Bad Day At Black Rock...

This morning, the world came crashing in on us. Anyone who might think that the church is immune from the world's problems needs to read this.

When walking between Building A and Building B, I noticed that the enclosure around the air conditioning equipment for the Family Life Center was standing open. In seconds, I saw that the units were in pieces! Copper thieves hit us overnight.

The emotion hits like a physical blow. It really does hurt and stun you to experience this kind of violation. And the full reality of the loss was even worse than the first impression. 12 units were damaged or destroyed- 94 tons of capacity. The Worship Center, Family Life Center, Cafe, most staff offices and the west side of Building B downstairs are totally without cooling.

That is the bad news- the good news is that we have good insurance and a great HVAC contractor. It isn't positive, but we hope that we will have repairs done by Sunday. But, just in case, no one is going to object if you show up in flops and shorts. It will be toasty if the AC isn't running. Pastor Ken has decided that regardless of the situation, gathering as a body to worship God is important, and we won't let thieves ruin our worship.

Hal Hunter

Winning...

What does it take to score a win with adults? What do we celebrate?

For years we have cultivated an invest and invite approach. We want our people to spend time and energy becoming involved in the lives of their friends, neighbors and coworkers. We want them so excited about being here they want to invite others to share what they are experiencing. So, one win is seeing people bring their friends on Sunday morning.

We think community is important. Another important win is seeing people getting involved in a Community Group. True involvement and engagement is difficult in a large gathering, but natural in a small one. We believe that spiritual growth is most likely to occur in our Community Groups.

An important win is seeing people getting involved in service. It takes a lot of people to make the ministry here at Argyle. People need to put their faith to work. Like our bodies, our faith needs exercise.

More Wins...

In Student Ministry (7th-12th grade) we want to see students connecting and interacting in their small groups. Impact happens from 4-6 pm on Sunday. Our students enjoy their own praise and worship, hear from Student Pastor Rich Painter, then separate into grade and gender groups with their leaders. A win happens when a student connects to and participates in a small group. A win happens when they invite a friend to Outbreak, a periodic fun evening designed to engage unchurched teens. A win happens when a student participates in serving the body. A win happens when a student claims a place in the Body of Christ.

Our Student Ministry is based on the foundation of the 7 Checkpoints- click here to learn more.

Some Win Statements In Children's Ministry...

One of our primary ministries at Argyle involves our kids. We have a lot of them in our family, and they are important to us. Click here to read about our Children's Ministry strategy.

Amazing Place is our environment for preschool kids. A win here is a kid who comes out of this environment knowing-

• God made me
• God loves me
• Jesus wants to be my friend forever

UpStreet is our environment for kids K-6th grade. We want them to learn that-

• I need to make the wise choice
• I can trust God no matter what
• I need to others the way I want to be treated
• Jesus loves me so much He wants to save me forever

KidStuf is our high energy stage environment for kids and their families. It is a place that gets kids excited about God and what He is doing in their lives. A win in KidStuf is a kid who gets excited enough to drag his parents and friends to church.

Another win is when we see families growing together. We want to partner with parents; we can never replace them in developing their kids spiritually. Family Times is a resource we encourage families to use to help their children in the rest of the week when they aren't here.

Getting In The Game...

Pasor Ken began a new series on September 14- Getting In The Game. It's all about people moving from being consumers to being communers. The first step in getting involved is to understand the game and the playing field.

At Argyle, some people (usually those with at least some background of church experience) come in and find that we do things a lot differently than they are used to. Everything we do is for a purpose, and everything you see (or don't see) is intentional.

Our leadership uses an approach discussed in a book we think every member of the Argyle family should read- 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner and Lane Jones.

The first practice is to clarify the win. It is how we identify the important things we are trying to achieve, communicate what we want our people to do, and know when and what to celebrate.

We have talked about this before. Check here and here. We aren't really interested in numbers at Argyle- we are interested in changed lives.

The next couple days we will be discussing what we consider some wins here at Argyle. If you have questions, leave a comment, or check out our web site, or contact us.

Hal Hunter