, bring on the coal (Is. 6:6-7).

And start with me,

Keith

* For those unacquainted with these “standards,” they are such things as: 

• It’s better to jump through all sorts of grammar hoops, thereby rendering the liturgy into clownish English, than it is to use the common biblical pronoun for God, “he.”
• It’s okay to make rare use of the name by which Jesus frequently addressed God, “Father,” so long as it is “balanced” with a parallel reference to “Mother.”
• But it is better to avoid “Father” altogether lest someone think that the one who wrote the prayer is ignorant of the “standards.”
• Etc.  (Lots of etc’s.)

** This one is even harder to explain than the “standards.”  God’s Kingdom is diverse, and the less diverse a church, the paler it’s representation of the Kingdom.  But when the church in worship is more focused on its own diversity than it is on the One whose gracious presence can gather an amazing diversity, which is what I’ve found in most Assembly worship services, then worship devolves into mere corporate religious narcissism – not a pretty sight. 

A Sign for Presbyterians?

An Inkling

Will God give a sign?

He did the last time.  When the Lutherans had their Assembly here in Minneapolis last August, they had debates similar to some we’ll have this week, around this question:

Does God want the church to revise her understanding of homosexual practice from being one of the many sexual practices that God would redeem, into being one that God would have the church affirm?  (Note – Among the sexual practices God would redeem, the vast majority are heterosexual, but homosexual practice is at the center of debates because advocates for revision have specified it and not adultery, fornication, etc.)  That question underlies the specific debates about who is to be married to whom, who qualifies for ordination, etc.

The Lutheran debates were scheduled for August 19, at 2:00 p.m.  On a day when no severe weather was expected, a funnel cloud moved across downtown Minneapolis, damaged the roof of the Convention Center, and broke the cross off the steeple of Central Lutheran Church, across the street (see the picture).  Then the tornado lifted.  The time?  2:00 p.m.  (Google “Lutherans and tornado” for multiple news accounts from that day.)

A coincidence?  Hmmm.  In this case I think it takes less faith to affirm God’s providential work than it does to affirm a random event.  But apparently the Lutherans thought it was random.  They voted to celebrate what God would redeem, distancing themselves from the global and historic church, and confusing the gospel word that brings hope to both homosexuals and heterosexuals whose sexual practices hinder God’s blessings in their lives.  

The cross atop Central Lutheran Church has been restored.  I can see it right outside my hotel window.  But the sign God sent to the Lutherans is still playing out, and it will until something more than the steeple cross is repaired.  

"Lord have mercy – on them and on us!  And if you see fit, a sign would be fine!"  

I’ve got one eye on the weather….   And thanks for your prayers,

Keith

The One Who Spins the Planets

An Inkling

We hear a lot these days about the polarization that has hobbled the political process in Washington.  Sad to say, the same is true of the larger Church of which St. Giles is a part:  the Presbyterian Church (USA).  I’m heading to Minneapolis in a couple of days to participate in its biennial General Assembly, our highest governing body, and I expect to see that polarization play out in spades.

The Presbyterian Church has always been diverse, and that’s a good thing – God’s gift.  But, to borrow an astronomical picture, the diversity the scripture describes as God’s gift to the Church presumes a center with the gravitas to hold that diversity together, like the sun’s gravity holds its diverse planets in orbit.  And our larger Church is losing its center.

A generation ago, when the Presbyterian Church (USA) had a more unified understanding of Jesus Christ, scriptural authority, and what our mission is, we had a “center” with the gravitas to hold us together.  But now, with the center itself debated, the “planets” of our diversity are wobbling in their orbits, and it looks to me like they will indeed fly apart at some point.

It’s a bit hard to see a “solar system” clearly when you’re in an orbit yourself, so I offer my take on the state of our orbits with that caveat.  But there is One who does see clearly, and as surely as his hand set the stars in their courses, so he is guiding the course of the Presbyterian Church – both through us and in spite of us!  The polarization in our Church will be easy to see this week.  One of my prayers is that we’ll also glimpse the Lord’s guiding hand.  May he make himself and his will plain!

If you want to keep up with the news details of the Assembly, you might check out these sites:

Pfrenewal.org

Presbycoalition.org

Pres-outlook.org

Pcusa.org

I’ll leave the news reporting to them.  But I will write a few blogs with an eye out for the hand of God at work in our midst!  Thanks be to God…

It’s all his,

Keith

Thoughts on a Long Day

An Inkling

When I was in sixth grade I did a social studies project on Stonehenge.  I researched Stonehenge’s history and construction, and wrote a report.  I painted a 3x3 piece of plywood green, and made little gray clay blocks, which I mounted on the board in a scaled down Stonehenge pattern.  As an eleven year old, I was fascinated that these ancients could figure the sun’s course and move gigantic stones (sans bulldozers!) scores of miles in order to celebrate, worship, calculate, ______  – you fill in the blank – we’re still not sure exactly what they were doing.  I was amazed to read that in the forty plus years since my report, not many of the Stonehenge knowledge gaps have been filled in.

A couple of days ago I was reminded of my youthful Stonehenge enthrallment with news of celebrants gathering at Stonehenge for the summer solstice – pagans, new-agers, and lots of curious people.  Happily for them they got a good clear sunrise, and sure enough, it rose right over the “Heel Stone,” the one the ancients set in place to mark the sun’s most northward course.  Cheers, horn blasts, and dancing greeted the sun.  Many expressed delight in reconnecting with their ancient Briton roots.  Stonehenge continues to fascinate.

And I’m fascinated at yet one more picture of how the human spirit yearns to find meaning.  G.K. Chesterton gave that yearning a wry description a century ago:  When a man stops believing in God, he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes in anything.  Rather than tut-tutting that people would believe anything, let’s major in clarifying why we believe God created the heavens and the earth.  Then we can let the contrast speak for itself:  a celebration of stones erected to recognize the course of the sun, or a celebration of the One who set the sun in its course.  Many of those whose yearning has led them to believe anything will recognize how lame anything is compared to the one living God.

It’s one facet of living and telling the good news.  We major in how that one God has redeemed us in Jesus Christ.  But let’s not leave out how the One who redeemed also created this amazing world.  May he be praised – especially at summer solstice!

All day long,

Keith

Herding Cats

An Inkling

For many it’s the favorite biblical image for our relationship with God: “the Lord is my shepherd.”  So reads Psalm 23, depicting in just a few lines some truly prized aspects of our relationship with God.  Jesus picked up the same image, and described himself as the good shepherd. 

In both Old and New Testament versions, if the Lord is the shepherd, then we are the sheep.  As you know, that’s not exactly high praise!  While sheep provide the essentials for cozy sweaters, they aren’t especially well known for their cerebral capacities.  But one thing you can say for sheep:  they do follow a good shepherd.

Not so cats.  Ever heard of something being “harder than herding cats?”  It’s not a biblical image, but it’s definitely picturesque.  Imagine a shepherd with a bunch of cats – trying to get them to lie down in green pastures or to lead them beside still waters.  Cats are so independent and contrary that they can hardly be led, much less herded.  The master must win the cat’s confidence in order to lure the fickle feline toward the desired end.

Would that we were as responsive to the Good Shepherd as are sheep!  But in fact we’re more like cats, constantly shooting off toward our latest headstrong whim.  Thus our Lord has a challenge.  He can use raw power to accomplish his purpose in our lives.  He has plenty of such power to use.  Yet his goal is not to beat us, but to win us.  And given our contrary nature, winning us is no small thing.

May it be that the Master’s love would so captivate our hearts that we would readily lay aside our cat-like obstinacy and follow his lead.  For he really does lead us to green pastures and still waters.  And we would do well to become more “sheepish!”

Baaaaa,

Keith

Church Houses

An Inkling

Last week Sarah and I spent the week in New York City to celebrate our 35^th Anniversary.  Go ahead and say it loudly: “she must be a saint!”  Indeed, she is.

The sights of New York are many, and particularly so for me, since this was all new to me.  I’ll not bore you with a travelogue, but I do have some reflections on the church houses we saw.

One of the most interesting was not a church house per se, but a Hunter College lecture hall, which serves as one of three sites for a very vital church, Redeemer Presbyterian.  The hall seats well over a thousand, and it was nearly full for a 6:00 p.m. service on Sunday.  Tim Keller, the Pastor, has a national following as a preacher and author, so many of those present were visitors, like we were.  This “church house” didn’t look like a church house – just a band on a stage, and a music stand for the preacher’s notes.  Yet the worship that evening was truly alive with the Lord’s presence – and it was filled mostly with young adults.  Wow!

We also saw St. Paul’s Chapel, across the street from the World Trade Center.  We didn’t see an actual worship service there, but were touched by the pictures of what happened there in the days after 9-11.  It survived the attack, and soon became the go-to place for relief workers needing solace and prayer.  Memorials, pictures, and banners recalled what God had done as people brought their sorrow and were met with his peace.  Thousands of lives were changed by those spontaneous services in the fall of 2001.

We also visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  The Catholics surely know how to build beautiful church houses!  The sanctuary had about 200 people or so at mid-day, a mix of people touring and praying.  I was most taken, however, by the sight that faced us as we headed out the door.  Directly across the street was the Rockefeller Center statue of Atlas holding up the heavens.  So from the doorway, one could look in one direction and see the titan of mythical strength, bearing the heavens, and look in the other direction toward the chancel and see the One who had made those heavens, on the cross, bearing the sins of the world.  The muscle bound Atlas definitely suffered by contrast.

Of course God is not confined to any church house.  But those places which house his worshiping people often point to facets of his goodness and glory in fresh ways – one of his many gifts.

Blessings,

Keith

Love Letters

An Inkling

It’s not often that any part of my preaching comes back by popular demand.  Once is usually more than enough!  But I’ve had a number of requests for a copy of my love letter to Sarah that I read a couple of weeks ago as an illustration.  So I’ve copied it below.

Apparently lots of people need help in the romance department – especially us guys.  So guys, feel free to use this as a model for your own love letters.  No credit need be given.  But I must warn you – the passions it stirs in your beloved may be more than you bargained for.

And if you need any further pointers on love letters or romance in general, give me a call.

With love,

Keith

**********************************

Dear Ms Hill: 

This correspondence is to notify you that I continue hold you in high regard.  Your virtues, when put in ratio to your vices, continue to rate positively.   Anecdotal evidence gathered from your peers and associates verifies that you are indeed worthy of continued fondness.  That conclusion is corroborated by my own experience.  Please count this as your official notification of affection for 2010. 

Copies of this correspondence have been placed in your file, and you now have the certified copy yourself, as demonstrated by the notary seal. 

Cordially yours,

Phillip Keith Hill

Leading the Way

An Inkling

The pay is low.  Those who imagine that it will be prestigious soon find out differently.  Complaints tend to be more prevalent than compliments.

Which is not to say that it is without rewards.  Those who are called to a task that seems beyond their abilities find great joy as they see God lift them to new levels.  And the fellowship they find in the common quest to respond to God’s calling is both deep and lasting.

About whom do I write?  Our St. Giles Elders.  They are your Elders, in that you chose them.  But in a prior sense they are God’s Elders, for he chose them through you.  We’ll be installing the Class of 2013 during worship this Sunday.

We believe that God guides our church.  If he wished, he could do so by writing in the sky.  But ordinarily he guides by writing in the hearts of those whom he has called to lead.  In the Presbyterian Church, that is the Elders.

Elders lead by envisioning.  Through prayer and discussion they seek God’s plan for our church.  Elders lead by loving.  Although that is the business of the whole congregation, Elders show the way.  Elders lead by growing.  There are no finished products among the Elders – if there were, their leadership would be irrelevant to the rest of us.  Rather, as they deal with their own wounds and failures, availing themselves of God’s grace, they demonstrate for us all the joy of becoming more like Jesus.

Many folks do tasks around the church house for which they receive very little appreciation.  Let’s do what we can to alleviate that situation.  And let’s start with the Elders. 

Thanks!

Keith