outside the church

what do you do when they won’t come to you?

one of the things the Family Life team has been wrestling with over the last year is - how do we expose our ministries to more kids/students who don’t currently attend our weekly ministry events?  we’ve decided that no matter how great of an event we provide on a weekly basis (and we do provide great events), that not every child between the ages of 0-18 will participate in our ministries. we can have the hippest speakers, rockinest band, best facility, biggest budget, etc.. and the truth is not every kid/student will come to us.

we’re not satisfied with that. with a goal of reaching as many as possible for the Kingdom, we are beginning to focus on getting outside the walls of the church and into the community.

here’s just a few things we’ve been up to:

• this afternoon our team will be kicking off red ribbon week at Lake Travis Middle School with a drug awareness presentation to over 800 middle school students. we have to walk the line between church/state, but the opportunity was too great to pass up.  Matt Williams our middle school director will be speaking and our LHC band will be playing.
• our high school ministry, under the direction of Kirk Gentzel, felt the need to start an additional weekly Bible study/discussion. the decision was to have it outside the walls of the church and meet in a public place. you can catch them at Paciugo’s on Monday nights for some Jesus and java (or gellato if that’s’ your thing).
• yours truly was selected to participate in Leadership Lake Travis. this is a regular monthly gathering of a select group of parents/leaders in the community who meet with the district superintendent and the elected school board to gain a better understanding of key issues facing the district and to offer support.

here’s the bottom line – it can’t be about getting as many people to come see you and your event. that’s only half the strategy. we have to go and meet people on their turf.

how about your team? what are you doing to get outside the church and into the community? seriously, we want to know so we can get better at this.

middle school changes

along with other big changes at LHC in recent weeks, our middle school ministry has recently made some major changes as well.

the smallest change was the name. from Quake, to Aftershock. we felt a name change was needed since the changes were so drastic. we wanted the new event to have a new name so it would not be associated with the old one. maybe not necessary, but you have to admit, Aftershock is a cool name.

the biggest change was moving from sunday mornings to wednesday evenings. under the leadership of Matt Williams, we outgrew the meeting space at The Warehouse. we noticed a disturbing trend that whenever we experienced a sunday at max capacity, attendance would drop in the weeks following. with a goal of reaching as many students as possible, this just didn’t sit well with our team. our only option was to move the ministry to a time and place we could use the worship center. wednesday’s just seemed to make sense.

the move off of sunday to wednesday has also allowed for more time with students. on sunday’s were limited to one hour. we have expanded our time on wednesday evening to two and half hours. the doors open at 6:00 for an hour of hang time, pizza, tutoring, basketball, skateboarding, crab soccer, foursquare, etc… the kids are eating it up (pun intended). at 7:00 we start our worship/teaching time. then at 8:00 we wrap it up with small group time before dismissing at 8:30.

you want to know the greatest part? there have been 48 brand new students come through our doors that have never attended before. i would venture to say that most (if not all) of them would never have attended on a sunday morning.

i’m just so thankful to be a part of a church community that allows us to take chances on changes.

if you know a middle schooler in the austin area that needs a place to belong, you will find us every wednesday night at 6:00 in the worship center doing our best to reach students in the city of Austin and beyond.

Matt has his own thoughts on the changes HERE.

no “i” in team

a little shout out. the family life team that God allows me to be a part of may be the most selfless team on the planet. 

• as i type this, our early childhood director Laurie Byington, is standing outside in the heat serving up pizza to our middle school students as a volunteer. 
• in addition, our middle school director Matt Williams volunteers faithfully every Sunday night at our weekly high school event.
• our assistant early childhood director, Denise Grosch, is a volunteer leader in our DivorcecCare ministry.  
• Kirk Gentzel (high school director) and his wife Kerra volunteer every week with our middle school ministry. 
• my favorite example is Doug Connolly, our assistant elementary school director, staying every Sunday night and volunteering to help with our elementary school kids during our adult Core Classes.

each of them have responsibilities in their specific areas of ministry that they must tend to everyday and for which they collect a paycheck. and yet, they volunteer additional hours to other areas of ministry.

they understand, practice, and appreciate that there is no “i” in team.

go team.

middle school // aftershock

our new middle school event, aftershock, launches tomorrow night. here’s what you need to know:

Join Middle School Student’s from all over the ATX for LIVE Music, crazy games, relevant Bible Study, and a sweet place to kick it with friends at a thing we like to call Aftershock!

We have an amazing program on Wednesday nights (Starting Aug 27th) from 6-8:30pm. Here is a preview of how a night at Aftershock breaks down:

• 6:00-7:00pm: Preservice fun – skate ramp, basketball, xbox, tutoring, and pizza
• 7:00-7:45pm: Worship service
• 7:45-8:30pm: Small Groups

To learn more, please contact Matt Williams, Director of Middle School Ministries, via phone (512-899-8333) or email (mwilliams@lhc.org).

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family life summer

The Family Life Team had an amazing run the last few months. This has been the busiest and most rewarding summer for both our children’s ministry and our student ministry.  A few highlights:

• We kicked summer off in the month of June with our largest VBS ever which saw 1197 kids in grades K-6.
• The very next week we took over 70 students in 9-12^th grade to Copper Mountain for our high school camp called Road Trip.
• In July we held our first ever Rock Camp which saw over 90 students in grades K-12 participate.
• Then last week, 94 of our 3-5^th graders experienced Kids Camp and 145 of our 6-8^th graders spent their time at Beach Week.

Some other numbers:

• While there was a little lap over in some of our events, we had the opportunity to impact over 1500 unique kids/students this summer.
• Over 500 unique adult volunteers served in some capacity.

So, if you stop by the office Tuesday afternoon, you won’t find us. We are sneaking away as a team to celebrate all the good that God has done.

And, it’s only the beginning.

hungry for God

Today was the last day of 6th grade for my son Parker. To celebrate the last day of school and all the successes of the year, all students, parents, and teachers gathered for the annual award ceremony.

Parker accepted many awards on the day including, Best History student, Best Science student, Best Guitar student, and an award for Truthful Character.

However, one of my proudest moments as a father came when he was awarded the “Hungry for God” Award. This was presented to the student (5-12 grade) who expressed the greatest desire to grow in, and improve his relationship with God this past year.  Wendy and I couldn’t be more proud of him. I may have shed a tear. 

Here he is with his best bud Sam. (Parker is on the right holding the books).   

summer fun

Our Family Life Team is knee deep in the thick of it. We’ve got a lot going on this summer. Here’s a snapshot of the upcoming events that we are in the midst of planning and coordinating:

VBS 2008 – This year’s theme is a mash up of the new Indiana Jones flick and the story of Joseph. We are calling it – “Indiana Joe and the Quest for the Cloak“. We have an unbelievable team of creative types who are having a blast with this one. We already have nearly 250 kids registered and anticipate that we will break the 1000 kid barrier for the first time. Wow. I can’t believe I get to be a part of this. You can find out more  – HERE.

ROAD TRIP ’08 – This is our High School summer camp. We are headed to Copper Mountain, Colorado for a week of spiritual renewal and outdoor adventure. Kirk and Dan have been working their heads off for this one. It’s gonna be a great week. Get more info – HERE.

BEACH WEEK ’08 – Our Middle School camp is moving to the month of August for the first time this year. We are hoping to build off the natural momentum of camp and ride it into the fall semester. Matt and Whitney are busy plotting and scheming to ensure that this is a fun-filled AND Spirit-filled week in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Find out more about it – HERE.

Throw into the mix our first ever Rock Camp (music camp) scheduled for July and Kids Camp scheduled for August and we have a lot going on.

Hope you will be a part.

weekend wrap

Just a few random thoughts from the weekend:

• I’m losing my voice. I don’t feel bad, but the voice is going quickly.
• Threw the football with Parker on Saturday afternoon. We haven’t done that enough lately. Now that the weather is more spring like we will be back in action soon.
• Church was incredible today. Mark and the band just rocked everyone’s face off. They did an arrangement of “Jesus Paid it All” that was out of this world. I miss the old hymns.
• Too often churches are guilty of arm twisting people into serving – especially in children’s ministry. To try something new, we are wearing around stickers that say – “Ask me about my 30/30 prayer.” Instead of arm twisting, we are simply asking people to join us in praying that God would bring us 30 new volunteers in the next 30 days. This is not a bait and switch either. We actually mean it. Join us if you’d like.
• My kids are choosing to spend their spring break at Camp of the Hills this week with our Middle School group cleaning up the camp and such. I’ll miss them, but the fact they want to spend their time serving under privileged kids makes their parents proud.
• The Horns won a share of the Big 12 this afternoon. Hook em!

just one of those days

Today was just one of those days.  Here’s the run down:

• 8:30am -11:30am  Weekly Staff Meeting
• 12:00pm -1:00pm  Summit Ministry Staff  (Gina brought me a meatball sandwich!)
• 1:00pm -2:00pm  New Service Times Meeting
• 2:00pm – 3:00pm  Satellite Campus Meeting
• 3:00pm -5:30pm  Weekly Student Staff Meeting

You need to know that I’m not big on meetings. When someone says that a meeting is “better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick” – I honestly think – “Do I really need that eye? I could do what I do with an eye patch. Anyway, pirates are cool.”

But, because I love what I do and who God let’s me do it with – it’s all worth it.  Thanks Team.