Stormy Weather and A Night With Toby, Mike, and Kevin

We had a bit of frightening weather yesterday. (Meg, I think you would have been the only other one that experienced this storm system.) Normally I love a good spring storm, but this one came up quickly and violently. No tornadoes touched down in our area, but as the storm moved east it did spawn several funnel clouds in other states. Power was knocked out, trees were blown over, roofs (including the one at my high school) were peeled back. Our area had some of the highest winds at 72 mph. It was enough for our music minister to send us home halfway through choir rehearsal - the building emptied in about 30 seconds as people rushed home to be with their kids or bring their pets inside. As quickly as it came up, it subsided; sunshine to storm to sunshine took just over an hour.

My mom and I helped lead the worship for a church plant last night after the storm. My church is the main one partnering with this new one so we provide musicians and sound equipment and extra bodies to fill the seats to help draw people in. The storm that had rolled through just an hour or two earlier really helped bring alive the lyrics to "Did You Hear The Mountains Tremble?" and "Above All." It was such an awesome display of God's power and control.

My church has dealt with some very hard things over the last 8 years. I don't see how it can all fully be blamed on the infidelity of our previous music minister with a choir member, but that certainly seems to be where it started. I'm sure there were things amiss under the surface even before that, though. Everyone in my family has felt that there is something wrong again (or maybe I should say still) but we haven't been able to identify what it is. As a church I am sure there are ways now, as there were then, that we members are not being faithful to our responsibilites to pray for and support our church and its leaders. Our youth pastor has recently been asked to leave his position after almost 18 years. "D" has always had people that disagreed with him, but he is still very beloved. The official word is that it is because of finances at the church (our secretary retires this month and they will not be replacing her), but other sources say it is just because "it is time for a change." There has been no wrongdoing on his part to warrant this action so the whole thing is quite a shock. I have a feeling we are in for some rocky times. As some of you know, I had already been considering visiting around a bit, just to see if there might be someplace else where I could get involved and meet some more Christian friends. Now it seems like a bad time to do that. We seem to be hemorrhaging people quickly these days and I don't want it to look like I'm just leaving because things aren't going well. Then again, didn't I just leave something like this behind in Chicago?

Now a lighter note. My evening ended last night with a boisterous DC Talk sing/rap-a-long with Robbie and Jenni. I hadn't listened to this stuff in ages, and yet the lyrics just came pouring out from some dusty corner of my brain. This is Just Between You And Me, but hearing the old songs had me Spinnin' Round, even though such vast knowledge of the DCT catalog is probably not Socially Acceptable these days. I Don't Want It to sound like I'm bragging, but it was almost Supernatural how well we could still Say The Words. I could see them all in my Mind's Eye. It was Robbie that decided it was Time Ta Jam, and even though Jenni had school early this morning, she was a willing participant. That Kinda Girl is a Godsend, if you ask me. Given the late hour, my mother was probably quite frustrated with the music coming through the Walls. If she would have complained, we would have just had to Talk It Out and tell her that her Children Can('t) Live Without It. It was only by sheer Will Power that we decided we would sing No More. I realized that the fact that I Luv Rap Music is not a Nu Thang at all. In fact, I really have to ask myself What Have We Become that we don't listen anymore When DC Talks.