Good Things at Church

It's time to give a big happy shout out to the church trustees who have led out in the creation of a new church kitchen.  It's located in the space that used to be occupied by a school classroom--in the southwest corner of the addition.  One of the best things about this location is that it's on the main floor.  The many in our church who have limited mobility will no longer need to struggle up and down the stairs or have someone carry plates to them upstairs.  For more than 50 years we had only a small kitchen in the basement.  It was essentially a family-sized kitchen.

Two Marvins and two Josephs get most of the credit for wise planning--Mast and Yutzy, Yoder and Hershberger.  I'm sure their wives helped a lot behind the scenes.

To me the most outstanding thing about the project is the way those in charge did several things:

1.  They welcomed input, and altered the plan according to the input.

2.  They were forthright all along about financial matters--how much money was in hand, how much their proposal would cost, and how much was still needed.

3.  They did good research by visiting a number of other kitchens used for similar purposes as ours will be.  They talked to the people to whom the kitchens belonged and learned from them what worked well and what needed improvement.

4.  They solicited information from people who work on food committees, who cook at weddings, and who know what is called for in kitchens where food is prepared for sale to the public.  They worked into the plan the suggestions of these people.

5.  They communicated regularly and well with the church people--spreading out drawings and samples and inviting on-the-spot input.

Some of these sound repetitious, boiling down to the same thing:  Serving well, with humility.

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Another thing I really like that has happened recently at church is the purchase of padded stackable chairs with armrests.  I never gave our utilitarian 50-year old metal folding chairs a second thought until I regularly took my frail mother to our Sunday School class and helped her into and out of those chairs. It was then that I realized how much armrests to grab onto would help her.  In the sanctuary, she could grab onto the pews in front of her for the same kind of help.  Not so in our circle of chairs for the Sunday School class .  My mother was only one of many who needed help.  Now people with old bones and muscles and people recovering from orthopedic surgery welcome the comfort of those padded seats.

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The new kitchen and chairs are only part of what I like about our church.  Actually these few things wouldn't mean much if it weren't for other substantive things that are good and right.

In our church services I like good sermons, good congregational singing, and good opening meditations.  I think I'm overusing the "good" adjective.  By that I mean thought-provoking, worshipful, and inspiring (and yes, now I'm overusing adverbs).  In Sunday School classes I like using the Bible as the text and simply sharing around it.  I like segregated adult classes and love hearing from other women.

I like both an openness to change and appropriate caution about change.

I like involvement in the community, often via Hands of Christ and RISE Kids Church.  I like people serving in various stateside ministries.  I like involvement elsewhere in the world, with members on various continents.  I like the freedom to interact with others in the community on an individual basis, with no need for an official church organization to make it happen.

I like the diversity among our members.  I like having people of all ages in every service.

Church is a refuge where people can find help when life batters them.

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For now I'm encouraged by thinking about what is good.  I could, of course, make other kinds of lists, and sometimes such lists are needful.  But not today.