My Tuesday Thoughts...

I know that it's Wednesday, but here are my thoughts from Tuesday. I really had a lot of stuff up in my gray matter, and it needed a little editing before my post.

So we had our weekly church leadership staff meeting yesterday (Monday). It is so exciting to hear all of the good things that God is doing in and through this church. What a confirmation on where we going when we are given such favor from God. P.C. (Pastor Clay) shared some awesome news with us about the direction in which the church is going. God really laid some serious stuff on his heart and it’s so nice to see that passion for a vision.

As a leadership group we’ve begun a group study using the book Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger. As they state in the book, “It’s not about another church model.” This book is about “Returning to God’s process for making disciples.” Sounds interesting and it is. I’m not an avid book reader. I’ve never been. I’m a visual person and if the book doesn’t catch me visual, I’m usually out for the count after the first 2 or 3 paragraphs. So I’m in search of this book on CD. (I think that I found one!!)

So, despite my lack of READING desire, I dove in and God really opened my eyes to where our Children’s Ministry is in line with the rest of the church. We began discussing chapters 2 and 3 of the book: 2-The Simple (And Not So Simple) Church in Action and 3-Simple Church An Extreme Makeover. You’ll have to get the book/CD to get the full scope of what they’re talking about. But in a nut shell, if that’s even possible. The thing that grabbed my attention was that the church that was growing and moving mountains was very simple. All areas of ministry had the same Vision/Mission in mind. The process they proceeded in was universal. When each leader was asked what their Purpose was and the Process…they all stated the same thing. There are some churches out there that are struggling because each ministry has its own Purpose and Process. So they are all vying for space, attention, resources, volunteers, etc. As I began to evaluate the Children’s Ministry I started asking myself….are we functioning with the same Purpose in mind and does our Process line up with the church; something that has really had me in a wisdom seeking state for many months now. So I posed a question to clarify my understanding of what our Purpose is and the Process we take to accomplish this purpose. Well, I got an answer, that was not so clear to me. So my prayer is that as we continue this book, it will become clearer to me and anyone else that might not know.

I will say that Barefoot is definitely moving mountains and is growing in a way that I've never imagined or experienced. So we are definitely doing something right in the eyes of God. We have exceptional Pastor with an awesome vision, cutting-edge presentation, relevant format of worship, simple, laid back, and welcoming environment (come have breakfast), I can only wait to see what God has in store for us next.