School is back in Hanover! Fall routines are once again in motion. I really love this time of the year.
Yesterday kicked off our new fall series – BUSY. Back to school means that we’re all back to being busy. Busyness has its challenges. For example, being too busy can cause us to miss a meaningful opportunity. Sometimes the best life offers eludes us in busyness. Busyness can also be a sort of intentional anesthetic we use to fill our lives with activity to keep from dealing with the pain or dark places of life. As long as I’m busy, I don’t have to face the stuff I don’t want to face. Busyness can also create an identity crisis. Culturally we’ve learned to find our worth, value and contribution in busyness. Why is that? Isn’t personal identity far more sacred than the pace of one’s life? Check out the next installment of BUSY this Sunday at 8:30, 9:45, 10:00, or 11:15.
The new school year ushered in some additional changes and shifts at Cool Spring as well. We’ve hinted at a few over the past weeks. The two most noticeable are in the Children’s Ministry and with the Exchange. The Children’s Ministry now utilizes the Sanctuary at 8:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. for large group meeting space with elementary children. They’ve outgrown their previous space. The new move enables us to make additional room for new families at Cool Spring.
The Exchange has moved from 11:15 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. This strategic new time slot offers greater exposure, access to Children and Preschool Ministry support and provides another worship opportunity at our mid-morning hour. The mission of engaging unchurched and dechurched is still at the heart of the Exchange. This service offers a smaller venue, current surroundings (cool space), live worship and video teaching. It’s the same message as in any of our other services. I hope at least 75 regular attenders at 10:00 a.m. will opt to worship in the Exchange. The shift will help create additional space for new attenders in our 10:00 a.m. service that is over capacity during our fall, winter, and spring months. If you attend 10:00 a.m., would you consider trying the Exchange at 9:45 a.m.? They had a great crowd yesterday and it’s just 15 minutes earlier! The Exchange is located in B64 just around the corner from Connections Coffee. Just follow the signs.
Both of these moves are a part of a larger plan to accommodate attenders and best utilize current church campus configuration. In the months ahead, you’ll hear much more about a formal team tasked with looking at next step options for additional space on our Atlee Station Road Campus as well as our probable venture into an additional site.
