Monday Morning Clarity

Being new of the field and first time as senior pastor, I want to take advantage of my blog to do more communicating my thoughts and observations as pastor and use this blog as a tool to communicate with my church. (Although, most of my church doesn't know yet I have a blog.) With that in mind, here is a mind-dump of my thoughts about the weekend.

• I am loving being called "pastor". It's a new role for me, but an exciting one. I love that people look at me as their spiritual leader. I also recognize I am still in the "honeymoon" phase.
• The people at Sixth Street at a very loving and exciting group. I know as we begin to reach people on Sunday mornings that our ushers and front-door people will do a great job of welcoming.
• We need to do a better job of making room. At the start of the service, most of the back rows were full and people were coming in looking for room. Got to get a "First Impressions" team going and trained to help make room. I think there is an expectation from some that we may have to go to 2 services sometime next year. Don't know what kind of schedule change that will prompt, but we will need to do something to make room.
• I had a wonderful surprise visit yesterday from some dear friends in Alabaster. I looked out the window at my office to see 4 motorcycles driving across the parking lot. A great reunion with Scotty Vines, Doug Archer, Susie Mattis, and some of the guys from the Westwood Motorcycle Riders ABS class.
• We have some immediate programming challenges with children on Sunday and Wednesday nights that need to be solved soon. Praying for wisdom as we evaluate and create a programming schedule that is friendly to families.
• Started a new series on the importance of the Kingdom of God for the believers. It's called "Kingdoms Collide: Finding Spiritual Sanity in an Insane World". Seems to have started good. Coming soon, we'll look at the kingdom and our possessions. We'll also look at the parables that Jesus taught about the kingdom and what he was trying to teach us.
• Got to get some balance to the schedule quick so I can do a good job in sermon prep and planning and also get to visit some members. Give me balance Lord!

That's a quick dumping of my thoughts and observations from my second week as pastor. I consider it an honor to serve the Lord Jesus as pastor in advancing the cause of Christ in Alexander City. I pray that God will unite us as a missional force in the community and around the globe.