Wait, all right, there is one difference between this year and last year, and I suppose those of you who REALLY know me, you'd understand how important and yet also how silly this seems at the same time. I almost find it too embarrassing to type here, so suffice it to say you'll finally get to see me around more often, of which I am very excited about now as well. If you're still clueless to what that means, comment or e-mail and, if I'm feeling masochistic I'll share with you. (Just kidding!)
On to other topics, my musical theatre kick has finally progressed off of TV reality shows. I scanned through the library videos to find various musicals I either hadn't seen before or hadn't seen for some time (I know, I was deprived!). Some were movie versions of musicals, while others were stage productions/ tapings of concerts of musicals. I also looked for cast recordings on those I couldn't find a video to (or at least there isn't one available yet. If you really want to see all of the musicals I've now watched or listened to within the past few months, you can check the list below. I even spent some of my hard earned money and bought several cast recordings as well.
South Pacific, Miss Saigon, Spring Awakening, Wicked, Into the Woods, Funny Girl, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia!, Wizard of Oz, Phantom of the Opera, Evita, RENT, Damn Yankees, My Fair Lady, Cinderella, Sound of Music, West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Little Shop of Horrors, Guys and Dolls, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar...
So, anyways, I'm starting to feel normal and not obsessed about any one particular show or actor just because I fell in love with the show, or that actor's looks/voice/acting talent/etc. Instead I'm now very much aware of how much I miss that my church is lacking a music/worship director/minister right now.See, last December, our senior pastor resigned from his position and his wife, who was our church's worship minister, also left with him. Right now, I can't say I have much to complain about when it comes to missing our senior pastor - he was a great guy, but since then, one of my best friends has come back to our church as our youth minister - and he is an awesome speaker - God has given him a great gift of being able to speak in front of people and share His Word through him - and we've also had some absolutely amazing guest speakers who I feel God is using to reach to our church. There are lots of people who need to hear what these speakers have had to share, and I feel I've gotten more out of these past few months than I got in the last 4 years with our senior pastor.
Ever since I had gone to college, I started to feel like our church body was getting stuck in a rut, doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. It was even more obvious to me by my senior year, since I had come across such wonderful, vibrant Christian ministries at school, and here I was, one of the only college-age attendants, with absolutely no group to participate with since there had always been this huge gap between youth and young marrieds. It was almost like they expected that once you ran off to college you would lose everyone, and then when they finally settled down and start to have kids would they finally come back to church. Granted, there was also a rather large age gap between me and the next graduating class, so I would have had to bring all of my friends from school to even have a college age or young singles group going - and pretty much any friend I felt would be "ready" to invite to church (saving that discussion for another topic) was already attending another church in town.
Since June of 2006, as there were (finally!) a large number of youth graduating from high school and heading off to college (many still attending college in town) we now have a college/young singles group going. We now have about 10 regular attending college freshman and sophmores, and I'm the one young single. I claim to bring a bit more experience to the group. *wink* We have two couples leading our group - one with teenage boys (the oldest in college) and the other with preschool kids, and we chase a lot of rabbit trails with our discussions, but the topics are relevant and we always make sure to have food - we even make breakfast in Sunday school, just to get people to show up at 9:00 am! And as much as I heard it while I was at school, I can still see it among this group of students - that this is definitely a generation that will shake up our church as we know it (at the very least, my church, if not THE Church!) We're all ready to get out of this "rut" we feel we're stuck in (and I feel may be one of the reasons we no longer needed a senior pastor for the time being) and having these great guest speakers coming in is one of the key things our church needs to stir up tension in some people and motivate others to take action and start making changes. We may see a loss of numbers as there will be some people who will be offended and unable to see the need to lose some traditions that are holding us back from reaching our community and becoming relevant to those around us. But I think that God wants everyone who plans to stick around through this time to grow and come to realize that the church does not depend on rules and boundaries to keep it together, but is dependent upon a people united in one purpose - our Shema - to love God with all our hearts, souls, and strength and minds and to share that love with those around us.
So I'm ecstatic about what God is doing in my life through what is happening at my church and what is stirring in the hearts of those around me - great things are about to happen, and I only hope that we are able to break through all of the naysayers and obstacles that may prevent us from taking action and setting things in motion.
Really, the only thing I've absolutely missed through all of this is not having any kind of drama team or productions to participate in. I've looked forward to Christmas every other year since my freshman year in high school, as my church put on various musicals to draw in visitors and grow our church body closer together as those who participated in some form were always changed in someway through just being involved with the productions - many hearts were healed, some marriages were saved, new relationships began, all because God brought together a talented group of people to go through an experience together. Last December would have been one of those years, but, for obvious reasons, we went without a musical production. And since I feel really strongly that God has given me an ability to work with lighting and sound and technical equipment and work behind the scenes, and since I've just recently been plunged fully into musical theatre again, my heart is aching to have a chance to participate in a big production this year, and not just be content with working lights and sound and video during weekly services. So the hardest thing for me to do lately is resist asking the team of volunteers who are currently struggling to keep the worship team going and planning out Sunday services and such to start planning for a larger scale production. 7 months is a long time to be running things that required a full time position when you are volunteering your outside time and working another full time job. My wish is that I could be as confident in our church having the ability and opportunity to get involved in large scale productions and attain an awesome, powerful worship experience every Sunday as I am confident that God will send the right person to step in as a senior pastor when our church is absolutely ready for that time!
