Improving

Insights into my mind ahead:

Since our move to the theater we've been improving in various areas.
Most of our people either had not been in church or remember being in small churches. With me being the only person who's worked in anything large, lets just say it's been a long journey to get to quality. For instance: In most of our previous buildings I was questioned "Why do we need parking lot attendants?" After all we didn't have very many cars and the walk from the parking lot to our auditorium wasn't very far. Now in our mall facility it makes complete sense to have this team of people. These types of things have been getting better.

Our First Impressions area has come along way along with our sound and lighting. Preschool is also doing well. Each of these areas has taken time to grow. As we get settled in to our new space, my attention turns toward the next few months and trying to get people through the doors. I'm going to begin working on various advertising forms this week and move our planning along for some upcoming events. We'll have a pretty sweet Easter Egg Hunt that is shaping up to be a great outreach for us in addition to some other things.

Each time we make improvements I sit back and think "But this is where I wanted us to be when we started." And it usually is. Most of our improvements have been slow and over time. Again... we started in a relatively 'churched' area and after the church baby boom. Offering up jeans and coffee wasn't good enough to get people. We've grown much much slower than I'd ever have wanted but we're still here and more focused than ever. I've grown so much these last 2 years. We are definitely in a great position... but 'O how I wish it were faster.

Instead of getting bogged down into what I WANTED to happen... I have to be grateful for the many positives we have as we move forward.

One of the things that has come a long way is our sound.
This week we added in-ear monitors to the mix which (for us) is huge! Not only do we not have to transport the floor monitors any longer but we can also send signals to other parts of the building. We will be sending a feed to the nursery so they can tell how we're doing as well as to the foyer for the same reason.

We've always been short on technical people. Focal Point as yet to have a set of people who 'know' any one of several areas (sound, lighting, computer, etc.) Early on I found myself going from station to station tweaking everything. Recently we've added a guy named Jon who has handled our sound. He answered an ad for musicians (he's a drummer). He's come the last 3 weeks and jumped right in. Jon is taking our sound to another level. He's been huge for us. He's a go-getter who knows what to do. I've truly enjoyed getting to know him and his fiance' Grace. It also doesn't hurt that he's a 24 fan.

Next up: Children.
We've never had a good Children's ministry. We had a good rotation for a while... but never any sustained consistency or program. We currently use 252Basics for our curriculum but this area is one of our weakest areas. Being that we're a church plant, this is terrible! This is definitely an area we must improve as of a year ago!

Anyone have success turning a children's program around? Wanna share your secret? If you say 'terrific volunteers' I'll scream. Just kidding. We have good people but no one who believes Children's ministry is 'their thing'. If you resurrected a children's program... let me know.