This year...

HAPPY 2010!!!

While many know that most ministries (children's especially) run on a year being a "school year", I have decided to take this opportunity to reflect on the events and programs that we have running this year (2010).

1. One of my favorite events is Parent's Night Out. On the first Friday of the month, unless it is a holiday, we host a parents night. For $5 per child, parents can drop their children off at the church from 6-9pm and enjoy a date night. I value this ministry because many parents have come to me, and thank me for giving them an opportunity to take a night out just for them. I also love this program because I run it and it gives me 3 hours to bond with all of the kids over pizza and games. I don't run a lesson on these nights, we may watch a veggie tales or something like that towards the end of the evening, but there isn't a ton of spiritual content.

Goals for this year, in regards to PNO:

• I would like to find a way to get more kids from the community to this event so that we can fill a very real need for the families that we reach.
• I would like to do "Parent's Night In" once a quarter or every other month, to get parents together, praying for each other and discussing topics such as, spiritual parenting, discipline, technology and protecting their kids etc.

2. Summer Blast is our "VBS", this year I am writing it all myself. Last year we started with group, and ended up rewriting most of it anyways. This year are theme is "Power UP!" it is a video game theme based around the armor of God. I'm also really excited to have my Children's Ministry Mentor, and Christian Artists Dean-O back this year for our musical guest!

Goals (a few of them) for this year, in regards to SummerBlast

• Finnish writing by February
• Have at least 100 unchurched kids come to hear the gospel
• Have a leadership team in place to help plan from January to the event
• Have solid follow up with ALL children this year!
• Make sure the area knows that we are doing it in JUNE instead of JULY this year.

3. Highway 45 (our 4th and 5th grade ministry) has one event a month. We do everything from bowling, to movie nights, to park days. It's a great way for our tweens to bond and give them the extra touch they need.

Goals for the 45 events

• More participation from our 45'ers
• Help prepare our 5th graders for middle school
• Bond this group together, giving them support in the midst of change

4. Me as a Pastor... Well being new at this I have A TON to work on. For Sunday mornings I would like to be more organized, something ALWAYS goes by the wayside and I forget to do something. Even if it is written down, I get distracted and never get to finish everything. It is very frustrating. I need to be more disciplined in general and continuously surrender all of this to God, because it is His ministry and He loves it even more than I do.