I'm finding my affection for Wednesday growing by the week since it is the one day that I am guaranteed to have off. I get to sleep in a bit, see Amy for a few minutes before she goes to teach and then spend the day with Maia and Xander (after I pick him up from school). When Amy gets home, I go teach my one trumpet lesson for the week and then we cap the night off with dinner and Bible study at Mercy. The dinner and Bible study have given us a chance to get to know a few folks other than those that volunteer with us. The fact that we don't have to prepare a meal on Wednesdays is a bonus.
We're still getting acclimated to leadership at Mercy. Shel is finishing his final semester of seminary and we have yet to hit a rhythm in terms of our planning for services, so the hope is that we'll all be able to breathe a bit easier and settle into a groove after the first of the year. Amy and I will have the month of January to see how we can adjust our schedules before we start up at USF again in February in order to free up some time to actually do some planning with Shel. It's hard enough for me to find time to get together to plan with Amy sometimes.
It's definitely a different ballgame trying to lead a ministry while carrying a full time job outside the church. I miss having the luxury of being able to communicate with people throughout the day about service plans, songs, rehearsal schedules and other things and have found that it's been harder to get the pulse of the congregation because our communication is minimal. We're still uncertain of which songs the congregation knows and which ones they don't which plays a big role in congregational engagement in a service. We keep getting a little closer to feeling like we're on the same page, but it's certainly taking longer than we would have liked.
The plus of having a job outside the church and being in a ministry position is that I actually have relationships with people in the community that don't go to church. I am much more aware of representing Christ in an authentic way knowing that the guys that I work with are drawing conclusions about what Jesus is about based on the way that I behave, what I say and what my attitude is like in the shop. I think about it every day and continue to pray that God will give me peace and patience and help me to represent Him well.
The thing that I am most excited about with this whole arrangement is that Mercy is actually a place where I will invite the guys I work with to come to church. New Hope Family (where we were attending) is a good church, but I can't think of a single guy that I work with that would feel the least bit comfortable there. I think that some of the guys will at least visit Mercy and some may even find that it is a place that they would feel comfortable exploring issues of faith and God and would be free to ask any questions they may have.
I'm excited to see what's ahead.
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