About Skates and Worship

Yesterday at lunch my project leader from work took me skate shopping. He plays quite a bit of hockey so he took me to the store where he buys all his equipment. I had been in there before with him but I didn't realize that the second story of the building was part of the shop. Up there is a relatively unknown section of that store - the used section. I had to try on a few pairs of skates to find out the proper size. It wasn't easy because I have wide feet, but we found a nice pair that just needed a little bit of work because one of the blades was loose. So I left the skates there, since we were going to be late coming back from lunch, and after work I went and picked them up as well as a couple jerseys to wear while I skate. They are Bauer skates in good shape. I paid $100 tax included. Now all I need is some ice so I can try these babies out. Oh and I'm also going to pick up some work-out type clothes to wear while I'm skating. I just really hope it's not as painful as my previous skating experiences because it's about time this 25 year old Northern Ontario boy learned to play some hockey. And I'm hoping this will be a fun way for me to finally lose some pounds.

Last night's practice wasn't as bad as I feared, but once again Ron didn't show up. Bruce started talking right away about the Hillsong's band he used to play in. We smiled and nodded, but I could tell the others had as little interest as I did. We're a little nine person worship band - if everyone shows up. We have no aspirations of being professionals, adding other instruments, or even recording. Anyway, we started playing and my bad mood quickly dissipated. It's funny. I always seem to go into those practices in a bad mood, not wanting to be there because so-and-so didn't show up, but once we're done warming up I'm ready to worship. We worked on some new stuff, mostly Enter The Worship Circle songs I had brought. And then Pastor Jeremy showed up wanting to hear us play a song. It was a little strange playing with him standing on the stage with us. Definitely made me a little self-conscious but that's okay. After we played he let us know about some of the ideas the church is rolling around. One is for a small worship team to take over Sunday nights. It sounds like even Jeremy is getting tired of the same old songs he and the regular team do, but I know he just doesn't have much time to learn new stuff. That's something I'd like to think about doing. But the biggest surprise, and the most uncertain idea, is having a second morning service - a more youth oriented one. That definitely raised my eyebrows. The current service starts at 10am and is held at the auditorium on campus. This new service would start at 11 and be held at our church building. I think the idea is to set is up more like a cafe with tables and chairs and lots of caffinated beverages. Jeremy's message at the 10am service would be recorded direct to DVD and then run over to the second service to be played on the projector. This is definitely an idea that would interest me - a version of All Nations that I think I would enjoy attending. This is definitely a topic to talk to God about - a reason to wisen up spiritually speaking.

Matthew.