You know it has been a while when your mom tells you that you need to update your blog! :)

I have been swamped at church lately.  I use the term swamped because it feels like I am constantly moving and going, but not getting very far at all. You know how it feels when your feet are stuck in mud. You can expend a tremendous amount of energy, and only move a few inches. I have felt that way a lot lately.  When I take my eyes off of the mud though, and I stay focused on the direction that God has for me, I realize that I am traveling pretty fast.  In the last two months (the time since we moved to two services) we have grown an average of 45 kids.  That has taken us from the 375-390 weekend mark to the 425-440 weekend mark for kids.  I know that doesn't sound like a huge jump, but that doesn't even take into account our Easter Weekend (573) and our Grand Opening Weekend (650).  Those weekends were incredible.  For Grand Opening we were blessed with the opportunity to have pureNRG.  I was thrilled with their performance and their attitudes.  They were great! (Madeline really enjoyed getting to know them as well, I haven't stopped hearing their cd.)

I think the swamp like symptoms are a result of some serious leadership challenges that I am facing.  I have always staffed Adventure Kidz to be a larger ministry than what it currently is (for example when Sarah and I arrived here in January of 2007 we immediately began to staff for a kids ministry of 400, AK was only avg. about 275 at the time).  It is my belief that God will only give us what we are capable of handling (I think that is somewhere in scripture!) and therefore, I wanted to do my part in preparing the way for more kids.  One problem with this mode of thinking though:  we have hit 400, now what?  

Well, after some prayer and studying, I think God is wanting us to begin preparing for 650-700 kids.  That is a significantly large jump.  I have never been the leader of a ministry that large, and I know that it is going to take some "God" ideas to prepare us to do it.  The first change that I think has to be made is with our Core Leadership team.  Currently, we have 5 people who serve with me to lead AK.  I feel like I need to reduce that number to 3.  I want to have 3 people who each leads teams themselves... I just have to find the right people to feel those spots.  

I will do my best to give you some more updates on this process.