Thanksgiving and Aftermath

(Canadian) Thanksgiving went well. We had some friends over and enjoyed the usual poultry and fixings. After everyone left I recovered by watching an incredible game of Monday Night Football. Took the trash out and went to bed.

A crazy busy day today. Can't talk about part of it for confidentiality reasons, but suffice it to say that I came away from the morning feeling thankful for the work of the Holy Spirit to inspire ministry. It's nice to know we've got a friend in the Paraclete.

We had a good meeting with Jeremy Elliot at Paul Hahn Pianos. He showed Bryan, Matthew, and I around the shop. Matthew played a few of the pianos and we had a discussion about what we want and don't want for the church piano. Jeremy had some insights to offer about what they will be able to provide for us, and the whole experience was positive. He's going to write up a proposal and we'll see where we go from there. This whole process reminds me a lot of match making.

I got back to the church just in time to answer a few e-mails and then go online for a teleconference demonstrating some church management software. This is essentially an integrated database package that can track contact information, contributions, and facilitate communications in a big way. For instance, at the end of the year you can ask the program to print tax receipts for all the givers automatically. Currently COTM does that task by hand. It also makes managing mailing lists (both e-mail and snail mail) very efficiently. There are lots of other fun and useful features as well--all part of the modern pastor's tool bag.

That reminds me... I need to get a white board for my office. I'm way too visual a problem solver not to have one.

-t