I hate painting...

I spent most of the day painting. I really hate painting. Last week I spent Saturday painting with my Jr. High. Today I spent the day painting with my wife. We painted my office at church. It went from being a ugly light tan, to a very bright blue and yellow. I will post pictures later but I think it came out looking nice. We kind of made some lines in the wall, so they just aren't painted a single color. I wasn't sure how it would come out, but it came out very nice and very bright. I will be interested to see the reactions come Sunday and Monday.

Our church right now is in a very interesting spot. We are in the process of becoming a "Fruitful Congregation". This is based off a book written by the Biship of the Missouri Conference. The book talks about 5 way to become a more fruitful congregation. Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-taking Mission & Service and Extravagant Generosity are what he describes as things churches need to do to become more fruitful. Our pastor is really wanting us to make changes within these areas. I am excited about it and really hoping that our church takes it seriously and we can get some things done. I believe our biggest issue is in the form of radical hospitality. We are a large church, so it is much easier for people to get lost in our crowd. We have over 800 in worship each week, in 4 difference services over two days, so it is hard to know really when someone comes or not.

I know there are some things we can change. For our youth group, it is the changing of rooms and painting them with nice, bright colors. The students who have helped paint, love the look and are glad for the changes. Next week we will be doing even more painting as we take over another room and move our classes. Over the next couple months we will be making even more changes. I am praying they are for the good. I am excited about being here, but I still hate painting....