The last thing I want to do is hurt you... but it's still on the list.

I've had a good day, a good day-after-a-Sunday-Christmas day.
Yesterday went fine, but the preacher is never the one to critique. For the third Sunday we had kids read Scripture and in each case they did a great job, particularly significant because each of them was early elementary.

I spent most of the morning working out in the garage on the trailer and made good progress. The next step is nine coats of varnish with a drying time of two hours between each coat, and the air temp has to be above 50 degrees. That means this stage will extend over a few days even with afternoons hitting about 70 degrees for the next few days. Overnight lows are 40 degrees or below so it's mid-morning before I can apply a coat.

I showed this to Pam and we've decided to learn this routine in 2012.
Pas de deux

I'm doing something this Sunday I last did about 30 years ago.
Because it's New Year's Day we'll only have one service, at 10:00. The hour (if I last that long) will be all for the kids. The adults sit in back and have to be quiet and behave themselves. The kids - we'll have about 30 there - will be up front with me and we'll do church together. This could get tricky because all of our kids are so young. Our granddaughter is the oldest and she's 9. The bell curve peaks at 5 or 6. And let's just say I'm not going to be the only one there who is ADD. This is, by any standard, an unusually bright group of kids, and I'm not just saying that because they're Pathway kids. That's why the readers (see above) each did such an excellent job. We have first graders who read with the skill and poise of Junior Highers. But this is still significantly lower than my typical target audience.

I worked on that service this afternoon. We'll sing lots of active songs (Veggie Tales with motions), have a couple very quick Bible lessons illustrated with magic tricks, a slightly longer lesson involving a craft, and maybe even a (gluten free) snack time as part of that lesson. The theme of the service will be acting like the Body of Christ, and it will involve having the older kids help the younger ones with different activities to illustrate serving each other. We meet in the school cafeteria and there's a stage in front. I'm thinking about doing a Faith Leap and having older kids jump off the 4' high front edge into the arms of the younger kids.
OK, maybe not that part.

We mean it when we say kids are a priority at Pathway. God has blessed us with a disproportionate number and I see that as a stewardship. We simply must be faithful to see they are taught God's Word and fully integrated into the church. They are not "junior members" of the Body of Christ. If quality is more important than quantity (it is) then our care for the children in our midst is an appropriate measure of our work as a church.

What is Kate's last name now? It used to be Middleton but I don't think I've heard anyone use a different one since her marriage to Prince William.