It's a bird! It's a plane! Wait - who is it?

We have been through a pretty easy and quick transitional process (OK relative to others, I can tell you it was quick) and we still are awaiting our new pastor and family in August.  However there has been one thing constant at UDLC and one beacon of light holding us together...

Pastor Dyan Lawlor, UDLC's own Superwoman.  Sure she will tell you how all of the committees and lay leaders worked harder, but she has been our rock and our go-to for a congregation and she has done it with laughs and smiles, and with all the mounting stress she has been our shepherd.

She has always worn many hats, but right now she wears even more....

Observer

Dyan works in many places in the church and community and is willing to sit back when she knows people know more than she does and listen to what others may have as far as solutions.

Now, she may have insights or ideas on projects, issues, or upcoming events, she knows others have the skills and time to make these things even better.

Pastor and Preacher

Sunday Mornings, Women's Bible Study, Confirmation, Lent, Wedding, Baptisms, Funerals, Pre-School Chapel, etc...

Sure her title is PASTOR and the name brings certain expectations, but her dedication to doing her best no matter how many meetings, events, personal conflicts, or other things come up are apparent in all she does.  She is a teacher, elder, mentor, and learner when she needs to fill those areas.

Fixer

Moral Support

Dyan has been leading groups to take part in the Appalachia Service Project since 1985 and in those years she has led multiple churches, 100s of youth, and changed the lives of dozens of families in the Appalachia Region of our country.  More importantly, she has changed lives of families at UDLC.  She has taken parents, students, Church Council members, grandparents, and adults who may have never gone on a trip or worked with Youth any other way.  They have come to see the value of mission and service in building relationships and stronger people.

Friend

Dyan's friends/family at UDLC will tell you that when you have a friend like Dyan, even the bad stuff seems like something you can deal with.  She has an infectious laugh, a brilliant smile, a philosopher's heart, an artist's eye, and she cares.

YOGI!!!!

AND SHE KNOWS HOW TO HAVE FUN AND KEEP IN SHAPE.  WAIT YOU THOUGHT IF I HAD THIS PHOTO I WOULD NOT USE IT?  COME ON!  DO YOU SEE HOW AWESOME THIS IS TO SHOW YOU THE REAL DYAN BUSTING OUT OF HER SHELL!


I know, you all are saying.  Well this is a nice thing to do and a great way to pat her on the back, but there is also an important reason for this.  Dyan is approaching summer which, in the church year, people will say is the SLOW TIME.  Yet it is is not so SLOOOOOOWWWW this year.

We have lots of work to do, lots of projects, lots of small tasks to fill, and if you have the time maybe you can take a hat from her collection for a while and if you do, maybe she will teach you a yoga position or 2!

For those of you who may have not seen the video made for Dyan's 25th Anniversary of ordination here is the link...It gives you an insight to Dyan!

There is a time for everything...

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, 
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

There are times in life when we hear these words and they comfort us in bad times and others when we remember them in times of celebration. They also are words that are viewed only at these times and in those times in between we miss the importance of Ecclesiastes 3:1 - 8.

There is a time for everything and you all probably know how the Byrds version goes: 



I would ask you how does yours go?  What do you see in the song you would write?  What are your highs and lows?


In the life of a church some of the biggest highs are celebrations, but they can be the biggest challenges also.  In September 2011, one of our Pastors retired from ministry after 40 amazing years of service.  At UDLC, we celebrated his 17 years at UDLC, but more importantly we celebrated the 40 years of his and his wife's service in ministry.  Yes, we were excited for his future and what retirement would mean, but we hurt because we would be without them.


We were lead through a interim process and through all of it our pastor Dyan was a point of light and walked us through it all.  She was helped by council and by our call committee and lay leaders of the congregation.  While there was stress, we always found reasons to celebrate the small things.


This Sunday we will meet a candidate and their family who the call committee has voted on, the council voted to approve a congregational vote, and now the congregation will vote on if this is the right fit for UDLC.


This is a time for event this.  Should we vote yes, then it is to celebrate our newest family.  If not, it means we will look for where the spirit is leading us toward and what is the best candidate for UDLC.


Stay tuned to learn more, but you should also know that out of respect for all those involved, we will probably not be posting the response and information here for a while, but know that in all of this there is a time for this.


Sometimes we pray for an answers or help.  When people feel lost or wonder where the answer is, it is probably because we don't realize that God has provided the answer we are just not slowing down and looking.


Now listen to this song again and listen to the words.  Think about what time it is in your life.

Something for you while you wait...

Lent is a time of waiting in the year of the church.  It is a time of prayer, penance, repentance, and self-denial in some circles of the Christian faith.  Yet Lent can be a very important and exciting time for looking at yourself and your walk on your own discipleship journey.

At UDLC, we have been viewing sections from "Oh God!" with George Burns.



We all spend our lives a lot like Jerry Landers in "Oh, God!" with God asking us to share that God exists to all the world, to not limit God to a box we believe God needs to fit in perfectly.

So many times in our lives we work to do what we feel needs to be done and live a life we believe we deserve and letting faith fit in where we are often told it should, Church, inner circles with friends, and occasionally on TV and Sports.  Yet we many times find ourselves searching for our faith and God at times when we don't know what or who else to ask.  We cry out asking God to come be present with us.

This winter our confirmation class spent our 5 week term in class hearing from for members of Upper Dublin Lutheran Church's family sharing the stories of times in life when they found God around them and how they discovered that may have been exactly what they needed.




We all travel this same journey of discovery and we all fall short.  We try to take shortcuts or ignore the trail markers provided by others and grow angry when we find ourselves lost or in a strange place where we did not expect to find ourselves.

As we prepare to enter HOLY WEEK and the Easter Vigil, may we all shake off the society and social ties that bind us up and find our way to be willing to be ever growing in our own journey and to help others we encounter and ask for help from those ahead of us.

Set a goal and see what happens....

On March 10th - 11th, 28 youth and adults got together for two main goals:

1.  Get 50 participants to raise $5,000.
2.  Begin to educate our community in more detail about famine in the East Horn of Africa and locally.

Well, we didn't get to 50 participants, but we did get to 28 and we didn't hit our $5,000 goal.  WE HIT $10,000.

We worked with our friends at Chosen 300 to serve our fellow community members in Philadelphia.

I would give you more details and provide all sorts of facts, but our youth did a great job of recapping for us:

Check out some of the photos from UDLC's 30 Hour Famine.

Happy 21st Birthday UDLC Flea Market

Most 21st birthday's start a lot different than the Upper Dublin Lutheran Church Flea Market, but not many impact as many people in such a positive way and involve as many people.  The funny thing is this 21st birthday is as much fun for the young ones through all of our seasoned Upper Dublin Lutheran veterans.

So, now if this were a movie, we would have a flashback.  You know where the world gets smokey and we can look back on 1990 and see the very first one and end up commenting about hair styles, music, and the clothing we wore.  Now let's be honest this blog is pretty awesome, but it can not control time and space. 

However, it can find pretty old school photos if provoked of members choosing to challenge those of us who post these entries (just kidding, kind of...).


So where did this amazing idea come from?  Who is to credit for such a program who would give blood, sweat, and sometimes tears?  WELL CALM DOWN AND IF YOU STOP ASKING THESE QUESTIONS AND KEEP READING I AM SURE WE WILL ANSWER THEM.


The flea market started 21 years ago when Dianne Schueller wanted to generate some funds for local charities. She realized that no one has flea markets in February. February has not been the same at UDLC since.  Now, we all know Dianne and let’s be honest, when Dianne has an idea and decides to make it happen...IT HAPPENS.  She is a real treasure to UDLC, just look at the gardens all spring, summer, and fall she makes the church look.  Now, when this first started, little did we know that it would grow to be as large as it has grown? Every year, if all went well, you would never know we had a flea market hosting hundreds of people, making thousands of dollars because nothing is left. Some workers go out to dinner together, some go home and crash but the flea market is always a church team effort and a job well done.

Now, this does not happen overnight.  Even given the fact people look for it all the time, people begin to think about it as soon as summer.  UDLC members start asking the Sunday after Christmas when the flea market will be. It is always a good way to remind people to save those gently used items they may get replaced at Christmas to help benefit others. Outdoor signs advertising the market are sent to the sign store for a yearly re-numbering in January and the metal frames are driven into the ground whenever the soil is thawed. Signs are attached to the frames usually on a cold and windy day making the job so much fun.

45 tables are reserved in January from a rental company for a week along with Janet Waechter taking over publicity and she makes sure the advertisements are in the local papers and on the scrolling billboard at the bank in Ambler. Janet also prepares a display of the outreach of the chosen recipients so everyone can learn about these charities.

Set up starts the Monday before with packing EVERYTHING (LITERALLY...EVERYTHING) from the Jr. and Sr. High rooms into the senior high room along with the piano, divider screens, lecterns and anything loose in Fellowship Hall. Monday night someone takes pictures of the Sunday school rooms that will be used so the furniture can be returned to its original lay out.

After that is finished, 45 tables are arranged in Fellowship Hall and in 2 – 3 Sunday school classrooms and for the 2nd year in the new multi-purpose room.  Shelving and other display aids are put in place. Signs are hung over the tables for a general indication of where items will go.

Tuesday – Thursday 9AM – 9 PM is drop off for donors, and marking, pricing and sorting for the workers. EVERYTHING gets a masking tape price tag and is priced at 1/10th to ¼ of retail price.

“Departments” at the flea market depend in what is donated but in general we have:
Jewelry, kitchen wares, dishes, flatware, mugs, glasses, wine glasses (including Build to Serve mugs), linens, holiday items, tools, CDs tapes, record albums, sporting goods, craft items, games, puzzles, gardening supplies, tons of books, small appliances, pet items, frames, posters and artwork; candles, small furniture, children’s toys, clothes and equipment, baby toys clothes and equipment, books and computers and software.

This is the 2nd year we will accept computers. Computers are donated to a company in Ephrata that takes them apart and reassembles parts into a working computer for people needing computers. This is another outreach from UDLC to the community.   Jewelry room workers do the tedious work of untangling chains and pricing each tiny piece. Linen workers measure each textile piece (single bed, double queen etc) and mark and price it.  Someone is busy on a laptop looking up values for any collectible item we may have received. We try to price those higher than other items yet still under the going price so someone can get a deal and we will still sell the item. Who knew that a rubber Playtex girdle in the original package sells for $60?! Some flea market workers know that!

Life goes on in UDLC the week of the flea market, while it can be quite stressful and confusing to those who show up to a space that is in use looking for a meeting. The nursery school teachers do a tremendous job of keeping “life as normal” in their classrooms, even though little notice everything 2 – 4 year old eyes DO see those tempting piles of toys in the downstairs hallway. Kathleen and Theresa, in the office make sure all the groups who use spaces now taken up by tables know the new meeting rooms and help make last minute changes. These two are unsung heroes who also live through this chaotic week in mostly silent observation.

On Friday, the flea market has to be totally priced and no more donations are accepted. The tables for the cashiers are set up, Bruce Waechter makes a trip to the bank so the cashier’s tills can be set up and the floor is vacuumed. A group of people make a sweep to make sure like items are priced the same. Nothing is uglier than 2 people fighting over the same cooler with one marked $2 and one marked $5 on the morning of the flea market. A “Martha Stewart” team comes in Friday afternoon and makes “vignettes” displays. Displaying our stuff attractively has upped our sales. Of course, the displays do not last long come Saturday.


We also contact the Upper Dublin Police department to give them a heads up of Saturday traffic and they are kind enough to sweep through the parking lot the week of the flea market for added security.

Saturday morning is a Cecil B. DeMille production. Cashiers, bouncers, (stair way is down only, please, no strollers,), floor people who rearrange the stuff, bring items under the table to the top of the table, catechism students help customers out to their cars with purchases and oh-so-nicely tell people then cannot come in the side doors. Kitchen workers, (who are responsible to set the year’s menu and make plans to purchase the necessary ingredients and supplies) have fired up the ovens, crock posts, and warming trays for the hungry masses. Thank you David and Charlie for doing this for so long!

Our pastor(s) are there Saturday morning to greet our flea market guests as they rush in. 

THEN THE SALE STARTS! Deals are struck, treasures are found, and those people who made room in their house with donations often find themselves giving new homes to the perfect item found in the maze of household items, electronics, Christmas decorations, or toys.


Saturday afternoon a brand new team comes in and ALL leftovers get boxed (only boxes with a lid please) and packed in the waiting panel truck. Past years have seen John Weiss pushing the driver in the driver’s side so he can squeeze in since the front was also filled. The church is vacuumed and everything from the senior high room is returned to its place and tables are put back to their original position in the Sunday school rooms.


Recipients of our unsold items are contacted and arrangements made although things don’t always end up just as planned. Nothing like having a ton of boxes awaiting the arrival of a truck that never comes! This has happened! The recipients of our leftovers constantly change due to their situations – lucky New Life Thrift Store likes our stuff and we like them. New Life thrift uses their proceeds for charity.

Now, that you know what is going on at UDLC this week when you show up, perhaps a few other people should be recognized for their work. Bill and Kathy James spend hours helping getting the church setup, volunteers in place, setup and tear down complete (not to mention giving us details for this blog entry), and all of this after working all day. We have dozens of setup volunteer adults, teens, Tweens, neighbors, community members young and old, and at times a pastor has even been seen up there lending a hand before shopping!

Oh and once the sale is done and smoke has cleared. The church is reset for Sunday morning and we celebrate the great time we all had, the charities end up receiving between $3,000 and $5,000 for their ministry.

Now, if you got all upset because we told you to wait and we probably will answer your question and now are more annoyed because something is still unanswered I can get you those answers. Just show up on Tuesday - Thursday to help setup or volunteer to help Saturday and ask around while you maybe meet members you may have never run across otherwise.

Oh and if anyone finds a 1st edition of "Lake Wobegon Days" Pastor Lawlor will pay you back! ;-)

Local writer Elise Seyfried comes to UDLC March 1st.

In life a little rain must fall and sometimes your umbrella just ain't big enough.  Yet look back on it when enough time has passed and some life lessons may become clearer.


No, this is not a quote from "Underway: Reflections on Everyday Grace" by local writer Elise Seyfried; it is actually just sort of what happens in life.  We all deal with things every day and in Elise's new book "Underway: Reflections on Everyday Grace" Elise takes readers through parts of her life and finding the BIG "G" in all of it.

Elise began her published life with "Unhaling: On God, Grace and a Perfectly Imperfect Life" a collection of her Essay's that came out in 2010 and allowed her to take what would to some look like the insanely busy life of a Christian Education Director/Youth Leader/Mom/Wife/Actress and in all of that a faithful Child of God.

In all of her writing, Elise focuses on the ONE true support and guidance that she looks to for support and guidance.  Her writing is that of a friend telling you stories from her life and the lives of her family and while she does not try and not embarrass her kids, she does admit that this is real life and is telling these stories to help give others insight.

Elise will be coming to UDLC on March 1, 2012 to do a reading and meet with members of the community.  She has been called “a local Gem” and those who meet her will understand the compliment, but Elise will be the last one to call herself a GEM.

Elise has been writing freelance locally for years and presently serves as Director of Spiritual Formation at Christ Lutheran Church in Oreland, Pennsylvania.  She is married to Steve and is mother to 5 great children. 
Check out both of her books here at Lulu.com and her own blog here.

Why call your Blog "News from the Back Pew"?

So the name may make sense to some who understand the idea of  sitting close to the back for a quick exit, many people may wonder why we chose to go with "News from the Back Pew".  Though if you ever take a look at the back pew of most church services, it is almost always occupied.  

The Youth Director here (who actually chose the name) spent almost 20+ years with his Dad, Mom, and 2 sisters in the back pew of the congregation he grew up in.  In that time, he knew who was missing each week by spaces open in relation to where he sat.  It gave him a sense of community and family to look over the  congregation and see the adults and friends in his church family with him each week.  It also was his safe spot.  It was a place that he knew he would be almost every Sunday and was the place where before the services his family would read over the weekly announcements and church happenings (never during worship of the sermon of course). 

However, if you think about the back pew of most churches, you always find a mix of members.  You find late comers, old timers, nervous visitors, and often times our ushers.  The church back pew is also the place the pastor hopes to reach each week.  Sure, we have microphones these days, but you still have to project all the way back there, so really the back pew is focal point for those up front, as much as the altar is the focus for the people back there.

So, the name comes the way other things get their name, it works.  So join us each week here and get the news from the back pew.  It may be additional reflections on the sermon from Sunday, a question to think about each week, or just some info we find on the web and think the UDLC will find interesting.  So this like the back pew is a place for you to still remain involved, if cautiously and to a degree anonymously.