Communicating Changes

Needless to say, changes are abounding at Emmanuel. This blog is about communicating these changes. Not everyone is aware of all the changes. Truth is, when you quadruple your ministry, it is difficult for anyone to know everything that is going on. This isn't a bad thing. It is just a reality of pressing forward. Eventually, if a church is doing what it is suppose to be doing, it's activity will exceed the capability of any one person (including the pastor). Now...on to what has changed.

New Vision Adopted - After the sermon series 'In Pursuit Of Purpose', the Church Council voted to adopt the new vision for Emmanuel. As such, the Council also voted to dissolve itself and put in it's place a Vision Team. This Vision Team will meet once a month to dream and evaluate ministry. The Vision Team will also focus on leadership development. The Vision Team will be made up of representatives from each ministry team in addition to the Lay Leader (12 members total). The Vision Team will meet the 3rd Monday of the month starting in November.

3 New Ministry Teams - There are additional teams that have been created to help support and live out the new vision for Emmanuel. The Radical Hospitality Team will focus on helping people feel welcomed when they come to Emmanuel for worship or other events. The Risk-Taking Outreach Team is designed to do any advertising or promoting of ministry for any other ministry team. The Faith-Forming Relationship Team focuses on Christian education programs such as Sunday Schools, Small Groups, Bibles Studies, etc.

The role of every Ministry Team is to meet as often as needed in order to plan and implement ministry that fits the role of that given team. Each team has a purpose in the context of the larger, overall Vision of 'making disciples of Jesus Christ'.

Experimenting with a second worship service - There are a few big ways that a church's growth can stagnate. One way is to run out of space. A rule of thumb that churches follow is that, any time seating or parking is at 70-80% capacity, attempts at starting a second worship service should be made. This is because studies show that at such a capacity, people tend to be discouraged from attending church because of the 'overcrowding'. Therefore, Emmanuel is experimenting as to whether or not the lack of parking is stagnating possible new growth. So from December 6th through Easter, there will be a 9:00 worship service in addition to the 10:30 worship service. The schedule will look as follows:

9:00 - worship, children's church, nursery
10:30 - worship, Sunday School, nursery

The goal for the Passionate Worship Team is to give the 9:00 service the best possible chance to succeed. This means scheduling Sunday in such a way that encourages people to attend the 9:00 service. Both services will look very similar with a couple of exceptions:

9:00 worship - The choir will sing 3 out of every 4 weeks with the Fools For Christ band playing 1 time a month. There will be a children's message and the kids will then be invited to go to children's church.

10:30 worship - The Fools will play 1 time a month. The choir will sing 1 time a month. There will be no children's sermon as the kids will have the opportunity to attend Sunday School for the full hour.

Finally, the Worship Team encourages everyone to invite, Invite, INVITE. This is a great opportunity to extend the hands of God and create new opportunities for visitors to encounter the living Christ.

Small Groups - A big part of spiritual growth at Emmanuel will be the Small Groups. We currently have about 42 people in closed groups and another 20-30 in open groups. These groups will be the core for people to get to know each other and grow closer to God. There will be another launch of small groups in January, so if you've missed out, fear not. Another opportunity is coming.

Communicating Finances - while numbers do not tell the whole story about a church's health, they can be a sign of such. Each month in the newsletter and email, there will be a general report on how Emmanuel is doing financially. You deserve to know because you trust the church to be responsbible with your tithes and offerings.

Over-burdening Leadership - Emmanuel use to be able to function with 15-20 leaders. Not anymore. Leadership has been extended to about 60 people with room for about 15 more. You are being encouraged to get involved. But be careful! Involving yourself in more than 2 teams could empty your gas tank and cause burnout. I will be encouraging people in 2010 to be a part of no more than 2 ministry teams for two reasons. One is to allow for other people to get involved. The second reason is to allow every person to have time to be fed as well as feeding others.

possible pitfall of change - I will be blogging again soon on the possible pitfalls of these changes. Satan simply doesn't like active churches that want to show the love of God. There are man-made mind-sets that can keep us from pressing forward as a church. I'll write about these mind-sets in the days to come.