church stuff

Jim Geraghty over at TKS is in Turkey, and, as he is adjusting to the culture, muses:

The call to prayer: I wonder if church attendance would be higher if five times a day, a loudspeaker at the top of the steeple blared, “Come to chuuuuuuurch… Come on, you know you ought toooooo…. God’s done a lot for yoooooooou, you can spare an hooooour…”

Very amusing. Along such lines, Easter was the other day, and with it came increased church attendence. Our church doubled its normal number of communion servers, apparently, so that it could get through it in a normal amount of time. The music sounds much better with a boisterous congregation to sing along. Truly great. Now if we could just get them all coming on a more regular basis ...

Palm Sunday, my church held its annual fair/carnival/whatever. Good fun. There was free pizza, but turnout was unexpectedly high, so a few people went without any, and a good portion more went without their fill. However, the kids were entertained, which was enough to keep most people from complaining. We had various of those huge inflatable attractions, including an obstacle course, bungee racing (where you are tethered to one end of the track by a bungee cord and try to see how far towards the other end you can get), sumo wrestling/boxing (with the oversized gloves), and some other slide-type thing. Got some kids from the neighborhood interested.

Our church recently had I believe three air conditioners stop working (they have a dozen). They got at least one working again, but at least one will need replacing. Not cheap. Fortunately (at least somewhat) they recently got approved for a loan to do various renovations, so they should have the money, although it would be better if they didn't have to spend it on that. Some of the air conditioners are not exactly convenient to remove from the building, either (apparently some are inside and will not fit out through any established opening), but I think the one that is definitely kaput (or at least semi-definitely) can be easily removed, thankfully. But again, that's what I think, I could be confused. Other renovations include new carpet throughout most of the building (completed, looks nice), redoing the foyer (which, currently, we have the old stuff taken out and are awaiting the new stuff to be put in), tearing up the parking lot and putting it back in (it's beyond repair), and fixing the leaking roof. Lots of fun stuff. That doesn't include other (hopefully cheaper) projects such as redoing the stage lighting in the sanctuary, and working with the sound system in there. Much work to be done.