Worship and Home Repairs

The past week I have been working at a pretty high pace trying to get things together for two elements of my life. The house is still under "preparations" as we try to get it ready for a host of visitors this week, and worship has more than filled my life a little bit. I have managed to squeeze in two worship services at St. Andrew UMC (#saumc.sm for those that follow on Twitter) and then a jaunt over to Christ UMC with my wife for the Japanese language service this past Saturday.

I am confronted by the reality that the shelter is only the beginning. We have a place to worship, and we have a home to live in, but they are both "under construction" if you will. Neither one is quite complete. There are pieces that need to be adjusted and tweaked.

For instance the preacher in all three services did not have a microphone. Both churches have adequate speaker systems, though they are patched over the original workings for such, and probably need to be updated again. In one case the preacher was trying to preach over the volume of the Bible Study in the adjacent room. In the other services the preacher was trying to preach to a room two times to large for the congregation gathered, who often had hearing problems and would need the amplification of a microphone, or be aided by the hearing devices available at the back of the sanctuary, which are then rendered useless if the preacher doesn't use a microphone.

The house has lots of storage, but there is not a good configuration with the existing shelves and cabinets for all the books we have in the house, and the office books especially. We are trying to figure out how to make the necessary adjustments, and additions to the bookcases, without breaking the bank.

The hard part for both is the reality that we can make the quick fix, and take care of the "problem", but is it the best option? Are we willing to do the work necessary to determine the best solution, and take the time to make the additional touches work - like finding a microphone that works for the pastor's style and the configuration of the speakers; or finding the right crown moulding to stain and add to the cheaper bookshelves, in order to bring the room together?

I just noticed there are these things that seem like big issues, and we need to address them, but we need to take the time to do more than just throw something over it and get it covered, by instead making sure we address the bigger problems, ensure that there is a "problem" to begin, and then carefully examine the best options and practices for moving forward.