I had a meeting with Josiah and Jerry a couple of months ago about preparing actionchurch for the “next level”. We talked about ways we needed to improve the way we did church…ways we could become more effective at accomplishing our mission. We all felt compelled to prepare for the “next level”. The only problem was, when they asked me what the “next level” was- I wasn’t exactly sure. I just “knew” that we needed to get ready for it. I think I have a little better picture of what the future looks like…I’m a few months “late” but that’s usually the way it goes. :-)
The future of actionchurch is about more opportunities to serve our community. It’s a time of great need. Just because we are transitioning as a church does not mean we ignore the needs “others”. We are teaming up with some really worthy organizations to make that happen. Stay tuned!
The future of actionchurch is about empowering more leaders…and about my role becoming smaller and more focused. Since that meeting two months ago Jerry has become our Rock n Roll czar and is having a definite impact on our music on Sunday mornings. Listening to him tell the story of actionchurch to a potential landlord in a meeting this week also makes me VERY glad to have him as our representative and negotiator for new space! We’ve added Tyler and Mercedes to the Crew on Sunday mornings…and I am super excited to see what they are going to add to the mix. …which should free up Josiah to take on an even more creative role in the look/feel of Sunday mornings at actionchurch. Anything that you find to be better about our Sunday morning “presentation” is probably Josiah’s “fault”. The entire actionchurch Crew (from set up…to tear down…to creative…to actionkidz) is our greatest resource we have as a church-everyone has HUGE potential for even greater roles.
The future of actionchurch is moving from “your” church -to “our” church -to “York’s” church. When a handful of us launched a/c at Fat Daddy’s people would say to me “I came to YOUR church on Sunday”. Over the last year at Club 19 more and more folks say “we went to OUR church this Sunday.” Big transition. Our next move is to provide a place TOGETHER for our friends and family in York county who need to meet the Good Shepherd. This move will include many folks that currently can’t even imagine having a role beyond filling a chair on Sunday morning. It’s going to take ALL of our talents and resources together to pull this off…and I think that’s a very good thing.
I believe that children are the future… :-) Come on, that was a pretty good Whitney imitation. I do believe the next phase of actionchurch is to provide more space, equipment, and resources for our great actionkidz crew. From the beginning they have done amazing work in near impossible situations. (remember the first actionkidz area was covered with broken beer bottles and vomit before set up on Sunday mornings…ugh). Any move we make is going to provide better opportunities for the families with children who come to actionchurch each week.
What’s next? Lots of uncertainty. Lots of change. Many “problems”…or as God sees them…opportunities to grow.