Where to?

Yesterday's post may have come out of nowhere (literally... I know I have blogged in over 2 years). 

I was honestly trying to wrap my head some of the swirling thoughts that I was experiencing. For some reason, my first instinct was to sit down and write.  

You may be thinking two things: 

• First, who even blogs anymore?  And I must agree, it's somewhat of a lost medium.  But why not? 
• Second, where did all this come from? 

Let's go back.  

About 6 months ago, my church's leadership came to me with a unique proposal.  They asked to consider shifting my role to fill a couple of holes in our church's overall strategy.  And as I pondered this changes, I began to see God's hand in this movement, both in our church and in my own heart.  

Here's what I know: 

• Most churches (notice I said "most" and not "all"... some get this right but most don't) don't do well with what happens next after youth ministry or high school ministry.  They have killer children's ministries... they rock middle school ministry... they knock high school ministry out of the park.  Only to graduate their students into...... (nothing). 
• Most churches (again, "most," not "all") don't pay much attention to the growing opportunities online.  Our world is experiencing an explosion of opportunity online as we are the most digitally connected we've ever been. Most church's websites are adequate.  They use Facebook and social media as a digital, online billboard for their church's events.  They use email as a one-way conversation to drive attendance.  

These are the two gaps that I have stepped into. 

Here's where the trail begins.  

We are driving to create a unique connection ministry for our high school students graduating and heading off to college.  Ashburn is not a college town and that isn't likely to change.  We have a few students but certainly not an overwhelming mass of people.  How can we reach out to our students, both local and across the country, and connect them in meaningful relationships that foster their growing faith and encourage them along new paths of engagement with the Church? 

We are working to create a more viable online community.  We are seeing our social media outlets, not as a means to the end but as an end in themselves.  Those behind the profile pictures are people.  Some local... some global... but all important to God.  How can we create and foster online content that shares the love of Jesus with those who may physically attend CFC and those who may never walk through our brick and mortar front door?  

So... where do we go from here?  

Honestly, this is the fun part.  Both of these areas of ministry are so new and so uncharted that we don't really know.  We have a general sense of where the path goes in a couple of areas and are beginning to get a sense of our direction.  But much of it is new.  

And that's exciting.  

To borrow a few of the words of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, "We are boldly going where few have gone before."

 

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