Update on the Arnn's

Wow! What a year. It is completely FLYING by quicker than any other year I can remember.

I want to give an update (especially for our awesome supporters) of all that's been going on at Mosaic the last few months!

As you know, since January I've been leading our children's ministry called MoKids.

Here are some MoKids highlights:
1) This Spring I encouraged my leaders to be "apprenticing" someone on their teams -- teaching them to do the job that they do. One leader in particular did that very well, and we're seeing the fruit! That leader has now moved up to help in a different role in MoKids, and the spot she left vacant has been filled with one of her "apprentices"! That's how it's supposed to work!

2) This summer, MoKids partnered with Child Evangelism Fellowship to hold kids' clubs out in the community bringing children the gospel and the love of Christ. We had 102 children attend clubs at two near-by apartment complexes. A number of children sought counsel about salvation and 4 children prayer to receive Christ as their Savior!

We had, for some time, had our eye on these two apartment complexes for ministry, but it took actually stepping out there for the vision to crystallize. It was a watershed week for MoKids as we officially expanded our strategy beyond "Partnering with Parents" and "Sunday Morning Ministries" to now include a third prong, "MoKids Community Ministries" -- children's ministry beyond the walls of the building. We plan to continue a weekly club in one of the apartment complexes and a quarterly party in the other. It is a beautiful thing to be out in the community.

3) The last few weeks have been extremely busy ones as we prepared for the new school year in MoKids. Some of systems and plans we've begun or improved in the last few weeks are: 1) A better plan for promoting kids to the next class/grade 2) Better use of our facilities 3) New curriculum in the elementary area that spans both worship hours - different but complementary content around one theme all morning!


Beyond MoKids, I'm also what we call a "ministry developer". I've focused on two main projects in that realm at Mosaic:

1) This summer we had a "Find Your FITT" fair -- FITT stands for faithfully investing time and talent. For the first time, we have consistent job descriptions for all volunteer roles and a system for getting people connected to serving.

2) I'm working with one of our pastors, Steven Weathers, to develop a midweek discipleship program for both children and adults. We are recognizing the need to take our people deeper in discipleship than they can go on Sunday mornings or in LifeGroups. We launched this ministry on Sept 2. Going well! The elementary kids are learning Phil 2:1-11 one verse per week. It's so powerful for chilren (and adults!) to memorize scripture and take God's word with us through the week.


Here are a few updates about the Arnn family:

-- We bought a house in July! We are fairly settled, but there are still lots of unpacked boxes! We're getting there though.

-- Alex is in a public charter school this year. It's going very well. Emmaleigh and Susannah are on the waiting list and are attending a Christian school until they get into the charter school as Debbie begins a new job.

-- I had the privilege of baptizing Emmaleigh and Alex on Easter at Mosaic this year.


Prayer requests:
-- Debbie's mom has not been feeling well. Please pray that it is nothing serious.

-- Please pray for community to further develop among the staff at Mosaic. We are all so busy doing our own thing that we don't take time to team together and find synergy.

-- Please pray for our new Wednesday night initiative - Mosaic Midweek Discipleship. We could still use more leaders in the elementary area to disciple the kids in prayer, scripture memory and worship.

-- Pray that our girls get into that charter school right away!

I think that's it for now! Thank you to all of our financial and prayer supporters! We could not be creating a church for all people across racial and economic lines without you!

These are tough times in our world. I encourage you to press on! Don't grow weary doing what God has called you to do. Depend on Him daily.

Blessings,
Allen

So thankful for teamwork!

On Sunday at Mosaic, we kicked off a season of volunteer recruitment called "Find Your FITT". I'm so thankful for all the people who contributed time and energy to the project. I'll post some pictures soon.

First 100 days

I'm on day 35 as pastor of the MoKids ministry at Mosaic. It's been a busy month! I'm the kind of guy who finds the area of biggest need and dives in to do whatever it takes to fix it. Right now I'm in the glitzy and prestigious world of 2-year-olds. That has been our toughest room to staff. So... again tomorrow... I'll be working in that room teaching our 2's about how Jesus says that God will go after us like a lost sheep and joyfully carry us home on his shoulders. I just hope no adults come by and see me singing and doing motions... "His love swallows me up... with one big gulp" :) (Kris, I hope I don't hurt my back!)

While I don't need to be in 2's much longer, it is always good to take short seasons and experience things way down in the ministry. Last week in 2's I learned some things and have already implemented improvements for this Sunday. That would never have happened if I were directing things from above in a vacuum.

I was doing some calculations to better understand our need for more volunteers. I find that we ministered to 30.4% more children in our ministry January 09 than we did January 08. We have 70.8% more kids in the 2-year-old class! That explains the need... we just need God to send us some great volunteers!

Fun stuff. I love working at my church.

Responsibilities vs. your dream

"If your dreams and responsibilities are running crosswise, you are probably living the wrong life. You've got to take responsibilities and dreams and fuse them together where your responsibility IS your dream. You are responsible to live the life God created you to live." Erwin McManus