I make a mean iced caramel latte

Not mean as in "growly," but mean as in "goooooooood", just to clear any confusion!

Over the past couple of months I have found myself learning a lot, like a whole lot! We recently opened the World Cafe at West Ridge Church. The cafe itself is full of learning opportunities! Purchasing products, entering products into a POS system (point of sale, not anything else), merchandising, creating recipe's and making coffee drinks, training volunteers, etc. but my favorite lesson is all about the people. It's always about people! We are not in the coffee house business, we are in the people business and we just happen to use coffee as a vehicle.

Once More With Hobbits

Whenever I need to know a trivial little ditty, I "google" it! (you know that's actually in the dictionary right?) So, I'm in a meeting when a friend gets a text that says; "OMWH." With a puzzled face, she asks, "What in the world does OMWH mean?" Being near a computer, another friend googles it and immediately says; "Once More With Hobbits." What?? "Why would my husband send me that?" After looking a little further, the second definition was "On My Way Home."

That made a little more sense, her husband was on his way home. Then something weird happened, I starting thinking about what he would tell her about his day when he got home, maybe he would share his last impression of where he was that day. I know this sounds crazy, but I went from that thought to thinking about what is the last impression a guest has when they leave our church on Sunday? What would her husband tell her if he had just left our church as a first time guest?

I can just hear my husband saying (lovingly); "Stacey, you just aren't right," but seriously, I can't be the only one thinking about this! We don't want guests leaving with a bad taste in their mouth about God or the church, so what steps should we take to make sure their experience as they leave church leads to a conversation that is positive with an excitement to return?

Where to start? How about the time frame between the end of service, to leaving the church property...

As guests exit the worship center, is there a place clearly marked for them to go and ask questions about the church? Were people there eagerly waiting to answer questions? Did they have the knowledge (or training) to answer the questions? Were they friendly when they answered, or was there a sense that they wanted to leave and the guests were holding them up? Were there greeters at the exit doors inviting guests back next week? Was there a team of volunteers directing traffic out and smiling at each guest as they passed?

Where would you start? What questions would you ask?

Although the entire guest experience from arrival to departure must be evaluated, I am going to start with the last impression this week, I'll keep you updated!!!

bye F A B I A N

Over the past 6 months, I have watched a children's ministry volunteer grow in a mighty way. We don't currently have a special needs ministry, but God has blessed us with several children who would benefit from this type of ministry. This volunteer seems to have a huge heart for these kids, and I have been blessed watching the transformation of two children in particular.

Daniel
Daniel has Down's Syndrome. He is high functioning and is integrated with the other students. The first weekend I was there was tough for him. Change is hard for Daniel, and there was a lot of change that weekend. We completely redesigned the room to accommodate more students, that was a change. We started a kids worship team with high impact, less traditional music. Oh and I was there, that was a change in leadership. This all weighed heavily on Daniel and as I was teaching I looked over and he had started to remove clothing. Luckily we had a video to show so without missing a beat we turned the lights off and took care of Daniel before any of the other students even noticed. That was also this volunteers first day. She decided to get to know Daniel after the large group lesson was finished. He doesn't say much until he really knows you. So she put quiet music on for him, asked questions that were not answered and tried to play catch with him. He watched her closely, but didn't really respond. After two months of taking the time to just hang out with him, (he doesn't go to small group, he stays in the large group environment where he is comfortable) a breakthrough. As Daniel was leaving, he told his mom to tell this leader he likes to watch animal planet and he growled and said lion!!! The smile on this leaders face was ear to ear! Every week since, Daniel runs up to his leader and hugs her! He talks to her about animals, plays catch, dances to worship music, and they even eat an occasional doughnut together. That's first hour for this volunteer, now it's time for second hour.

Fabian
4 weeks ago Fabian arrived. Fabian is hearing impaired. Fabian's sister helps him to understand what is happening, but the same volunteer felt like his sister should go be a kid and she would help Fabian. The first week after meeting him, she immediately bought "The Joy of Signing" from a garage sale. She learned to say; "Hi my name is" and she brushed up on the alphabet. That next Sunday she put her new found skills to work. Fabian's eyes lit up! Her learning has continued. Yesterday, she worked with Fabian on his memory verse, using ASL. 4 weeks!! Just 4 weeks! He knows 2 Peter 1: 5-7. The volunteer gave him a doughnut for remembering his verse and working so hard with her. He wanted another one, so she asked his sister how to say "No more doughnuts, if you eat too many you will get fat." Fabian's sister taught her that and more!

What an amazing blessing to see this transformation take place right in front of my eyes!! You see, I'm doubly blessed. This volunteer happens to be my 17 year old daughter Sophie. As a leader, seeing other leaders grow in their service brings great joy!! As a leader and a mom, this great joy brings tears as well. Thank you child for your amazing example to be all things to all people. Paul would be so proud!! (maybe not as proud as your mom though!!)

As we were leaving church yesterday, Sophie waved and signed; "Bye F A B I A N," she showed us each letter and said we should try next week. Good idea!

Advantage Orange

What is “Orange?” If you are tempted to say a great color, you are only partly correct. Orange is a way of thinking. Although I have believed wholeheartedly in the Orange vision for a couple of years, the vision is becoming even more clear with the first chapter of “Think Orange” by Reggie Joiner.

It’s all about the advantage of combining influences. “When you think orange, you see how two combined influences make a greater impact than just two influences.” The example Reggie used that combined finding homes for children with great photography and art galleries created a powerful movement that caused inquiries about adopting these children to double. Separately, these two entities were both doing a great job, but together, the outcome is remarkable. Yep, that’s Orange!

The church has an even greater potential to become remarkable! The church isn’t just a small percentage of the population, it’s potential is THE population! My heart is racing after writing that! “Think Orange” is about combining the church and the home for the sake of impacting the next generation. The church is represented with yellow and families are represented with red, combining these two influences creates a radical shift in strategy!

Seven years ago, my mind shifted radically. I believe that each year ministry needs to be evaluated. I have always taken the time to ask leaders, volunteers, parents and students their opinion about what is happening in ministry. Well seven years ago I realized that although that’s good, it’s not good enough. I never considered asking our junior high pastor if we were handing him kids that were ready for junior high ministry. I asked. I found out we weren’t. Our JH pastor wanted students to know their testimony before they got to junior high. Simple, but that’s when the light came on! We needed to change our strategy to combine our influence! So we started meeting together on a regular basis. Not just us, we included the senior high pastor and the Christian development pastor as well! Big powerful ORANGE change!

Instead of working on the same thing at the same time with a different strategy, helping children and students grow in their faith, we all began working on the same thing at the same time with the same strategy. It was challenging. It caused us to redesign our programming. It convinced us that partnering with parents could give children and students a better chance. It was worth it. Advantage….ORANGE!!

Think Orange

Check out the "Think Orange" group blogging project over at Elemental Children's Ministry.

www.elementalcm.com