Monday SOC

Monday's "stream of consciousness" reflections of the weekend:

• Kind of a weird Sunday...

• Pretty low attendance at 11:15AM and 4PM (normally our biggest services). On par at the 9AM and a big turnout at the 6PM (which is great!) Lots of people away this weekend, which seemed kind of random.

• I checked our attendance data for the past three years. This Sunday has consistently been a "drop" Sunday. I love having data to compare with. It means I don't have to wonder if there is a problem. This was predictable.

• Even though numbers were off, we were still up 25% from the same Sunday last year and 21% over our current annual average -- so I'm not too concerned ;-)

• We also had a lot of first-time guests and second-time guests.

• With people away and a few key leaders being sick, our Guest Services team had a bit of a rough time this Sunday. But everyone rallied and did a great job. A special thanks to those of you who stepped it up and put in an extra long day! (You know who you are!)

• All of that said, I thought our services were really solid and I have been getting great feedback on the message series from folks. Exciting to hear all the stories of people digging into the text and reading the Bible!

• I got to hang out with our Liquid youth ministry Sunday night. It was a blast! One of the advantages to using video teaching at the 6PM is that I am now freed up to do things like that. I love teenagers and think it is so critical for churches to figure out a way to really engage them! Our team is doing a great job. We've had a couple of hiccups getting this thing off the ground, but I think we have now stumbled upon a model that might work!

• Great hearing so many great reports from Week #1 of our Fall Small Groups. Awesome!

• Loved "What Wondrous Love is This" at the 4PM & 6PM. "Backwards" by Kris Allen was perfect at the 11:15 Jazz service. And I loved "All Creatures of Our God & King" at 9AM -- one of my favorite hymns.

• It seems that someone "borrowed" the on-your-honor cash container on the front resource table in the chapel. It probably had $60 +/- in it. It would be great to get it back... no questions asked. And remember, if there is a need we have our great Jericho Road Project and are always happy to help out...

• I heard we had some tech issues with video at the 6PM... they will be fixed by next Sunday. Our techs have really done an amazing job with the transition to 4 services and the addition of live video!

• We are at about $30,000 for the 150 DAY CHALLENGE... great start, but we have a lot of work still to do! Keep it up.

• With one Sunday still left this month, it looks like this will be our best "ordinary giving" month yet. It also is our highest attended month yet! It is also looking like 50-60% of our average Sunday attendance have connected with small groups this Fall. These are all great signs!

• My sense is that God is preparing us as a church for explosive growth sometime in the near future... hard to tell when. Could be 6 months or 2 years... but it is coming! So let's keep praying and preparing!

Thanks for being on this journey with me!