On Our Way, Rejoicing

We spent the night last night in Hanover, PA, where our home office is located.  Even though we left at 5:30 a.m. from "home" in LaFayette, GA, we did not arrive until after the office was closed.  So we picked up the key to the guest house in its assigned place without being able to greet any of our much-loved colleagues in the ministry.  Unlike other times when we have stayed here, we were its only occupants.

Today we head to Southington, CT, where Charlie will be performing a wedding next week.  The early arrival allows us to do some premarital counseling with the couple and enabled them to schedule the rehearsal earlier in the week.

Through the long hours of driving, I was rejoicing at the many blessings God has brought my way.  Here are just a few of them.

• A husband who doesn't tire when driving even though he only got five hours of sleep the night before.
• Because he loves to drive, I was able to nap in the car.
• Getting to see the spring flowers again.  We have seen them come and go in Georgia, but now we're seeing the cherry and ash trees in bloom.
• The speed at which the miles pass by. 
• A car that gets good gas mileage, especially important as gas prices edge toward $4.00 a gallon again.
• A reliable car that actually gets us from point A to point B without breaking down.
• A comfortable car that enables me to sleep or ride comfortably.
• Passing through the beautiful valleys of the Shenandoah.  Virginia is such a beautiful state.
• Going back to Charlie's hometown.
• Getting to be part of this couple's beginning of their married life together.
• Getting to see friends along the way. We plan to stop twice on our way back to Georgia.  
• Money in our savings account that allows us to do this even though our support is still low and would not have covered this trip.

 I could go on, but the road is calling, so I need to stop.

A Different Easter

For our entire time in Maine, Charlie and I celebrated the week before Easter in essentially the same way.  On Wednesday we celebrated the last supper.  Charlie believes that Wednesday is not the "lost" day in the Easter calendar but rather the night that Jesus celebrated the passover with his disciples, and that he was crucified on Thursday.  Otherwise you do not have three days and three nights in the tomb.

This year we drove to a church we had previously visited once for their Wednesday night service.  It's a long way from 'home' but we were fairly close by to visit someone in the hospital.  We did not expect them to celebrate the Lord's supper that night since we know that Charlie's view is not shared by everyone, but we were looking forward to worshipping and praying with them.  We arrived shortly before the time when Awana was supposed to start.  There were only two other cars in the parking lot. 

"Well," I said to Charlie, "it's vacation week this week, so maybe they've cancelled the children's programs."

The front door was propped open.  We walked in, but no one appeared when we talked louder than usual.  The door to the pastor's study was open, but he wasn't there. We walked around the entire church.  No one was there. 

"We need to see if there's a bulletin around," Charlie suggested.

We found one in the choir loft.  Scribbled in the margin were the words, "No Wednesday evening service." 

I sat down at the piano to play for a minute while Charlie took out his cell phone.  In a minute or two he said, "I've found another church nearby.  Let's go."

Off we went to the next church, arriving there in time for their scheduled service.  The parking lot was completely empty.  Evidently, they had cancelled their Wednesday evening service as well.

We had just passed a sign for another church.  We thought we might be late, but since some churches are not always prompt, we decided to try that one.  We drove the short distance down the road to that church and found another empty parking lot.

As we started toward home, we drove past church after church that had evidently cancelled their Wednesday night service.  The sign out front indicated they had one, but not a single car was in the parking lot. 

On Thursday morning, Charlie attended a pastor's fellowship near 'home'.  Since we had missed being able to go to church on Wednesday night, I asked him to listen to see if any of the pastors mentioned that they were going to have a Thursday night service.  No one did.

On Sunday morning, for the first time in thirteen years, I watched the sunrise spill pink ribbons across the sky from the guest room at my sister's house.  Her church wasn't having a sunrise service.  While I enjoyed the warmth of the bed that morning, I missed the gathering of believers at sunrise on Easter morning, celebrating the amazing news that Jesus was risen from the dead.  My mind was full of special sunrise service memories.  In Manila at the American cemetery, the teenagers ran down the hillside, dodging the tombstones, shouting, "He's alive!"  In York, Maine, we stood shivering in our parkas while the scent of bacon cooking drifted from the kitchen of the Stageneck Inn.  We sang our praises over the soft background of waves rolling in over the stony beach, and a few people emerged from their rooms overlooking the lawn onto their balconies to listen, holding cups of steaming coffee in their hands.  Then there were the many sunrise services at our home church, immediately followed by a hearty breakfast in the fellowship hall.  As I lay in my bed on Easter morning, I gave thanks to God for all the people who were gathering to worship at sunrise that morning, giving thanks for the power Jesus has over the grave.

The morning service was a glorious celebration, accompanied by a full choir and orchestra.  I could almost imagine being in heaven as I was surrounded by such a crowd of worshippers.  But there were no hugs and greetings after the service because we were complete strangers.  There were no shouts of "Christ is risen" across the parking lot as someone shouted back, "He is risen indeed!"  Missing was the intimacy of Easter breakfast with friends.  Yet my heart was full of praise for the grand celebration of Jesus' resurrection.

Easter dinner is the one time of the year I really want to splurge on food.  My sister and I agreed that lamb would be a good choice, even though it took me four grocery stores to find it.  By the time we arrived home from church, the fragrance of the herbed lamb roast filled the condo.  By the time we sat down at the dining room table which was suitably laid with my sister's fine china, the lamb was accompanied by mint sauce, steamed fresh asparagus, lemony couscous salad, wild rice pilaf, and sparkling grape juice, with chocolate cake and coffee for dessert.  (I wish I had thought to take a picture.)

When I bit into the succelent lamb, I thought, "Poor lamb that gave its life blood for our dinner.  Wondrous lamb that gave it's life blood for our sins.  Reigning lamb that will receive us into glory!"

Different, yes, but definitely my favorite holiday of the year!

A Visitor's View of Church Websites

Most of the churches we attend are small churches.  Most of them do not have anyone who sits in the office.  If you call to leave a message, the message may not be received until much later. Even if the service times are on the answering machine, how do people get the phone number in the first place? The web, however, has often been the means we have used to find out about churches.  As the number of people who do not have a landline phone grows the web will become even more important as the first point of contact for a church. There are some things that churches should consider if they are going to maximize the benefit of their website.  As someone who is frequently visiting new churches, here are some things you may want to do.

Your most important reader is someone new to the area or an unchurched person looking for a church so your home/first page should include the following in a prominent location, large font, contrasting box.
   
     1. Service Times
     2. Physical Address - linked to a mapping program if possible.

Do not bury these in "About Us" or "Contact Us". The more a prospective visitor needs to work to find these two essential pieces of information the more likely they will be to pass by your church in their search.

This information will allow a prospective visitor to quickly determine when to visit and where the church is located, how long it takes to get there, etc.

It is also helpful to put "branding" information in a prominent place on an "About Us" page. Including your denominational affiliation, or independent status. Words like "Independent", "Fundamental", "Evangelical" will help prospective visitors who care about these things evaluate your church.

If you have a calendar page keep it up to date, and include location information for any off site events.

1. Don't leave up announcements for things that have already passed.
2. If your weekly schedule changes, change it on the calendar.  Don't encourage someone to come to a service that has been cancelled or moved.

If you have an e-mail contact on the web site make sure you monitor that e-mail and respond promptly to questions. Remember that prospective visitors may have left e-mails with several churches in the area. It can also be a good means to initiate a gospel presentation.

View your site with as many browsers as possible to ensure it works in all of them. Do not forget to consider smartphone users. Many new movers will not have a phonebook, a landline phone or internet service when they conduct their first church search. Many will turn to their smartphone first. Find out how your web site looks on iPhones, Androids and BlackBerrys.

Professional web designers like to put in lots of graphics, moving elements and even music. Remember these all take up bandwidth and slow down a web site, or make it functional on fewer platforms. The primary purpose of a church web site is not to entertain but to inform. If a picture, video or piece of music does not convey information about your church find an element to replace it that does inform the reader. 

When I was a pastor I would "Google" my church name and the terms a prospective visitor might use at least once a year. I wanted to know what was out there about my church, and whether a visitor looking for a church would find us easily. Put yourself in a visitor's shoes and see if you can easily find out how to get to one of your services, and what to expect when you get there. In Maine once a year was often enough, in a major metropolitan area more often may be needed.

My last comment is not about the web, but the church signage. Please put your service schedule on the sign. I know modern signage ordinances make that nearly impossible in some municipalities, but posting a professional looking sign on or next to the front door will at least get the information to those willing to drive up and look. I have not visited some churches because there is not enough information available on the sign or the web to determine when the services are. If I as a motivated church seeker can't find the information, the average unchurched person will be unlikely to darken the door of those churches.

--Charlie

Simple Questions With Not-so-simple Answers

It's funny how the simplest questions can be hard to answer. 

"Where do you live?"  Right now we are staying with my parents, but is that where we live?  It is, but it's temporary, and it's broken up by trips all over.  Because of our frequent travel, Charlie has sometimes used our license plate number as the answer for that.  While we don't actually live in our car, wherever you find our car, that's where we're staying.

The church we attended Sunday night.

"Where are you from?"  Here in Georgia, we know they are not asking where we live because they can tell by our accents that we are not from around here.  So the easy answer is, "We used to live in Maine."  But in Maine, you're not from Maine unless you've lived there all your life, so we can't claim to be from Maine.  So Charlie sometimes answers Connecticut and then they want to know about me.  As a missionary kid, I don't claim a place to be from, so that's complicated too.  

"Where do you usually attend church?" Often this question is asked when someone observes that we're visitors but they don't know yet that we're missionaries. In order to answer that question, we find we need to explain the work of deputation so they don't assume we're unwilling to settle into a church.

"What is your home church?"  Now that's an easy answer for us, but it is not always understood.  If they haven't asked us a question yet that tells them we lived in Maine last, they expect us to name a church in the immediate vicinity.  When we say, "West Hampden Baptist Church in Hampden, Maine," they often go on to ask, "Yes, but where do you normally attend church here?"  Then we have to explain that our job right now is to visit as many churches as we can, so we don't claim a single church in the area.

"How many children do you have?"  I'm grateful that I didn't have to answer this question every week when the tears of barrenness were close to the surface.  In this age of birth control, it's not enough to say, "We don't have any," but I usually feel a little more explanation is necessary so that it's understood that our lack of children was not our preference but God's design for us.  We love children even though we don't have any of our own.

"Where are you going to be missionaries?"  This is, perhaps, the most difficult question for us.  Most missionaries are identified by which country they serve.  In our case, we will be going to multiple places for short periods of time.  It's not an easy concept to get across.

"What mission are you with?"  Finally, an easy question with an easy answer, but because most people have not heard of our small mission agency, it's not that simple.  As soon as we mention IPM, we've hit a wall because they've never heard of us before.

"How long do you think it will be before you get to go to the field?"  This question usually comes toward the end.  We've already tried to explain our different methodology, so we generally assume that the question they are asking is "When will you finish deputation?"  It's hard to answer that question, especially since our support level is so low right now and part of our job description amounts to perpetual deputation.

There is one question we were recently asked that does have a simple answer. "Why are you doing this?" Because we believe with all our hearts God called us and will provide for us in this ministry.

Do you have a question for us?  Post it here and we'll answer it.