Sunday Thoughts

A few quick thoughts today:

Loved having the kids open the service with a couple of songs. They bring so much energy and life with them. No too mention we actually have a full room at 10 am. ;-)

Nathan and the band are moving forward well. Great worship today.

We announced today that Nathan is changing roles a bit. He is moving from youth to creative arts. Basically, it means he has more responsibilities. He will be overseeing music, video, drama, web & print, and the other creative aspects we do. He will be working with children, youth, and adults in these areas. His job will be to assemble teams of people in each of the areas for the projects and events and activities as needed.

For the youth this means a few things. Nothing will change until August. Then the volunteer leaders will start taking on a bit more responsibility within the ministry. We will move to a more small groups based format week to week on Wednesdays. Once or twice a month, I will speak to the youth. We will be giving the youth more opportunity to be involved.

There are a few reasons for the change. One, I believe this puts Nathan closer to his "sweet spot" in ministry given his giftings and passions. Also, it moves us closer as a church to where we need to go. This will help bring us closer to cohesive and continuous ministry across generations.

There is another reason. I believe that one of the reasons the church as a whole is losing 9 out of 10 of our youth when they graduate high school, is we don't effectively connect them to a church. They are connected to a youth group, but not a church. With the changes we are enacting and other things we will do in the future, I believe we can do our part to reverse this trend.

This is the direction we are going now and will adjust as needed along the way.

We also took time today to highlight missions and give those who are not currently giving to missions on a regular basis to partner with us. Great response!

Here is the podcast from today.

A quick side note:

The new AC units are in place and almost fully hooked up. We replaced the eight units which were still original to the building. The work on the parking lot has begun and should be complete in a couple of weeks. The ditch in the front of the building is being filled in to give that a nice finished look, and we will have a new sign in June or July. Finally, the work on the cafe should begin soon.