End of a Church Era

Well, it hit me tonight as I was dismantling the music corner of the sanctuary: this period is over.

"Our little church" is clearing out, selling most of our stuff, and returning to a simpler, cheaper time. It is a 15 year long story, and how it goes depends on who's doing the telling.

As a church leader, I was the first to say "we gotta leave this place" I knew (and know) it is the right thing to do now. With every end there is a new beginning, this is no exception. We believe a new, better, stronger church will be the end result of our present actions, but we will take time to honor the people that gave so much over the the years, the campus is full of things that are stories of themselves. I know most of those stories and in taking them down so quickly, am reminded how fragile we are.

Secrets of a Super Scooper

At the tender age of 15 I worked at the Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in Oak Park Il. I got good at the skill of "soda jerk" (some would say better at the second part). I scooped a perfect 2.5 oz. serving every time, made excellent ice cream sodas (most living people would not know what that is), pretty much the whole menu, even cakes!

The one thing that came to me tonight in my meditation was hand-packed pints and quarts. You see our ice cream was sold by weight, not volume. The ice cream went into the quart container and weighed let's say 26 oz.

When I first started I would pack the container, customer watching in delight as I got to the top, I would weigh and see how close I was. Well, if I was over I had to take some out.

Customer: :-(

I would point to the sign "Ice cream is sold by weight not by volume".

customer: :-((

One time the boss, Mr Fitzpatrick took me aside and said just watch me and you'll never have another unhappy customer.

It was pretty simple; you throw a few slivers in the bottom, and as it gets to the top you have to force the last of the ice cream in.

customer: :-)))

Everybody happy!