6:50am Wake up. Stayed up later after going to watch "Tammy" with my wife the night before. Last week increased our movie date nights by double for the year, since we usually only do that around our anniversary.
7:00am Help get the kids breakfast started.
7:10am Shower time. Shaved on Friday, so need this Sunday. Yipee
7:30am Iron clothes, get dressed etc. What? No shirts ripping? No spills? No struggle to find my stuff? This day is going well!
8:00 Grab a G2 and head out the door. Get to the church. Unlock the back door. Check the church parking situation with the motorcycle fiesta/travelling wall. Everything seems to look good. Walk in the church and see that Tracy has delivered on the sign for the Under Construction theme. I put the sign in front of the pulpit. Rock on!
8:10 Settle in. Pray. Review message. Plan children's message. Realize I am going to have to run home to pick up a plant.
8:40 Run home and pick up a plant.
8:45 Begin to observe who is coming to church. Each week I send out postcards to people I see that have been gone. This ministry seems to have shown fruit, as I see several folks coming in that I had sent cards to because they had been missed in worship.I hear people questioning the appearance of the sanctuary as they walk in. This is what I want. To grab people's attention and shake them up a little bit. Caution tape is hung on the pillars. Road Work Ahead Signs and under construction signs around the church. A big ROAD WORK AHEAD construction sign leaning on the pulpit. And now a flower. People start asking, what does a flower have to do with all of this? PERFECT.
9:00 Start out worship.
9:10 First hymn sounds ok, but not great. Such is the case when it is a new hymn with an old tune. I am picking mostly Psalms. Again, as we face the under construction theme, I want people to try some different things.
9:20 Prayer time is fairly brief. Thank God. Sometimes there are folks in our church that have prayer request tirets, spouting requests as nervous ticks from out of nowhere. It makes the service drag on
9:30 Get into the pulpit. I preach with a limited outline. I am excited about the UNDER CONSTRUCTION SERIES, and do well. People seem to connect with my preaching. I get good non verbal feedback. I am less precise, there are more filler words, but I am also less note bound.
9:52 I finish sermon and feel good. Now it is a race to see if we can get done in an hour
9:59 Closing hymn and benediction are all that is left. Then, from out of nowhere another prayer request is shared by someone with prayer terretts about praying for first responders during rally week. I handle that request while deftly moving us to the sending song. Well played on my part I thought
10:02 Service is finished. Two minutes long. People can live with that, although there are some rushing out the door during the final hymn.
10:15 Visit with people for a while
11:15 Drop in on the end of the missions meeting. Some folks seem a little grumpy. Wonder why,
11:30 Everyone leaves, I lock up.
11:45 I get home
12:12 I help with lunch. Then get distracted while Jen finishes up what I start.
1:00 Put kids to bed. I do powerpoint for evening
2:30 Powerpoint finished
2:45 Girls get up from naps
3:15 Run to store with family
3:30 Let kids play while I read and visit with Jen and watch kids. The way Sunday afternoons in the summer are supposed to be. Lots of laughs, a few cries, and a peaceful hour or so.
5:00 Go back to work to prep for the evening service
5:15 Get evening powerpoint on flash drive
5:35 Finish setting up worship space for evening.
5:45 Visit with folks. Remember to go get pens
6:00 Begin worship. I preach the same service as the morning
7:30 Worship ends
7:45 Talk with gentleman who is a leader in the recovery movement in our town that comes to our evening service. Good conversation about life, spiritual growth, and reaching out to folks in need of a clear direction in their life. He brought two friends. They are both excited to come back. My wife knows one of the visitors from working at Social Service. Conflicts of interest like this abound when your wife is a social worker in a town of 4000 people.
8:15 Get home from work
9:00 Put Karis to bed. About a 20 minute ritual.
9:30 Head out in a quest to find Jennifer a pizza. She saw and ad. Now she is hungry. Neither of us have had dinner yet.
10:00 Get home from running all over town. Pizza from Subway. Ice from Fresh Start. Drinks from Dakotamart Gas. Arghhh. Poor customer service all the way around.
10:15-MIDNIGHT Jennifer and I watch Catfish TV. I say that Cashfishers are either fat people who are ashamed of how they look or homosexuals. There is one of each in these two episodes. Called it!
MIDNIGHT-1 I can't sleep without alone time. I spend an hour doing nothing after Jen goes to bed. Then I go to bed as well.
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