260!

Today I have been working on a list of all of the service opportunities at Emmanuel. It has been quiet a challenge getting all of this together, but I am almost done. I divided my list into two categories: those with staff positions directly overseeing them and those with laymen directly overseeing them. Just within the staff led ministries we have 260 volunteer opportunities.

That really freaks me out. We have approximate 400 adults in worship on Sunday morning with a total of about 500 people in campus during that time. I am a little freaked out that we have possible over programmed ourselves. When putting together this list, I have noted those that service opportunities that have not been filled. Most of these are in places that are very important, most notably are Guest Services and Discipleship. And I honestly believe we are killing those workers who are signed up in the other area.

This is a serious problem; one which I have no clue how to rectify. I understand that I need to develop a culture of service, but man oh man!

Bell Labs

I read an ariticle in Fast Company the other day about Bell Labs. If you are like me and are too young to really remember Bell Labs, it was a groups of about 3000 researchers, scientist, and general innovators who worked together to invite really cool stuff. This got me to thinking about the church. What if we could create a Bell Labs for the church. Just think what it would be like to get a group of the church's best innovators together; to live together; to study together. Just imagine what would come out of it. I know this is almost impossible, but we do get close to it in the blogosphere. If you read someone like www.benarment.com or www.tonymorganlive.com and look over their blog roll you will find the Bell Labs of the church.

Just a thought