Ach! Sorry!

I've been a terrible blogger recently, but life has actually kept me very busy. I'm in the process of moving, training for a marathon, helping my grandma transition into assisted living, attending reunions with friends, and finally spending a week on planning leave.

The good news, though, is that I have a good vision for the CLPC kids this fall. As I mentioned in a previous post, the theme of our Back to School Weekend is CLPC's Amazing Race (Hebrews 12). For the first time, we've all sort of embraced that theme in our different areas, and I can finally see silos start to come down as we work toward a common goal together. Praise God!

It's been pretty easy for me to grasp this theme since I'm training for a race myself (a coincidence, actually). And as I've learned in my training, I need to focus as much on the miles I've run already as I do on the ones ahead. The same thing goes in ministry this fall. I sent a letter out to volunteers reminding them of the great strides we made at CLPC this last year together, and just writing the letter made me excited about what's to come.

I've got to pace myself, though, as I have a tendency to rush toward the future in everything I do (including running 26.2 miles). And God has really been showing me that I've still got to slow down and focus on training this semester--training of volunteers, parents and kids.

So here's the plan in a nutshell:

• Like the adults, our preteen group will be doing a unit on Spiritual Gifts this fall. I've been writing the curriculum all week, and I'm soooo ready to implement it. The best part is that once the kids sort of find the gifts they enjoy and are comfortable with (I like this way of looking at giftings rather than labeling kids and putting them into a box), we're going to give them an opportunity to use them. I plan to pull out kids from Sunday School classes occasionally and help them learn to PLAN what we're doing in CM. For example, I'll pull out the hospitality/encouragement group and work with them on how to make kids feel loved and welcomed in SS and worship. They'll help come up with ideas and then carry them out with help from adults who have the same giftings.
  
• I've scheduled 3 different types of trainings for volunteers: email, face to face, and teacher talks (get together at a kid friendly restaurant and, with a guided table topic, discuss ways to help each other in ministry).
  
• I've also scheduled a parent appreciation Sunday where the kids will put together some sort of video and there will be refreshments, etc. I'm sneaky, though, and I plan to use this event to encourage parents to sign up to volunteer.
• Coupling with adult ed to have some panel discussions on ADHD, Asperger's, etc. We have several child psychologists in the congregation and families whose lives are touched with these learning differences, and it's time we tap into those resources.
• I've divided my team up into 2 groups: CFM discipleship and CFM special events, in order to utilize their gifts more effectively.

So there it is on paper and in cyberspace, and I'm praying it works in reality. It needs to happen though, so now is as good a time as any.

Ok back to my planning (and another cup of coffee).