February 2019 "Pastor's Ponderings" - Newsletter Article

Here is my February Article for the Church's Newsletter, it looks like the weather folks finally got one right... it's brutally cold today and looks like it will only get worse before it gets better.  Hopefully, you're reading this inside your warm home or workspace, please don't go outside unless you absolutely have to!  This kind of weather is deadly!

At this point, I'm not 100% sure or not if Gail and I will be going to Omaha tomorrow to attend the funeral of Marcie Molby.  Marcie was married to my friend and mentor Bob Molby and both Gail and I are greatly saddened to hear of her passing.  Please pray for comfort for Bob and Marcie's families.  Thank you.

We're in a bit of a slower phase of the year right now, but plans are in the works for all the things that spring and summer will bring!  Remember... 'to be a blessing to someone today'!

In Christ,
Roy

Pastor's Ponderings:

And just like that, we're looking forward to February!  January has seen us with the threat of bad weather several times where (thankfully) the weather didn't materialize.  As I sit here typing we have yet another warning about the weather this week, hopefully, the weather folks will miss this forecast as badly as the others. Even though the snow hasn't been as bad as billed, we all need to thank Clyde for his continual devotion to the church and getting the walks and steps ready for people all week long and especially for worship on Sunday.  Clyde is tireless in his attention to the ice and snow removal and we really all need to thank him and show our appreciation.  THANK YOU, Clyde!

In February I'll be traveling the first weekend to Omaha to participate in a seminar called “Vision Day”, it looks to be an interesting seminar with some new ideas on how to be church and how to interact as a church, hopefully, I'll have more to report from that in the near future.  We're working on upgrading our wi-fi coverage in the Church and that will help with our “Live-Streaming” of both the Thursday night and Sunday morning services.  Currently, the wi-fi is so weak that I have just been using the data on my phone to do the broadcast, the hope is that the wi-fi will give better streaming of the services, plus it won't count against my data plan which would be a good thing as well.  It will also allow those that want to broadcast parts of the service on their personal phones to do so, again without using up their data plans.  We truly are in a world of technology and even the little bit that we do allows us to add to our outreach in ministry.  There have been times when an unbelievable number of folks have watched the service on the “Live-Stream”, and it allows our own members to watch from home if they're too sick or the weather is too risky for them to be out.  We have people that have been watching each week that are out of State and there are even people that have commented or liked that reside outside of the USA.  I've noticed that there are a couple of retired ministers from out of State that tune in regularly and I find that encouraging.  The fact that we can now witness to and influence others so easily is truly amazing!

We had the first meeting for the new members of the Christian Council and we all should thank Scott Crandall for stepping up to be the Chair for the Council.  I know Scott will do a great job of leading this group as they plan and implement both new and old ways of ministry here at Woodlawn!  Thank you, Scott!

The committee for our 4th Annual Concert 'Son Celebration' has set a concert date, mark your calendars for July 27th at 5:30 pm.  Hopefully, this year's production will be a great success!  Thank you to the concert committee members, Kathy Holm, Kim Anderson, Kathryn Myers, Mel Alcox, Gail Karlen, Clyde Westcott, and myself.  Gail agreed to chair the committee for this year and we thank her for taking on that role!  The concert is a great witness and with the committee's hard work and the hard work of everyone in the congregation, we can reach more folks for Christ!

We really must focus on and always, always, always, remember that EVERYTHING we do here (and hopefully away from here as well) we do for Christ.   When we worship, when we labor together on projects, when we sit in meetings and upon committees, let us remember that we do so to glorify Christ.  Allowing our egos to get in the way of ministry does not serve Christ... arguing over trivial things does not serve Christ... we must always have in the forefront of our minds that we do not come here to do our will but to do the will of our Lord.  Let us serve Him together with love and grace for each other no matter what!

Be a blessing to someone today!  Pastor Roy