Miscellaneous & Pt. 2 of LifeChurch Report

I know it's been a while since I posted anything new. This last week was a transitional week for us in the sabbatical -- the long drive back to NC after visiting in Texas & Oklahoma, punctuated by a 4-hour Sunday afternoon breakdown in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The Lord was good and led us to a young mechanic who lives in his shop and was willing to put in the new alternator. Pray for Grady & Alesha -- they were kind and honest with us, but clearly need a Christian influence in their lives. Pray for Grady's business -- he says he wants to run an honest auto repair shop after being fired from several for not agreeing to deceive customers.

We came home, thinking we'd just do a quick turn-a-round, picking up Mikaela, doing some laundry, etc. It was quick, but eventful. Vanessa got a call from the principal of West Johnston High School, offering her a job, with guarantees of teaching her loves -- Algebra II and AFM. She hadn't been actively looking for a new position, but many of us have been praying for her to find a less stressful, more enjoyable job -- we're convinced this is God's answer to those prayers.

We're now in the Charleston, SC area -- checking out Seacoast Community Church - www.seacoast.org - I'll write about them on Sunday or Monday. It's now late Saturday and we've already gone to one service - tomorrow morning we'll catch 2 or 3 more of their venues and another location where a campus meets in a Senior Adult Center.

I wanted to finish up with a few more thoughts about LifeChurch:

• Brian Ahern told me they are in their first year of annual membership commitments. What that means is that on December 31 of each year, they clean the rolls and take it down to zero! During the first few weeks of January, membership is explained and emphasized. People are given the opportunity to say they would like to be a member in 2007, but the commitment is a promise that you'll do 3 things -- attend, tithe, and serve. So, members are never allowed to have that feeling that "I have tenure, here." You're either a fully committed member who's doing those 3 things or you're not." Interesting approach.
• Sunday morning we drove out to Stillwater, Ok -- an hour north of Oklahoma City. It is a university town of 40,000 - when college students are not around. Brian Ahern met us there and gave us the tour of this brand new facility. This campus had started out in a high school and only recently moved into it's own building.
• An interesting thing we saw was open offices -- one large room with workstations where the campus pastor, age group pastors, support staff were all within earshot of each other. Autumn would love this arrangement -- I'd go nuts!
• He shared a lot of nuts & bolts things with us -- how volunteers pick up their specific assignments when they come in -- how the offering gets handled (with lots of accountability and security) -- how children's ministry and student ministry are done at this location, etc.
• We learned how the staff at the main campus really make it easier for these smaller campus congregations to do first-rate ministry. For example, tubs of children's curriculum are prepared by volunteers at the main campus and delivered to the sattelites. In the tub are all the materials a classroom teacher will need to teach the lesson that Sunday. Teachers/volunteers can walk in on Sunday morning and know everything they'll need is already gathered and in the room.
• One neat thing we heard at one of the services -- the campus pastor said, "It's time to give our offerings. If you are here and are in need of the basic necessities of life - food, clothing, shelter - feel free to take out of the offering what you need."

Have a great service tomorrow. We're praying for great things to happen. I checked on the attendance and Crossroads is consistently having 50 more people each Sunday than we had on the same Sundays last summer. Last Sunday, you had over 200 worshipping with you. Way to go!!

We love you guys. Thanks for letting us have the freedom to do this trip.

Ken & Vanessa