Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Spread the word!

Rock Bridge Chatsworth is looking for a part-time Children’s Minister! Do you…
  • Have a passion to see un-churched and de-churched kids meet and grow in Christ?
  • Want to recruit and train volunteers for an AWESOME kids ministry [6 Weeks – 5th Grade]?
  • Want to love, lead and support those volunteers?
  • Have 15 – 20 hours per week available to make children’s church happen?
  • Want to join an amazing group of staff and volunteers?
Then… Email gus@rockbridge.cc for a complete job description!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Learn, learn, learn

There are lots of churches out there. Big, small, traditional, contemporary and somewhere in between. There are churches with stained glass and some with no glass at all. Gail and I were at a church in October that has more people than they have parking and run parking shuttles to move many of their thousands of folks from an off-site parking lot to their church building.

I was in a church once where the ceremonially robed minister did not touch a Bible, instead another ceremonially robed minister held a giant, and I mean giant Bible for the main-man to read. Some churches dance while some never do. Some churches have electric guitars and drums while others have no musical instruments at all.

It is this diversity that enables, or should enable the body of Christ to reach and serve the diverse population of God's prized creation within the communities we live.

For the last several Sundays Gail and I, along with some friends have visited a few of those diverse churches to learn. Not to learn about stained glass, robes or what kind of instruments to use but to learn how to do church in a school.

Here are some highlights of what we've learned or confirmed:
  • God is working in churches that meet in schools
  • Good use of technology can draw people into the service
  • Bad use of that very same technology can be a terrible distraction
  • Loud music can be cool
  • Overly-loud music can be just plain painful
  • Seating matters
  • Don't confuse visitors
  • Energy and passion from the church team; greeters, ushers etc... is critical
  • Joy from those same people is also critical
  • Joy flows from within the individual
  • Consistent energy and passion however flow from leadership and it fades as it travels
  • The leader with low energy and passion will have followers with even less
  • People are inspired to serve God when they understand the value of what they are doing
  • To pull off volunteer-driven church in a school, or anywhere, vision must be communicated clearly and often
  • God has put some AMAZING people at Rock Bridge!
  • Be open minded because some things that I've never thought of or think are ridiculous or even stupid... are working for God in other churches!
  • Learn, learn, learn!
I expect to do a few more visits over the coming weeks to keep learning, but what I'm REALLY excited about is getting started here at home. Can't wait!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Money where our mouth is

I have news. The economic situation in this area is hard. I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true and to prove it, one need not go far. Most all of us can demonstrate the difficult situation by simply examining the bottom line of our own finances.

Another fruit of the current economic tree can be seen in our local school budgets. The teachers and administration are doing a great job working within tight budgets to care for and educate our kids and grand-kids and supplies sometimes run short.

It is this need that moved us to 'put our money where our mouth is'. As Rock Bridge Chatsworth continues to move toward our actual launch we have said that we want to make a difference in our community and in the lives of people so one of our members planted the seed that led to a plan to make a difference.

So last week at our Rock Bridge Chatsworth Informational meeting we put our plan in action. Here's what happened:
  • Over the last few weeks our middle-school Area Bible Study [ABS] kids made 200 awesome thank-you cards for teachers at Spring Place and Chatsworth Elementary Schools
  • On the day of our meeting we had some volunteers baking cookies at the Appalachian Community Center all day and some more made cookies at home
  • At our meeting everyone pitched in to put together nearly 200 packets of these home-made cookies and thank you cards [several packets were also put together by some volunteers at home later]
  • A print shop in Chatsworth gave us a great deal on 17 cases of copy paper
  • On Thursday afternoon a team of folks representing Rock Bridge Chatsworth delivered enough paper, cookies and thank you cards for every staff member at Spring Place and Chatsworth elementary schools!
The staff at both schools were incredibly gracious and thankful, it was a very cool event. As we handed a ream of paper to one of the teachers we received my favorite quote of the day, "This is worth even more than gold!"

It was our honor to serve these amazing people that love, care for and educate kids in our community and I am incredibly honored to 'put our money where our mouth is' and serve with the amazing people that God has already assembled at Rock Bridge Chatsworth.

Looking forward to doing more!