what I learned today

John 4:11
The woman said to him, "Sir you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep"....

This story will be part of our Easter services in two weeks.

I got to witness true humility today as the Crossroads Artist Small Group discussed their ongoing battle to enjoy and share their talents while constantly examining their hearts for pride. This discussion has been an ongoing one as I ask the artists to take a more visible role in some of our services.

I love their reluctance to display their talent publicly, to have the kind of talent they do and also to desire to please the Lord is such an encouragement to me each time we meet. I am blessed by their Godly spirit as well as amazed at their God given talents!


These pictures show some of the Easter sketches and preparations.

I learned today it IS possible to be very talented and still be humble before the Lord!

preparing well

What is the most important thing I can do to prepare for the weekend? Take time to prepare myself well.

Focused time in prayer and in God's Word are what it takes for each leader to come ready for the weekend services. This applies of course to everyone across the board. Although upfront leadership is under much more scrutiny, behind the scene positions support everything else that goes on in the ministry and are just as vitally important. Preparation determines how well we communicate with volunteers, what our reactions are to uncomfortable situations and how focused to detail we can be.

I think our preparation is important to our Lord. I have experienced His blessing on services that we all prepared well for, and I have experienced chaos when my personal preparation was less than it should be. I cannot bare the thought that my lack of preparation could be responsible for many problems that could be avoided. So pray for us as we go into this weekend, a new weekend of opportunity. A weekend that we have been chosen to lead.

preparation

The weekend preparation began tonight as it does every Thursday evening.

Steve was adjusting a couple of lights to accommodate our baptisms during worship. Dan was moving a computer out of the sound booth while Bryan was preparing to dial in the sound. Tom was in the lighting booth watching our big production piece being rehearsed for a week from now. (You won't want to miss March 15 & 16, that's all I am going to say about that!)

Musicians were preparing to practice and vocalists were busy warming up and practicing sweet harmonies. All this preparation to bring the Lord our most excellent work, it's going to be amazing!!

Communion

Our monthly communion service is one of my favorites. A time to reflect on the Lord and all He's done for us, a time to worship Him and a time to pray for our congregation. We invite anyone after the service who wants to pray with staff and the Elders to come to the front of the auditorium. Possibly more of a blessing to those praying for their needs, then it is for the ones being prayed for. Funny how that works.

The communion service is typically more simply programmed than the weekend services, but it still takes a lot of preparation to make it a worshipful setting for our congregation. I walked through the auditorium on Monday where I found one of my faithful volunteers, Chris Love setting up our communion tables.

The next step was for our communion team headed by Roxy Rudrick (pictured) to prepare the bread and the cups of grape juice. This seems like it would be a very simple job to do, but I have tried to separate those little cups myself. It is very time consuming and I am very thankful for Roxy and her team that take care of this for me.

Eileen Kline usually decorates the communion tables but she currently is on our mission team in Thailand and Cambodia. (You can follow Eileen and the rest of the team's progress by going to www.ronbiddle.com.) My good friend Jackie Crawfis stepped in and decorated for me, it looked great!

The final step was for the team to practice the worship package. Tonight we went with just acoustic guitar and violin. It was perfect! Milo and Jessica played "the offering" while we took the communion elements, it was outstanding!

Our congregation never seems closer than during one of our communion services. It was a blessing to be at Crossroads tonight.