Box Score for April 22, 2007

This Sunday was one of the best I've experience in many ways. I find myself saying that a lot, recently...especially since the formation of our Saturday morning planning team, but more on that later.

First the stats, then some comments. Attendance was 341 at our two Sunday morning services; a 43 person (14%) increase from the same weekend last year.

I'm finding out that some of our members are staying away from church due to the sermon series that we're doing: PureSex, which we got from Granger. That's really a shame. That shows me that too many people (Christians) think that church is all about them.

I can't get past the belief that there comes a point in a Christ-follower's faith journey when a weekend church experience should be less about them "being fed" and more about them seeking opportunities to "do some feeding." A major difference between young children and grown-ups is who does the feeding. Those who've grown up should not need to be fed, but should take responsibility to find their own sources of food.

The weekend service is the gateway to God, if you will, for many people who have no connection to the Lord. We need to come to church as cooks, hostesses and servers...the customers are the unconnected from our community.

Alright...enough mixing of metaphors.

Our Saturday morning planning team (I really need a better name) tackled a new strategy with some very good results. Thanks to the contributions of Mike Lanahan, who used to serve with the Willow Creek student ministry, we're trying out a corkboard method with index cards and pushpins and little colored dots...my wife who teaches elementary loves it, of course.

I have to say, it worked very well. We'll be growing into the system for a while and I'm sure we'll still adapt it to fit our groove, but I believe we achieved more in less time, and that's something I've been hoping for.

I love working with my team! We definitely need to get better at bringing in new team members, but we're heading in the right direction.