He is risen!

What an amazing day of worship we had this past Sunday! I'll remember Easter 2009 for a quite a while, I know. It occurs to me that the early church began meeting together on Sundays because that was the day Jesus rose from the dead. For us who believe, every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday!

A BIG thanks to so many in the church family who loved and prepared and prayed our way to such a wonderful day. We were able to host many friends and guests who joined us because of your servant-hearted attitudes. In spite of the rain, there were many who parked at the Swim & Tennis Club. As a result, we had enough parking on our campus. The total attendance for both services was 607, so thank you for being like Jesus and loving all who came. We saw that on display in many ways!

The Leadership was excited to spring on the congregation our 'Easter Surprise.' How fun! The new Sanctuary Chairs were not rented just for Easter Sunday (a few thought that!), they were the result of a generous gift by one of our Norkenzie families. The Facilities Upgrade Team painted the walls of the Sanctuary last week. The Grounds Ministry Team poured hours into the exterior landscaping and our newly formed Facilities Ministry Team made the church building sparkle. Thank you everyone!

Sanctuary Chairs Project

The beauty and function of the Sanctuary Chairs is amazing! (Honestly, they are much better than I anticipated.) Now that half the Sanctuary has them, we would like finish the project! Would you like to be involved?

There are some significant improvements that come with the chairs:

• Beauty
• Comfort
• Versatility
• Improved Sound
• Increased Capacity

Of course Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but Comfort! There are already people who have dozed off in these chairs (kidding). The chairs are stackable. This means that the room is suddenly multi-purpose, giving us Versatility. We could roll round tables in there for a Sweetheart's Dinner or a Leadership Cafe if we wanted. We've already noticed Improved Sound in the Media Ministry. Our 'Quonset Hut' is a very difficult room for our sound tech volunteers. The chairs work like the acoustic panels on the back wall, which is very helpful! Finally, we will have Increased Capacity in our seating (from 240 to 265; a 10% increase). Some of our Ushers have already commented that it is very easy to see where available seats are located with the chairs. This will help them serve our guests who show up just a little bit late!

We have 134 chairs and need 134 more to finish the project. The cost for each chair is $62. Please consider 'sponsoring a chair' or a whole row of chairs. I'm thinking about sponsoring one for each of my children (Wait a minute... what am I thinking!? I'm going to need some help with that...). Maybe you want to sponsor a chair for that person you are praying for to receive Christ. That is beautiful and is the reason we exist...

Wouldn't it be great to finish the project this summer? Absolutely! Please call or email Darrell Ulm (485-8564, darrell@norkenzie.net) if you would like to participate.

Have a great Tuesday!
Neil

p.s. If you are interesting in having one of the out-going pews, you may for a donation of any size to the Sanctuary Chairs Project. We are moving them as quickly as possible, so call or email Darrell soon.