Picture these three concurrent stories:
A story from the piano:
It is 9:05 am on Sunday morning. I’m at the piano warming up the band before worship. We are touching up the music we rehearsed on Thursday night and letting the people who weren’t at practice know what we changed. Someone was supposed to sing a solo in one of the songs, but they are sick this morning, so someone else needs to learn it. It is an important time for us. As I’m finishing with the band at 9:22, the slide-clicker asks me some questions about the slides. We really try to make sure everything is right in the slides for both the people in the building and the people online. It has taken years for us to get things to run as smoothly as they do.
At 9:25, I’m finishing with the slide clicker and am going to head to the piano to get ready for the prelude. I look over and realize we don’t have anyone to run the cameras. I look into the congregation to see who might be available, but as I walk toward someone, another parishioner stops me to show me what their daughter just learned to play on the piano. I love hearing about everyone’s musical progress. But now it is 9:27 and if I don’t start the prelude now, everything else will run late and we have another service at 11, so we can’t afford a delay.
A story from The Point:
It is 9:05 am on Sunday morning. Angie is in The Point getting ready to teach the Junior High Learning Hour. She plugs in her laptop to display on the TVs, gets her notes out, and heads down the hall at 9:15 to make sure the other Sunday School teachers are ready to teach younger kids. Since Children’s Choir is rehearsing after Sunday School and Worship, she makes sure the keyboard is set up in Room C. At 9:25, on her way back toward The Point, she passes the sanctuary where someone tells her we don’t have a lay assistant yet, and we don’t have enough communion assistants. There are plenty of people who have told her they will help if she asks, but teenagers are showing up for class and she really needs to greet them and manage the classroom.
A story from the gathering space:
It is 9:05 am on Sunday morning. Lowell is in the gathering space chatting with 8 am worshipers as they head to breakfast. His sermon went well, but there are some things he wants to tweak. At 9:15 he heads to his office so he can make a few minor adjustments. At 9:22 he puts his new sermon notes at his chair in the worship space and goes back to the gathering area to say “hello” to some incoming 9:30 worshipers. He spots two guests who have never been at LOL before. He makes a point to excuse himself from the folks he knows and greets the worship guests personally. At 9:29 he heads to his seat and realizes there isn’t a lay assistant. He doesn’t even know yet that we’re also short communion assistants and a camera operator. He doesn’t have time to do anything about it, so he hopes someone sees the need and steps up or he’ll just do all the reading and leading himself. A few minutes into worship he sees John going back and forth from the piano to the media desk and realizes he is running cameras when he isn’t playing music.
The view from the pew:
It looks like everything is going fine. Mary Catherine has no idea we’re missing any volunteers and thinks Lowell is doing a great job leading. She doesn’t know why John keeps going behind the media desk. She is a great volunteer, but no one has let her know there is a need.
What can Mary Catherine, and all of you, do to help?
Sign up to volunteer early. We know your schedules are busy and sometimes it’s hard to know when you’ll be at church. But if you can put yourself on the schedule now, just let us know if something comes up and you can’t make it, or ask someone else to fill in for you. We are so grateful for all of our volunteers. You not only make our jobs easier, but you make worship more meaningful for everyone.
To sign up, go to: www.lol-lutheran.ccbchurch.com/goto/scheduling/individuals/ and click the “browse open positions” tab. You’ll be able to click the “accept” button to put yourself on the schedule for any positions that you have filled in the past. If you don’t see any available positions, let us know and we’ll add you to one of the volunteer teams so you can sign up. We are blessed to have all of you with your abundance of gifts. Thank you for stepping up to do God’s work!
Serving with you,
John Johns, Director of Music