Been a while since I've posted with both consistency and thought. I kinda go through these funks where I don't care to discuss what's going on in my head with the world. Apologies to those who read looking for insight... I'm human too :)

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God's a pretty cool God. This week went well at Sonlight. We started an 'experiment' with double services. With nearly no hitches we pulled off adding a second service and our Worship team under Steven's direction did an incredible job at "He chose the nails" (a multimedia/worship experience). It was great to see so many talented people of Sonlight sharing their gifts. I later shared with Steven how awesome it is that God spends a lifetime molding you for just what he desires at each stage of your life. As you submit to him you are being prepared for the future. So many people pulled off a great production. Steven's been at Sonlight for less than 2 years and there were 13 singers involved with sound and lighting crews. He's done a great job from scratch. God's cool.

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Our youth service has been moved up to the 9am service. We did this following some research I did in our database. I looked at the structure of the families our youth ministry impacts. I found that 13 different families who have teens in our department also have one or more children in our children's department. For us to have a successful early service and effectively separate the classrooms (our main goal in going to 2 services), we decided to make the move with the youth department. A few years ago I would have looked to the interests of our youth department first (asking teens to get up at 8 or earlier for a 9am service isn't cool when they're used to one that starts at 10:30am), but in the past 2 years as my ministry mind has grown, I've bought into understanding that we're all on the same team and my department is only successful if we're able to asist in accomplishing the overall mission of our church to 'encourage and equip people to know God through His son Jesus Christ'. That's what this move has been about so we'll take the small hit if it helps the church as a whole prosper in reaching our community.

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Truth is truth is truth: I know it's been said before (not trying to be original, just effective), but God is the source of all truth.
Business truths are very effective in a church environment. Marketing isn't some scheme that should be avoided or condemned...effective ways to market our product (Knowing God) isn't something to debate. With the greatest product on the market we should easily find the best ways to make it happen. Ben Arment's sister Heather is incredible at marketing.