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Kid’s ROCK Volunteers ROCK!

30 Aug 2009 by Helen

I am so overwhelmed with emotion I can’t decide whether to cry  or jump for joy…so I’ve done both.  We went double today and what a day!  I can’t tell you how excited I was…there was just an expectancy and energy in the atmosphere that was almost uncontainable.  I felt like a kid on Christmas morning.  Not only was exciting…it went amazing!  The Kid’s ROCK volunteers stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the ballpark.  Let me give you a few snippets of what I have heard.

  • We served a total of 111 kids today not including the 3o extra kids from first service that stayed for second service.  This is about a 22% growth from our average of 89 kids on a Sunday.
  • We started 2 new classes in Kid’s ROCK and Pastor Matthew started 1 new class for ReMix kids.  These classes were designed to serve volunteer kids so they would not have to sit in the same service twice.  We had the privilege of pouring into 30 kids for not one service but two!  How incredible.
  • My daughter Courtney would not stop talking about the ReROCK class (class for volunteer kids) on the way home.  She even kept making her sister take her ear buds out to hear about what she had learned.  Rodney and Tammy Orr did an amazing job with them today!
  • I had to go make copies of materials for our ROCK Star class because we had so many children we ran out.  We had 23 kids total in that class.  We average around 14.
  • Our nursery workers blew it up today!  They started a new system which gives parents feedback on what was going on with their babies during the service!  Parents loved it!
  • Had a parent say ” I kept waiting for my number to go up on the screen but it never did!”  What incredible nursery workers!  Do you have any idea what that means to a parent who has such a desire to enter into a service and never can because they always have to go get their child.  This was their first experience at ROCK Church and they were amazed!
  • All I heard all day was how nice and friendly the Kid’s ROCK volunteers were…way to show the heart of Jesus!

I know there are so many other stories I am forgetting to tell in my exhaustion but I had to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU A MILLON TIMES OVER FOR EVERY Kid’s ROCK volunteer who took it to a whole nuther level!  I LOVE YOU!  Really I can’t say it enough…You Guys Are AMAZING!

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Category: Ministry, Volunteer  Tags: , ,  2 Comments

Going Double

28 Aug 2009 by Helen

Guess what?  In less than 48 hours we will have done it.  That’s right, by this time in 2 days we will have survived a monumental day in our churches history.  In about 38 hours we will start the 1st of 2 services on Sunday.  Why is this so exciting?  Why not

  1. since I started this job I feel like all I have done is prepare to go to 2 services.  It has been an exciting and sometimes a little overwhelming task for the first few months of a new job.  Though at times it has seemed difficult, I have had amazing volunteers step up, grab the vision and run with it!  I am so excited I can hardly stand it.
  2.  Double services means no children’s volunteer will ever have to miss another service.  The teacher’s that serve our children will no longer have to depend on a cd to grasp the vision and feel burnt out after as they diligently serve their  month in Kid’s ROCK with no opportunity to participate in coorporate worship.  Now they get poured into so that they are full and ready to pour into our children every week.
  3. Double services have will have a tremendous impact on our children.  Teachers will now serve every week, giving opportunity to build more consistent deep relationships with children.  There are also 2 new classes opening up for Kid’s ROCK.  Planet ROCK will be for preschool children age 2-5 and ReROCK will be for children ages 6-9.  This is for children of volunteers, since they will be attending both services.  The children will go to their regular class during 1st service and then will be taken to the Planet ROCK and ReROCK for 2nd service.  The kids will have a blast and parents can serve and attend without worrying about whether their kids are tired or bored.  (Trust me, they won’t be bored!)  Parents – get ready….your kids are gonna start begging you to volunteer so they can go to their second service.
  4. It’s just the beginning.  Somewhere along the week, it hit me!  This is just the begining.  When we reflect Monday morning about how Sunday went and we all take a deep sigh of relief.  It will only be a brief sigh because getting through Sunday doesn’t mean we have arrived, it means we have just started a new era in our church.  I once heard someone say (wish I could remember who but) God won’t send us the harvest if we aren’t ready.  Going double means we have already created room to grow 100%  easy!  Look out ROCK Church….here we go!

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Category: Featured post, God, Volunteer  Tags: , ,  2 Comments

Weekend Recap

02 Aug 2009 by Helen
  • Slept til 8:00 two days in a row
  • Worked in the flower garden
  • Had 12 adults at small group and 8 kids
  • Slept 3 hours Saturday night
  • Finished the book Leadership Essentials for children’s ministry by Craig Jutila
  • Read two more chapters in Children’s Ministry in the 21st century by Craig Jutila, Jim Wideman & Pat Verbal
  • Read another chapter in The Up The Middle Church by Matt Keller
  • Talk to a couple of people about volunteering in Kid’s ROCK
  • Learned a lot about myself
  • Reminded of how this is not about me and my ability but all about God and His willingness to use me.
  • Excited tomorrow is Monday and I get to go to work!

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A First in Forever

17 Nov 2008 by Helen

Today was a first in what seems like forever for Johnny and I.  Today we attended church without being on stage singing.  It was strange.  Even a little hard, but it was also pretty cool to be able to sleep til 7:30 on a Sunday morning. Having said that, here were my first 2 thoughts from my experience…

  • I don’t know how people go to church week after week, year after year and simply warm a seat.  People, you need to do something.  Seriously, if that’s all I did every week, I’d be bored out of my mind or I’d pick apart everything that I didn’t like without being able to understand why things were the way they were.
  • If you are in any kind of ministry you need to take a step back, observe every once in awhile so that you can see what others see.  You might learn something.

Here’s what I learned.

  • All those times Carolyn kept telling us we didn’t look happy and we needed to move around and have fun…well, today I got it….its just like dancing at a performance, when you are on stage, your expressions, movements and energy have to be over exaggerated for them to even be realized by the congregation.
  • Working on parts is important and knowing the songs and flowing with your team is crucial, but more than hitting every right note, YOU have to worship if you are going to lead others into worship.  If you aren’t comfortable with what you are singing and are unable to worship, that is going to affect the people you are trying to lead into worship.
  • What does better look like?  If we aren’t moving and engaging the congregation enough, where are there videos of worship teams that do?  How can we get better?  What does better look like somewhere else and how can we make their idea of better our own?
  • Comfortable doesn’t cut it, this is how we always do it won’t get us there, and our best has to get better to be what God has called us to be.

The concepts God showed me today are things I practice on a daily basis with my job.  In order to be a better teacher, I reflect on what is working and what isn’t.  I record and observe my interactions, I have others observe and critic me, I visit other great teachers, learn from what they are doing and take away inspiriation and ideas that I am then able to make my own…so the question is why have I religated that philosophy to just my job?  Why isn’t that how I live every aspect of my life?  What about you, when’s the last time you took a step back, examined what you are doing, and asked yourself how can I get better?

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Category: God  Tags: , , ,  3 Comments

A Place to Be Real

12 Oct 2008 by Helen

I wish I could begin this blog with some great praise report telling you the battle is over and we won.  We have come out victorious and the enemy has been defeated.  The truth is the battle rages on…Friday didn’t have any major crisis to deal it was just a constant of little things that eventually left me in tears, exploding in anger, and absolutely frustrated with what in the world I was doing.  Yeah, I’m human and for a moment the devil and my flesh kicked in and I lost perspective.

Yesterday, I just stayed around here, indulged my need to clean my house and feel like I had some control of my life again.  Johnny and I talked last night and he had planned on coming to church but would not be singing on stage…he could only come and sit.  Today he woke up at 6 o’clock unable to breath.  I wrested with leaving him, but he insisted I go to church so I left the girls with him with instructions to call if he had another attack and I headed out.  I wasn’t expecting to get anything out of church, I was going to fulfill my obligation and to do what I had committed to doing. 

When I walked in the door, people immediately started asking how Johnny was and I started explaining.  By the time we started practicing, the tears started falling.  I tried to fight them, control them, make them go away.  I wanted to go run to the bathroom and hide so no one would see but I thought that would be more obvious than just standing there.  So I just tried to get through practice.  People saw, people noticed, people handed me tissue, hugged me, told me they loved me and I had nothing to give…  I just cried.  People asked how I was, I responded “We are hanging in there” and then the tears would start again.  I don’t think I realized how tired I was until I was around a group of people I loved, a group of people I trusted, and a place where I didn’t feel like I had to look perfect, be perfect, and hold it together… I was somewhere I could just be real. 

Before church started, my family prayed for me and Johnny.  I didn’t go to church to get anything this morning, I went to be obedient to fulfill my commitment that I had made to my church, but I got a lot even in my willingness to be obedient to show up when I didn’t feel like I had anything to give, God provided LOTS of family to encourage and love on me.  We aren’t quiting.  We are not giving up but I was tired and  the moment of reprieve I was able to experience this morning because I had a family that cared was much needed.  That’s what church should be.  That is why God tells us not to forsake the gathering together.  I needed my family today.  I certainly didn’t realize how much and didn’t go for that reason, but God knew and because I have relationships with some amazing people – they knew it too!

I know I have spent a lot of time the last few weeks talking about the attack, but it’s only because I know the victory is coming and when it does I want everyone to appreciate with us the magnitude of this victory.

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Category: Family, God  Tags: , , , ,  6 Comments

You can't fix what you don't understand

17 Aug 2008 by Helen

Last night Johnny and I had some people over last night to discuss something very close to our hearts – racial unity.  We talked for 3 hours, went through an entire cassette tape recording (front and back) and started on the second tape before we finally just prayed to end it.  If you have ever been in a meeting with a meeting full of leaders, you will understand that everyone (including me) had to put in their 2 cents.  We all had something to say, something we felt, and had no rhyme or reason to where each conversation lead.  It was great discussions, but I must admit it left me feeling a little frustrated.  I wasn’t frustrated with anyone or with anything that was said, but I felt a little frustrated at the fact that we just talked…there was no resolution, no finality – I’m not sure what I expected, but I know that wasn’t it.

After everyone left, I spent the next 2 hours talking, thinking, praying (making my husband crazy) and I began to realize that there was so much more that came out of that meeting than we realized.  God began to give me ideas of how to address things, how to tweak the ideas we already had because the ideas were only part of the bigger picture.  There was so many other things I hadn’t thought of, so much I hadn’t even considered.  There were things we had thought about.  Things we had answers for because we had already asked those questions, but there was so much more.

 I’m a teacher.  My nature is to figure out the problem, find the solution and then teach people what to do to fix it – A 6-point lesson plan of sorts.  My frustration was that I couldn’t solve all the issue, I couldn’t give a step by step program for how to fit the things the thoughts and perspectives that were addressed.  What I realized last night when everyone was gone was that I wanted to fix a problem that I didn’t fully understand.  I understand there is more to racial unity than we what have experienced (and we have experienced much more than most churches), I understand my perspective, my husband’s perspective, but have I listened to the perspective of others? 

I tried to go to bed and as I closed me eyes, I kept seeing faces, hearing their words, and kept getting up to write something else down.  I began to realize I have to hear people.  Last night wasn’t about the solution, it was about understanding the need to hear people.  I can’t fix what I don’t understand….and if that wasn’t enough confirmation, here’s a quote from Pastor Ron today that just says it all…”You need to ask questions before you take action.” 

How many times in life have you created a solution, made a decision, developed a program based soley off your understanding of a need?  How many times have you seen a need or had God put a burden in your heart for something and immediately took action?  I think we’ve missed a step somewhere – understanding the need.

I am so excited about what God is doing…I can’t wait to see what unfolds.

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Wow! What did God do at your church today?

27 Jul 2008 by Helen

Wow!  What to can I say.  Oh wait, I know I just embraced the ride with my hands up!  If you don’t understand, read this.  I mean today I got it!  When we came out on stage my heart was racing, hands sweating, not for the fear of messing up but because I had an expectancy of an encounter with my God.  For weeks  I have been wrestling with God sorta like my friend Lori.  Sleep has been a struggle (and I LOVE to sleep), church has been a struggle (not cause good things weren’t happening but because God was pressing me), life has been a struggle but today before I ever got there, I said “I trust you”…little did I know what Pastor Bryan would be speaking on and what it would mean….

God showed up in a big way.  We sang this song by U2 this morning at the beginning of the service and ended with the same song.  Apparently U2 sings this song at the end of every concert.  I don’t know, that’s just what I heard.  All we were really told as a worship team was that it was going to be ministry time and the goal was to sing the chorus and gradually fade out.  The band would leave, the singers would fade out and one by one we’d leave hoping the congregation would keep singing.  It was one of those things I didn’t quit get at the time but thought it was cool so why not, right?  WOW, I mean WOW God showed up and it was an encounter with the creator that didn’t need anything to be added to, it just was!  Thanks Pastor B for being sensitive to the voice of the Lord and for stepping out of the box.

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