we're agin' it

Just so you all know - I work at the Cullman Un Meth Church, as opposed to the Cullman Meth Church.

From the first line of the letter that accompanied this day planner: "Surprised to see the Cullman First Un Meth Church name on the enclosed Regatta 2-Tone Diary sample? Looks impressive, doesn't it?"

Impressive indeed.

all by mysellllelllf

So, this Sunday should be an interesting one at Cullman First UMC. First of all, we're moving the traditional service into Hearin Hall, the Fellowship Hall where we normally have contemporary worship. Normally we have 3 services (traditionals at 8:30 and 11 in the sanctuary and contemporary in Hearin Hall), but now we'll have just the 8:30 traditional and 11 contemporary. The sanctuary is currently filled with scaffolding and such for the installation of the new organ, so everybody will be trying out Hearin Hall.

This wouldn't be such a big deal were it not for the fact that this will be the first Sunday that I'll be flying solo at both services. Bob, the senior pastor, will be in Atlanta helping his daughter move into her dorm at Emory. So, I'll get to try to comfort all the traditional folks who are kind of freaked out by the contemporary setting. We did move a pulpit in and are going to have a more decorated altar than normally. We've also gotten about 10 pews moved into the room that are lining the back walls (they had to be taken out of the choir loft).

I'm looking forward to the chance to see how things go without Bob there, just in case there are some things that he does that I haven't picked up on that change the way the congregation reacts. I'm also looking forward to the next few weeks when I'll be able to watch more and let it be a little more like I'm actually attending a worship service, rather than being nervous about preaching. It's really bizarre when something that you'd do anyway is part of your job and you have to approach it differently. Oh well, I guess that's this growing up crud I've been avoiding for so long.

invincible, but I can't sing

Today was the first Sunday since I got to Cullman that I didn't have to preach (we had a Discovery Weekend with the youth, and thus a youth-led service). So, I got to sit in the congregation during the contemporary service and just watch, which was kind of cool after a few months of leading the service but never just getting to experience it.

I was, however, unable to completely avoid mention during the service. Jim, the 9th grader who gave the sermon (and did an excellent job), mentioned me in two different ways, both of which led to me laughing extensively. First of all, he was talking about the different roles that people are called to in the church. He did a good job, except that he has a little overly-high view of ministers and youth leaders. He described us as "invincilbe," comparing our spiritual fitness to Super Mario when he gets the star super-power. So yeah, I laughed just a little bit at that. He also made a comment about "there are people who can sing really well, like Paige, and then there are ministers." He meant some people sing, some people preach, and he realized how it sounded,
and then started saying "I'm sorry Mr. von Herrmann and Mr. Alford." Several of the people around me started hitting me on the shoulder, saying "yeah, we knew you couldn't sing." So all in all it was a really good service, and I enjoyed getting the week off from preaching. Now I get to prepare for preaching at the traditional services August 20th.

We had four senior high guys spending the night at the parsonage the last two nights because of the Discovery Weekend. They were pretty fun, although I will definitely not miss getting up at 6 or whichever other repulsive time we had to get up to get everyone going.

So that's the weekend. Things are going well, I'm just trying to get my body used to the routine. It's doing alright, I'm just trying to make sure I don't get sick.

What we purchased today...

Jesus the action figure!

Accoutrements.com has a line of action figures for everything, including librarians, albino bowlers, male nurses, freud, einstein, on and on.

Check out the deluxe Jesus action figure complete with glow-in-the-dark miracle-working hands, a water-into-wine jug, 5 loaves and 2 fish.

Excellent!