Here: It's October Awareness! Get used to it!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Somewhat new song
Bob Seger has a new album coming out. It's mostly a Greatest Hits Vol. 2.5. Most of the songs appear on either Greatest Hits 1 or 2. But it will have this which is a new recording of an old song by Tom Waits.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Matthew of the IHOP Restroom part X: Final Part
About ten that morning, Matthew and Mary went into Mass Street music with the extra strawberry syrup from IHOP. They were looking for some place that an inter-dimensional portal would open up but they couldn’t find it. Mary continued to look while Matthew got distracted by the guitar that he had had his eye on for some time. He picked it and started to play it. There wasn’t a real specific song he tried to play; it was just the one he had been writing. The guy who was working came over to ask what he was doing. But at the moment he hit the seventh bar to the song, the room started to swirl around him. “Okay, what did I do?” Matthew asked.
The guy who came over to investigate wasn’t sure what to make of it. He was going to tell Matthew to put the guitar down but he was awestruck. “It looks like you’ve just opened a portal to another world! I’m getting out of here!” he said and ran out.
“Wait a minute,” Mary said, “you really are the chosen one!”
“Yeah, I know, we’ve been through this already. I’m Matthew of the IHOP Restroom. You would remind me of that all the time…well, you used to anyway.”
“No, you don’t understand,” she said. “The legend of the 18th dimension tells us of a true chosen one who would bring peace between the Planet of Stroganoff and the Shipgoes. They say the chosen one would open a portal to our dimension with his bars.”
“I just played a song on the guitar. That’s all I did,” Matthew said. “It was the opening to some silly little song that I…” he paused. He thought for about two seconds and then said, “that I wrote myself…” All the time he was arguing with the fact that it was fate that brought him to the 18th dimension when all along, it was the opposite.
“And to think that I was given to and owned by the true chosen one,” Mary said. “Oh, if only I knew…” she paused and her thoughts drifted.
“You’re right, Mary Ann, I do own you, and we’ve got business in the 18th dimension, to take care of. And I’ve got some wrongs to right.”
“Oh, yes sir,” Mary said. They walked through the portal where they immediately found themselves back on Captain Bill’s ship about an hour after they had left for the third dimension. In that time, the Shipgoes who had attacked were beaten off and The ENVOY was heading back into port. “Uncle Bill!” Mary called.
Captain Bill turned around surprised to see the both of them back there. “What are you doing back? Iiiiiiiieeeeeee thought you went to find the holy grail.”
“We did,” Matthew said as he and Mary held up the syrup together.
“Oh miiiieeeee gosh, it does exist!” Captain Bill said. “Iiiiieeeee need to get you two to Klapertoes McAmsterdam.” There was no way to get them to Klaper by sea. So the ship remained an air ship as they sailed on the breeze to where Klaper was. As the ship was hovering over his exact location, Captain Bill called out “McAmsterdam!”
Matthew and Mary came down and handed Klaper the canister of Strawberry Syrup from IHOP and said that it was the Shipgoes’ holy grail. When Klaper asked how they got back to the 18th dimension, Mary told him how Matthew played a song that he wrote himself (making that part very clear) on a guitar that opened up the portal. Klaper got excited and told Matthew that he WAS in fact the true chosen one.
Klaper took the canister of syrup and contacted the Shipgoes who were peaceful and gave them the syrup. This fulfilled the prophesy that the chosen one would bring peace between the planet and the Shipgoes. Of course, the fundamentalist Shipgoes started battling with the peaceful Shipgoes because they didn’t see them as following in the “true” footsteps of Pinky. But that’s their own separate story to be told and I’m not quite through with Matthew’s story just yet.
In the land of Nude, there was a parade and a feast in Matthew’s honor. Klaper told him that he could come and go anytime he liked but that he would always be treated like a king. Matthew insisted that he had to go back home but he had one more thing that had to be taken care of. He had to go to the path of desire. So he, Mary, and Klaper went to the path of desire. He made the wish he had to make, but nothing happened.
“What happened?” he asked. “I made my wish but nothing happened.”
“Did you wish with your heart or with your head?” Mary asked. “If the wish you tried to make isn’t from the heart but from your head, you’ll need the Path of Necessity.”
With that, Matthew asked Klaper to take him to the Path of Necessity. When they got to the Path of Necessity, Matthew made his wish and it worked. But Mary started to feel funny. “What’s happening?” she asked.
“I told the path that I needed to free you and let you return to your life as a wind gnome. The Path of Desire wouldn’t let me but you said come here so I did.”
“Wait, you did that just for me?” Mary asked. She began to cry. Or rather she would but she was already back to her wind gnome state. And wind gnomes don’t cry. They’re just sad. And then, Mary floated away. Matthew didn’t know exactly why Mary was sad. Neither of them would have to put up with each other ever again. With that same idea in mind, he didn’t know why a part of him was sad as well.
Matthew eventually found his way to a portal that took him back to his own dimension where he went about with his everyday life. But the next day while he was waiting for class, the unthinkable happened. Katie Waller came up and talked to him.
“Hey Matthew,” she said, “can you help me figure out something?” she asked.
“Mary Ann!?!? What are you doing here?” Matthew exclaimed.
“Mary Ann? No, I’m Katie. Katie Waller. We have this lit course together. I wanted to know if you had some idea what the connection was the teacher wanted us to make between James Joyce and Edgar Allen Poe since you are in class every day.”
“Oh, sorry,” Matthew said. “No, I don’t think I know. I’m sorry.”
As she went in, he found himself thinking almost humorously that he now knew three things about her, she was hot, she had a class with him, and she didn’t know something that he didn’t know either. At least they had two things in common. A moment later, he was once again disturbed by…Katie? “Hello stranger,” said the girl.
“Katie,” Matthew said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know the…” he paused and looked up and realized that it wasn’t Katie at all.
“No, not Katie! It’s Mary Ann! You remember me, don’t you?”
“Uh yeah, of course I do,” Matthew said. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know,” Mary said, “the usual. I went to the Path of Desire, asked to be made human again and to be brought here to the 3rd dimension so I could see you again.”
“But,” Matthew said, “I thought you hated me.”
“I thought so too,” Mary said, “but then all of a sudden and before I knew it, I fell head over hills for you. And when you freed me with your mind because your heart couldn’t, I just knew that somewhere along the lines, you felt the same way.”
She paused when she saw Matthew give her a happy, kind of excited but also confused look. So she said, “My uncle gave me an album called MR. BAD EXAMPLE and it has a song on there called “Searching For A Heart” and contained the lyrics, ‘They say love conquers all, you can’t start it like a car, you can’t stop it with a gun.’ I knew then that I would never stop feeling this way and I had to let you know.”
Matthew didn’t need to hear anymore. Katie Waller would never even think to quote Warren Zevon to him. But Mary had. “Mary Ann, you went searching for a heart and you found mine,” he said with a smile that melted Mary’s heart. She saw that he did feel the same way and that he was pleased to have someone feel that way about him. That was enough to satisfy her.
So, this brings us to the end of Matthew’s story. Well, the end of the part that absolutely has to be told. So the song lyric I opened with came full circle at the end after all. But life is full of coincidences. It’s also filled with other things as well. At first they seem wrong. But they can become so right. So remember that everyone makes mistakes. But maybe you’ll find your grail. And maybe everything will work out in the end for the better. Then maybe, just maybe, you will find your own personal happily ever after…
(Whatever happens, hopefully it’s not as clichéd as this ending.)
The guy who came over to investigate wasn’t sure what to make of it. He was going to tell Matthew to put the guitar down but he was awestruck. “It looks like you’ve just opened a portal to another world! I’m getting out of here!” he said and ran out.
“Wait a minute,” Mary said, “you really are the chosen one!”
“Yeah, I know, we’ve been through this already. I’m Matthew of the IHOP Restroom. You would remind me of that all the time…well, you used to anyway.”
“No, you don’t understand,” she said. “The legend of the 18th dimension tells us of a true chosen one who would bring peace between the Planet of Stroganoff and the Shipgoes. They say the chosen one would open a portal to our dimension with his bars.”
“I just played a song on the guitar. That’s all I did,” Matthew said. “It was the opening to some silly little song that I…” he paused. He thought for about two seconds and then said, “that I wrote myself…” All the time he was arguing with the fact that it was fate that brought him to the 18th dimension when all along, it was the opposite.
“And to think that I was given to and owned by the true chosen one,” Mary said. “Oh, if only I knew…” she paused and her thoughts drifted.
“You’re right, Mary Ann, I do own you, and we’ve got business in the 18th dimension, to take care of. And I’ve got some wrongs to right.”
“Oh, yes sir,” Mary said. They walked through the portal where they immediately found themselves back on Captain Bill’s ship about an hour after they had left for the third dimension. In that time, the Shipgoes who had attacked were beaten off and The ENVOY was heading back into port. “Uncle Bill!” Mary called.
Captain Bill turned around surprised to see the both of them back there. “What are you doing back? Iiiiiiiieeeeeee thought you went to find the holy grail.”
“We did,” Matthew said as he and Mary held up the syrup together.
“Oh miiiieeeee gosh, it does exist!” Captain Bill said. “Iiiiieeeee need to get you two to Klapertoes McAmsterdam.” There was no way to get them to Klaper by sea. So the ship remained an air ship as they sailed on the breeze to where Klaper was. As the ship was hovering over his exact location, Captain Bill called out “McAmsterdam!”
Matthew and Mary came down and handed Klaper the canister of Strawberry Syrup from IHOP and said that it was the Shipgoes’ holy grail. When Klaper asked how they got back to the 18th dimension, Mary told him how Matthew played a song that he wrote himself (making that part very clear) on a guitar that opened up the portal. Klaper got excited and told Matthew that he WAS in fact the true chosen one.
Klaper took the canister of syrup and contacted the Shipgoes who were peaceful and gave them the syrup. This fulfilled the prophesy that the chosen one would bring peace between the planet and the Shipgoes. Of course, the fundamentalist Shipgoes started battling with the peaceful Shipgoes because they didn’t see them as following in the “true” footsteps of Pinky. But that’s their own separate story to be told and I’m not quite through with Matthew’s story just yet.
In the land of Nude, there was a parade and a feast in Matthew’s honor. Klaper told him that he could come and go anytime he liked but that he would always be treated like a king. Matthew insisted that he had to go back home but he had one more thing that had to be taken care of. He had to go to the path of desire. So he, Mary, and Klaper went to the path of desire. He made the wish he had to make, but nothing happened.
“What happened?” he asked. “I made my wish but nothing happened.”
“Did you wish with your heart or with your head?” Mary asked. “If the wish you tried to make isn’t from the heart but from your head, you’ll need the Path of Necessity.”
With that, Matthew asked Klaper to take him to the Path of Necessity. When they got to the Path of Necessity, Matthew made his wish and it worked. But Mary started to feel funny. “What’s happening?” she asked.
“I told the path that I needed to free you and let you return to your life as a wind gnome. The Path of Desire wouldn’t let me but you said come here so I did.”
“Wait, you did that just for me?” Mary asked. She began to cry. Or rather she would but she was already back to her wind gnome state. And wind gnomes don’t cry. They’re just sad. And then, Mary floated away. Matthew didn’t know exactly why Mary was sad. Neither of them would have to put up with each other ever again. With that same idea in mind, he didn’t know why a part of him was sad as well.
Matthew eventually found his way to a portal that took him back to his own dimension where he went about with his everyday life. But the next day while he was waiting for class, the unthinkable happened. Katie Waller came up and talked to him.
“Hey Matthew,” she said, “can you help me figure out something?” she asked.
“Mary Ann!?!? What are you doing here?” Matthew exclaimed.
“Mary Ann? No, I’m Katie. Katie Waller. We have this lit course together. I wanted to know if you had some idea what the connection was the teacher wanted us to make between James Joyce and Edgar Allen Poe since you are in class every day.”
“Oh, sorry,” Matthew said. “No, I don’t think I know. I’m sorry.”
As she went in, he found himself thinking almost humorously that he now knew three things about her, she was hot, she had a class with him, and she didn’t know something that he didn’t know either. At least they had two things in common. A moment later, he was once again disturbed by…Katie? “Hello stranger,” said the girl.
“Katie,” Matthew said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know the…” he paused and looked up and realized that it wasn’t Katie at all.
“No, not Katie! It’s Mary Ann! You remember me, don’t you?”
“Uh yeah, of course I do,” Matthew said. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know,” Mary said, “the usual. I went to the Path of Desire, asked to be made human again and to be brought here to the 3rd dimension so I could see you again.”
“But,” Matthew said, “I thought you hated me.”
“I thought so too,” Mary said, “but then all of a sudden and before I knew it, I fell head over hills for you. And when you freed me with your mind because your heart couldn’t, I just knew that somewhere along the lines, you felt the same way.”
She paused when she saw Matthew give her a happy, kind of excited but also confused look. So she said, “My uncle gave me an album called MR. BAD EXAMPLE and it has a song on there called “Searching For A Heart” and contained the lyrics, ‘They say love conquers all, you can’t start it like a car, you can’t stop it with a gun.’ I knew then that I would never stop feeling this way and I had to let you know.”
Matthew didn’t need to hear anymore. Katie Waller would never even think to quote Warren Zevon to him. But Mary had. “Mary Ann, you went searching for a heart and you found mine,” he said with a smile that melted Mary’s heart. She saw that he did feel the same way and that he was pleased to have someone feel that way about him. That was enough to satisfy her.
So, this brings us to the end of Matthew’s story. Well, the end of the part that absolutely has to be told. So the song lyric I opened with came full circle at the end after all. But life is full of coincidences. It’s also filled with other things as well. At first they seem wrong. But they can become so right. So remember that everyone makes mistakes. But maybe you’ll find your grail. And maybe everything will work out in the end for the better. Then maybe, just maybe, you will find your own personal happily ever after…
(Whatever happens, hopefully it’s not as clichéd as this ending.)
Thursday, October 6, 2011
I love Key Of Awesome Parodies...
Memories are a funny thing...and there not always the same in everyone's eyes for some reason. Oh well...
Saturday, October 1, 2011
New Beginnings and eventual death...
ATTENTION: The following is in association with church related stuff. I don't usually blog about this in an entry only. But it's been an issue lately and has put certain things on hold for awhile like the Part 2 of summer stuff telling about improv related things...don't worry, I will get to that. This entry, however, isn't going to be what some would call "overly religious" but, involving my church, there will be the occasional religious thing getting pointed out. Involving something that has pissed me off for the past week, there may also be the occasional blue streak coming up that I will try my best to keep to a minumum since I do want this blog to remain family friendly.
Caution: Everything that will follow is a combination of facts and my own opinion. Anything involving dollar ammounts will be taken from facts that I have.
Now, are we ready to begin this discussion?
I attend a church in Mission, KS called Countryside Christian Church. It's named for the city that it was built in when it was first built back in the 40s or so. (Mission and Countryside were once 2 seperate cities. They have joined cities around the late 90s but there you have that brief history).
I have been going to this church since somewhere between 1989 and 1990 (I was in lower elementary at the time) and I was baptized in 1992 (which makes me a member there physically and, I believe, a member of the faith no matter what churches you go to during your life...but I'll get to that later). During my time there, I have been in a Youth Group, a Kids of the Kingdom music group that we had for children 3rd-6th grade, I have been a deacon for three years and I have also been on the audio/visual group for the contempary service and I have been the person who changes the sign in the front yard (if you look in the picture, that's the sign that is somewhat covered by bushes). I was also in a short lived drama team and was briefly part of the short lived Green Team.
But enough about my involvement and on to why I'm typing this entry. In May, we got into these mini-groups called New Beginnings. Very few of us were actually aware of what this was about (I thought it was a Bible study at first). In the meetings that were 1.25 hours long aprox. and went from May 22 to the first Sunday in July (but really needed a retreat over the course of 2 or 3 Saturday afternoons) we found that, 60-70 years after being built, the church is in trouble in more than one area:
1. There is something called a "Water Table." This wasn't a problem when the church was first built. But due to erosian (sp.) that has happened over the years, there is water pooling around there and, if it weren't for the west wall in the santuary, the santuary would be in 4feet of standing water.
2. There is an electrical fire hazard. The wireing of some of the lights in the church are super old (for wireing). They are beyond repair and need to be replaced. A fire hazard is there. We don't know when or if it will happen but the potential is there. If a fire marshell walked into the building and inspected it, s/he would be forced to close the church right then and there.
3. We have mold REALLY bad on the ceiling of the santuary. We have had several leaks over the years and the moisture has gathered in the air of the santuary and it CAN'T be removed. The mold is in there deep and is multiplying and simple bleaching isn't going to get rid of the mold.
4. We have a daycare at the church. The daycare is actually very successful. There is one problem though. There is a child to toilet ratio that legally must be maintained. I'm not sure what the ratio is but the children have only 2 toilets to use. We can't legally take in more children until we fix the lack of toilets.
5. All of the above must be paid for to be fixed/corrected. There is aprox. $15,600 in the checking account. We require money from loans, grants and/or gifts to pay for what we are not getting from the offering.
6. We severely lack in communication within our own members. Unless someone is involved with something within the church, they don't know what's going on...and then, they only know it from within their own group. I heard about a kid who answered the phone one time and, when asked what the church does for the community, the kid said we did nothing. For record, we do do things for the community. We have a food pantry. Our youth has gone on mission trips and always had. I went to Texas to build a house once. Some have gone to Juarez, Mexico. Some have gone to Colorado. A group went to Greensburg after the tornado hit there a few years back and also to a city in Kansas that was hit back in May or early June by a tornado. When I was in the Youth, we took a trip to Harvester's and did some work. When I was a deacon, we did many community services. Last August, we put on a musical extravaganza to help raise money for the childcare department that I mentioned. We do things. But propper communication isn't one of them.
7. We aren't getting as much money as we need from the offering. Here's why: The average age there is around 75. The church is in a neighborhood of people 35-45 so there is a serious problem of reaching out to the community. Also, people who are members are leaving by a few possable means. They are leaving because they have found another church that fits their schedule and/or meets their calling. They move away (a lot of people my age and younger have left to go to college or start a family in another location). Or they are dying off. Our member count of out-going is growing while the number joining is static. The more members that leave mean less cash inflow in the offerings.
After these meetings, we found that the plan was to get the congregation ready for a proposal that would have us joinging with a church congregation called Cherokee Christian Church. This would involve packing up all we want to keep and taking it to this other church building where the congregation was ready to accept us. By the end of the advent season, we would have been relocated. Then, both church corporations would close and then reopen with a completely different name and mission statement...further on down the line, we would end up building a whole new church building that incorporated the new congragation.
Here's the thing, from what we learned from New Beginnings, Countryside will more than likely have to close up in 3 years...Cherokee has all the facilities we need including the childcare toilets. They don't have a water table...what they do have (or they did back in July) was 6 months before they had to close. This new merger was going to be perfect and all the signs seem to say that this is what God most wanted us to do.
And then Hell broke loose. All of a sudden, everyone was remembering that they grew up and got married at Countryside. That is more important of a thing following the will of God as a church congregation because God didn't take into account the pwecious wittle memories. Then everytime the time came to vote on what to do, it kept getting pushed back. People starting blaming the ministers for not doing their jobs right. One minister was being too busy visiting patients in the hospital and doing marriage counceling, one was too busy being a preacher and trying to get a message across, and one was wasting time leading the youth. I mean, how dare they do the job they were given. Grrr. (Please note my sarcasm in this paragraph).
We've had 2 votes on it...one pushed it back from Labor Day weekend to this last weekend. The problem is that it wasn't enough time to change anyone's mind. Everyone was just as much for it or as much against it as they were to begin with (if not more so). On this last Sunday, we voted on how to go about doing this. First we voted to do one of the following 5:
1. Collaborrateion with other congregations.
2. Alternative Location(s)
3. Securing necesary fundig throgh loans, grants and/or gifts
4. Formation of a satellite congregation.
5. Lots and lots of prayer.
If you're keeping track, we voted as a congrgation to accept one or more of these stratagies. 1, 2, 4 actually involve leaving the church building. 3 involves getting money from sources that we don't even know we can get them from since we're already in the hole practically and based upon a system that you're expecting to get something (but I've never studied business), and 5 dosn't seem like it'll be much help if you've given listening to the obvious signs anyway. Anyway, on Sunday, aprox. 130 of us voted to either Yes: join corporately with the other church and then form a whole new church or No: we don't want to do that because then our precious wittle memories will ugh...and boo hoo hoo. Well, the No's had it. The majority decided to kill the church (though that wasn't their intention, that's what they pretty much did) because they already voted to go with one of 5 things where 3 involved leaving, 1 is stupid because it's imaginary and 1 is relying on prayer after they have basically said "F**k you, God! Die in the dirt already!"
If you can't tell, I was pretty pissed about it. A number of us and a few others are going to start actively leaving the church and seeking new congragations starting at or after advent. This is, currently, including me. This has been affecting me in the head all week and then I got even more pissed off when I read (by the way, have I said pissed off enough time in this entry for you to catch my drift? Yes? No? Whatever...) this letter that was sent to me:
After reading that letter, I had this to update my facebook status with:
I have said before that I don't want to be part of a dying church. And it seems that the majority of the congregation has already voted to let it die through unwillingness to leave the pass behind them and move on and also it seems to me that they have actively turned their backs on God so I don't know what good praying will do if they've already stopped listening.
I intend to stay at least until the end of October. The senior minister is stepping down and retiring and instead taking on the role that he's really been best at all along which is visiting patients in the hospitals and counceling. He will still get paid for that service but it is a pay cut...mostly so that funds can be focused better onto other matters. Then, I will probably start actively looking for another church.
Oh, but before this gets posted, I want one thing to be mentioned. There are some who complain that there are too many paid staff members. They should instead be unpaid volunteeres. Now, here is why this pisses me off: That doesn't work. Okay, I do volunteere work. I change the sign (as I stated). I've been doing it since at least 2008...maybe even 2007. I am a little burned out on it because I can't really put it on a schedule...I have to either ask if it needs to be changed the Sunday before I am considering coming up or get called about it. I drive from North-East Shawnee to the church to change it...not a huge deal when you consider I drive about the same distance (or maybe even furtehr) to go out to Bonner Springs just in the opposet direction. The reason I keep going up as the one to change the sign is for 2 reasons: I like feeling needed and two...volunteerism doesn't work...there is nobody else to tag team with me.
This is pretty much what's been going on at my church...especially for the people who have been asking me.
Caution: Everything that will follow is a combination of facts and my own opinion. Anything involving dollar ammounts will be taken from facts that I have.
Now, are we ready to begin this discussion?
I attend a church in Mission, KS called Countryside Christian Church. It's named for the city that it was built in when it was first built back in the 40s or so. (Mission and Countryside were once 2 seperate cities. They have joined cities around the late 90s but there you have that brief history).
I have been going to this church since somewhere between 1989 and 1990 (I was in lower elementary at the time) and I was baptized in 1992 (which makes me a member there physically and, I believe, a member of the faith no matter what churches you go to during your life...but I'll get to that later). During my time there, I have been in a Youth Group, a Kids of the Kingdom music group that we had for children 3rd-6th grade, I have been a deacon for three years and I have also been on the audio/visual group for the contempary service and I have been the person who changes the sign in the front yard (if you look in the picture, that's the sign that is somewhat covered by bushes). I was also in a short lived drama team and was briefly part of the short lived Green Team.
But enough about my involvement and on to why I'm typing this entry. In May, we got into these mini-groups called New Beginnings. Very few of us were actually aware of what this was about (I thought it was a Bible study at first). In the meetings that were 1.25 hours long aprox. and went from May 22 to the first Sunday in July (but really needed a retreat over the course of 2 or 3 Saturday afternoons) we found that, 60-70 years after being built, the church is in trouble in more than one area:
1. There is something called a "Water Table." This wasn't a problem when the church was first built. But due to erosian (sp.) that has happened over the years, there is water pooling around there and, if it weren't for the west wall in the santuary, the santuary would be in 4feet of standing water.
2. There is an electrical fire hazard. The wireing of some of the lights in the church are super old (for wireing). They are beyond repair and need to be replaced. A fire hazard is there. We don't know when or if it will happen but the potential is there. If a fire marshell walked into the building and inspected it, s/he would be forced to close the church right then and there.
3. We have mold REALLY bad on the ceiling of the santuary. We have had several leaks over the years and the moisture has gathered in the air of the santuary and it CAN'T be removed. The mold is in there deep and is multiplying and simple bleaching isn't going to get rid of the mold.
4. We have a daycare at the church. The daycare is actually very successful. There is one problem though. There is a child to toilet ratio that legally must be maintained. I'm not sure what the ratio is but the children have only 2 toilets to use. We can't legally take in more children until we fix the lack of toilets.
5. All of the above must be paid for to be fixed/corrected. There is aprox. $15,600 in the checking account. We require money from loans, grants and/or gifts to pay for what we are not getting from the offering.
6. We severely lack in communication within our own members. Unless someone is involved with something within the church, they don't know what's going on...and then, they only know it from within their own group. I heard about a kid who answered the phone one time and, when asked what the church does for the community, the kid said we did nothing. For record, we do do things for the community. We have a food pantry. Our youth has gone on mission trips and always had. I went to Texas to build a house once. Some have gone to Juarez, Mexico. Some have gone to Colorado. A group went to Greensburg after the tornado hit there a few years back and also to a city in Kansas that was hit back in May or early June by a tornado. When I was in the Youth, we took a trip to Harvester's and did some work. When I was a deacon, we did many community services. Last August, we put on a musical extravaganza to help raise money for the childcare department that I mentioned. We do things. But propper communication isn't one of them.
7. We aren't getting as much money as we need from the offering. Here's why: The average age there is around 75. The church is in a neighborhood of people 35-45 so there is a serious problem of reaching out to the community. Also, people who are members are leaving by a few possable means. They are leaving because they have found another church that fits their schedule and/or meets their calling. They move away (a lot of people my age and younger have left to go to college or start a family in another location). Or they are dying off. Our member count of out-going is growing while the number joining is static. The more members that leave mean less cash inflow in the offerings.
After these meetings, we found that the plan was to get the congregation ready for a proposal that would have us joinging with a church congregation called Cherokee Christian Church. This would involve packing up all we want to keep and taking it to this other church building where the congregation was ready to accept us. By the end of the advent season, we would have been relocated. Then, both church corporations would close and then reopen with a completely different name and mission statement...further on down the line, we would end up building a whole new church building that incorporated the new congragation.
Here's the thing, from what we learned from New Beginnings, Countryside will more than likely have to close up in 3 years...Cherokee has all the facilities we need including the childcare toilets. They don't have a water table...what they do have (or they did back in July) was 6 months before they had to close. This new merger was going to be perfect and all the signs seem to say that this is what God most wanted us to do.
And then Hell broke loose. All of a sudden, everyone was remembering that they grew up and got married at Countryside. That is more important of a thing following the will of God as a church congregation because God didn't take into account the pwecious wittle memories. Then everytime the time came to vote on what to do, it kept getting pushed back. People starting blaming the ministers for not doing their jobs right. One minister was being too busy visiting patients in the hospital and doing marriage counceling, one was too busy being a preacher and trying to get a message across, and one was wasting time leading the youth. I mean, how dare they do the job they were given. Grrr. (Please note my sarcasm in this paragraph).
We've had 2 votes on it...one pushed it back from Labor Day weekend to this last weekend. The problem is that it wasn't enough time to change anyone's mind. Everyone was just as much for it or as much against it as they were to begin with (if not more so). On this last Sunday, we voted on how to go about doing this. First we voted to do one of the following 5:
1. Collaborrateion with other congregations.
2. Alternative Location(s)
3. Securing necesary fundig throgh loans, grants and/or gifts
4. Formation of a satellite congregation.
5. Lots and lots of prayer.
If you're keeping track, we voted as a congrgation to accept one or more of these stratagies. 1, 2, 4 actually involve leaving the church building. 3 involves getting money from sources that we don't even know we can get them from since we're already in the hole practically and based upon a system that you're expecting to get something (but I've never studied business), and 5 dosn't seem like it'll be much help if you've given listening to the obvious signs anyway. Anyway, on Sunday, aprox. 130 of us voted to either Yes: join corporately with the other church and then form a whole new church or No: we don't want to do that because then our precious wittle memories will ugh...and boo hoo hoo. Well, the No's had it. The majority decided to kill the church (though that wasn't their intention, that's what they pretty much did) because they already voted to go with one of 5 things where 3 involved leaving, 1 is stupid because it's imaginary and 1 is relying on prayer after they have basically said "F**k you, God! Die in the dirt already!"
If you can't tell, I was pretty pissed about it. A number of us and a few others are going to start actively leaving the church and seeking new congragations starting at or after advent. This is, currently, including me. This has been affecting me in the head all week and then I got even more pissed off when I read (by the way, have I said pissed off enough time in this entry for you to catch my drift? Yes? No? Whatever...) this letter that was sent to me:
September 28, 2011
Dear David,
After a large turnout for the congregation meeting Sunday, September 25, 2011, I thank all of you for your prayerful participation. We dealt with several very important issues, and now we need to unite as never before to face the tasks of moving ahead. 140 members signed in at the beginning of the meeting, but quite a few had to leave before teh ballot was taken. We are nearly evenly divided on how we will face the future. We run the risk of losing up to half of our members without prayerful cooperation from everyone as we seek to determine God's will for our future.
The Council is holding a special meeting on Tuesday, October 4th to begin addressing many of the issues voiced by the congregation.
However, we immediately need to face a pressing financial problem. At the beginning of the month, as indicated on the handout for the meeting, our checking account balance was $15,600, and we have "borrowed" almost $80,000 from our other funds. In spite of a very high attendance Sundaay, the collection waas down to $4,300. Currently our expenses require approximately $7,500 per week. We are being very selective about what bills are paid each week, annd the Council will consider requesting more "loans" from memorial funs to stay current unless donations come in at a sufficient rate to covver our expenses.
The Council will discuss more active follow up with the membership, goals for measuring progress, reviewing duties and responsibilities of various ministries and staff, and attempt to maximize our resources. We will also discuss Capital Improvement and Stewardship campaign strategies.
In short, our collective tasks are just beginning.
Please continue to pray for God's guidance aas we embark on this program.
After reading that letter, I had this to update my facebook status with:
I got a letter from my church informing me of everything that has to be done as we move forward and that we risk loosing 1/2 our members and I thought, yeah, no $iht! I'm one of those members you risk loosing.
I have said before that I don't want to be part of a dying church. And it seems that the majority of the congregation has already voted to let it die through unwillingness to leave the pass behind them and move on and also it seems to me that they have actively turned their backs on God so I don't know what good praying will do if they've already stopped listening.
I intend to stay at least until the end of October. The senior minister is stepping down and retiring and instead taking on the role that he's really been best at all along which is visiting patients in the hospitals and counceling. He will still get paid for that service but it is a pay cut...mostly so that funds can be focused better onto other matters. Then, I will probably start actively looking for another church.
Oh, but before this gets posted, I want one thing to be mentioned. There are some who complain that there are too many paid staff members. They should instead be unpaid volunteeres. Now, here is why this pisses me off: That doesn't work. Okay, I do volunteere work. I change the sign (as I stated). I've been doing it since at least 2008...maybe even 2007. I am a little burned out on it because I can't really put it on a schedule...I have to either ask if it needs to be changed the Sunday before I am considering coming up or get called about it. I drive from North-East Shawnee to the church to change it...not a huge deal when you consider I drive about the same distance (or maybe even furtehr) to go out to Bonner Springs just in the opposet direction. The reason I keep going up as the one to change the sign is for 2 reasons: I like feeling needed and two...volunteerism doesn't work...there is nobody else to tag team with me.
This is pretty much what's been going on at my church...especially for the people who have been asking me.
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