LTC Feedback
Have you taken the time yet to listen to our "Family Ministry" Life Together Conversation?
(See the little audio player embedded on this page in the upper right corner? Couldn't be easier!)
So far, we've received this great bit of thoughtful and encouraging feedback from Kathy Chechopoulos. . .
Hi Tim,If you don't know what Kathy's talking about, it means you haven't listened yet, but aren't you curious? If you have, what are your thoughts and reactions?
I listened to part of the MP3 posting you and Pastor Steve had on your blog. (I only listened to part because I attempted to listen with all 3 kids are home and awake). I just wanted to say how excited we are about the idea of everything being on one night this summer. I think it is also easier for really little ones to be up late once a week rather than several nights in a row. And also easier for those who are working in the daytime to be gone one evening a week rather than several in a row. Our family definitely struggles with balancing too many weeknight commitments and taking advantage of the many great opportunities to both serve and be fed at church.....Mondays Evan meets with Dan, Josh, and or Craig Hughes to work on tech stuff/light bulbs; Tuesdays I serve at Awana and Spero and Maria attend, Wednesdays are the once a month Trustee meetings...usually once or twice a month Evan is needed to do sound for a wedding, outside event held at Grace, or church meeting. Therefore, we still have not done a growth group. We really feel like we need time to all be home together a few nights a week. Thanks for encouraging us to value our family nights at home.... even when it is to "good" things.
So, if you would like my vote to move the AWANA night around to coincide with other ministries, you have my vote! My brother in law is an English ministries pastor at a Chinese church outside of Detroit. They use this model. EVERYTHING is Saturday night there.....potluck dinner, AWANA, Jar high and high school youth group, college, adult Sunday school classes, etc. Most of the families in their church do not have extended family in the US, so the church is very much at the center of their social life as well. They have Chinese lunch take out every Sunday for lunch as well.
Also, Spero has been memorizing John 10:10-18. He commented the other day how this reminded him of your sermon on the sheep and goats! I know that it must have taken quite a bit of coordinating to pull this off, especially for 3 sermons, but it really made a lasting impression! Thanks so much for your ministry. We feel very blessed to a part of Grace Church, especially at this stage for our lives.
Kathy Chechopoulos
4 comments:
if AWANA and choir were on the same night it would be an instant solution to those of us that want to be involved in choir but lack childcare ... I haven't listened yet ... but just a thought.
I really appreciate what you guys were saying about the attack and pressure on the family.
If destroying the family is the primary target of "the world," then men are directly lined up in the crosshairs.
To me, all of this underscores the need for a really strong men's ministry as the foundation (not ancillary) to our family ministries at Grace.
Thanks alot, guys, for doing this. I look forward to more!
Finally had time to listen to the LTC, and I laughed aloud at the comment about inbox bankruptcy. You'd think that moving toward a "paperless" society would make things simpler, but now that it's easier/faster to communicate, everyone CC's everybody else on EVERYTHING. And we're all expected to keep up on ALL of it.
On the discussion about overprogramming/segregated programming, I'm concerned that we don't swing the pendulum too far the other direction.
I've been concerned for a long time about Sunday mornings...because those who serve in a ministry second hour, do not have the opportunity to get involved with a Sunday School class. Some people serve for a season and get out. But others are called to a specific ministry, and we don't currently have a way to get those people involved in Sunday School classes.
Our family is starting to feel the pressure of being very involved: Serving on Sundays, growth group, sports, AWANA, work, school, adopting, etc. The key is finding a way to manage your time so that you CAN be involved in all those things. There's nothing wrong with being busy, if you do it smart.
But it could be damaging to ministries (Youth group, AWANA, choir, etc.) if we move toward everything happening on a single night. There are so many overlaps (AWANA helpers from the youth group; Youth staff in the choir; College kids who are on youth staff; College kids who serve in AWANA; Parents who serve in AWANA and also sing in the choir; etc.) that someone would lose. There's value to having a night that is solely focused on one ministry. I think it helps that ministry thrive.
Not to mention that we don't currently have the space for all these things to happen at the same time. Yet.
I've kind of rambled here. But I think you can see that I'm passionate about this.
We have been really seeing that we may not be able to do growth group unless we can include our children some how. We don't have as much going on as some people, but we see a negative effect on our family with the things we have. We have said no to sports so that Matt can do Awana and Boy Scouts. On Sunday we have struggled with getting to church and doing Sunday School. Unless we do three services we can't include Matt in the service with us and we also can not go to Adult Bible Study. We are going to try it again next fall, but three services are a little hard with a three year old. It will get easier when Luke is older.
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