A SUNDAY OF EXCITEMENT -- PART TWO

The electricians found the cause of the problem in the sanctuary – a ballast for one of the fluorescent lights failed, began to smoke and burned out. The ballast has been replaced. The lights are back on. We are ready to resume worship of Almighty God in our sanctuary.

We are not sure why a circuit breaker did not trip and shut off the electricity before the ballast began to burn. We will be checking that issue out.

We found out our sanctuary does not have a smoke detector. We are checking on what it will take to install one.

Although we had an orderly and uneventful evacuation of the building, we are also going to work on improving our emergency procedures in case we have need to respond to like emergencies.

Although inconvenient for our past Sunday morning activities, may we use this incident as a learning moment to better prepare ourselves for dealing with this kind of circumstance if such should happen in the future.

A SUNDAY OF EXCITEMENT

As you may be aware, this past Sunday the 11:00 a.m. worship service was interrupted by smoke in the sanctuary. Ten minutes into the service Pastor Steve suggested the sanctuary be evacuated. As a matter of safety the whole church building was cleared and the day’s activities canceled.

The smoke smelled electrical and seemed to be coming from one of lights in the sanctuary ceiling. The Fire Department was called. Steve also called Larry Fagan, electrical contractor who has a long history and familiarity with Platte Woods Church. Larry responded immediately, coming to the church with one of his company’s electricians. After investigation by the Fire Department and Larry, it was determined the building would be OK. However, it was suggested the lights in the sanctuary be left off until the condition could be checked out.

Monday morning Larry and an electrician again visited the church. We turned the lights on to see what would happen. Nothing happened. Larry suggested the following:

• First, one of Larry’s electricians would check out the lights in the ceiling to see if insulation was placed too close to the light, causing excessive heat buildup and a potential fire hazard.
• Second, Larry is arranging for a mechanical lift to be brought into the sanctuary on Wednesday or Thursday, so as to check on the fluorescent lights above the soffits on the sides of the sanctuary. It could be one of the light ballasts malfunctioned.
• Third, we are arranging to have the furnaces servicing the sanctuary checked to make sure the furnace wiring is not the cause of the problem.

We will have completed all of the above actions by Friday morning. We will let you know the outcome of the investigation. At this time we are planning to hold worship services on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, as well as Sunday School.

This has been a learning opportunity for our church community. We accomplished evacuation of the church building in an orderly and efficient fashion. However, we need to develop and post emergency procedures for evacuating our property. At our staff meeting this morning we discussed this issue. We certainly want to provide the safest possible environment for our collective activities! Working with the Church Trustees, we will develop emergency plans for this and other challenges we might face in the future.

And so I give thanks to God no persons were injured and no property damaged. Indeed, it was a Sunday of excitement!

ANOTHER NEW LEARNING

Learning how to do a BLOG has been a lot easier than I thought. The hardest part has been to remember how to get into the blogging program. Once in the program the challenge is to remember how to make sure the composition gets posted.

Now Jennifer Simms has introduced me to another new bit of technology – online surveys. I have seen online surveys and have filled them out. However, I never thought I would be part of developing such a survey. Now I learn we have the ability to do online surveying.

Yesterday, Jennifer posted a survey Pastor Steve and I, with Jennifer’s help, put together. It will be interesting to see the results.

A little background on the survey – As you might be aware we are in the process of developing the 2009 Platte Woods Church budget. We have talked with and received requests from most of the groups in the church. In developing a church budget it is fairly easy to come up with number of dollars we would like to spend. What is vastly more challenging is to determine what resources our members and friends provide for us to use. That is why churches conduct annual stewardship programs. The challenge is to determine if our expected income will meet our expected expenses for the coming year. During the remaining Sundays in October, our pastors will be addressing the issue of stewardship and how we use the resources God has provided for us.

What particularly complicates our process this year is the economic circumstances we are experiencing. We know the movement in the stock market. We hear the job statistics. We experience price changes, especially at the grocery store. We pay varying prices at the gas pump. We wonder where the economy is going. At the church, we begin to wonder how all the economic forces are going to impact the support we receive.

Thus a short, four-question inquiry on the subject of stewardship.

You may participate in the stewardship survey by going to http://www.plattewoodschurch.org/pages/pageshow.cfm?pageID=158.

Thanks in advance for your input.