Snow Globe

Snow globes. When shaken, they are a display of the beauty that snow adds to a scene. Yet when you find yourself in one, so to speak, and shaken by the hand of God, it can be frightening, to the point of feeling you are in utter chaos. This is just a small picture of where we find ourselves as a church. God has kindly brought many people through the doors of MVBC, and we are thankful for that. However, with such growth over the last two years, we as a leadership team have been scrambling to bring order to the resulting “chaos.” As I said, these are exciting times, but there are many details to consider when it comes to ministry. I think all of us have felt the “squeeze” at times. From this Pastor’s perspective, it is a joy to enter the pulpit and see some of you regular attenders sitting in different areas with new faces sitting in your old seats. With this growth, many ministries need to be re-evaluated, restructured, and, yes, even changed. I think we all get this. More “sheep” equals adjustment. With that in view, I thought it would be helpful to give you a taste of what your Elder team is working on to make the adjustment as smooth as possible.

The Elders have been looking at every area of ministry. We are currently focusing on the many children who attend our services, activities and outreaches each Sunday and throughout the week.

Nursery

To begin with, we are revamping our Sunday morning nursery program. A new policy is being written, and we have established a check-in and check-out system that is in place and working well. We have split the nursery into two rooms to address the ever-increasing numbers in that ministry. Cherie Morton and Sarah Duckstein are doing a great job overseeing and implementing these changes.

Children’s Church and Won by One

These two are the next ministries that will benefit from the new check-in and check-out procedures. You will learn the details of this process soon. We covet your help to make this process smooth; feel free to ask the Elders any questions you might have.

Child Protection

All MVBC children’s ministry volunteers ages 18 and up have been background checked and vetted with an extensive children’s ministry application. We allow teens from ages 14 through 17 to serve in our children’s ministry; they are teamed with a vetted adult to serve you and your family. An application process for teen helpers is in the works. There are other safeguards in place for the children’s safety, such as a six-month waiting period once someone has begun attending to serve in children’s ministry. (On a side note, waiting six months to serve in other ministries such as cleaning, worship team, multimedia, etc., is not required. We encourage you to feel free to speak to the ministry heads regarding using your spiritual gifts to serve the body.)

Space

As you have already noticed, we have chairs everywhere we can to help squeeze people into the sanctuary. Your Elders have a strong desire to be together and unified in one service, though depending on what happens in the interim and the continued growth we may have to find unique ways to accomplish that goal. We have discussed all sorts of scenarios to find a way to accommodate God’s growth of His church. We have been looking into property and existing buildings as a possible way forward. We have discussed and prayed about planting another church and even trying to eke more room out of our current home. Pray with us, as we want to do what the Lord is calling all of us to do. If you have any suggestions, please share your thoughts with an Elder. As an Elder team, we are always trying to lead in such a way that gives our Lord glory and to find ways to get His truth into people’s hearts.

Security Team

Our security team has made some adjustments in their coverage to keep the church family safe during meeting times. We really appreciate these individuals who work to keep us safe as we conduct ministry.

Easter Fellowship Meal

With the growth of our church and what we like to accomplish with our fellowship meals, we are learning that we have to be creative. Our tradition at MVBC is to share a meal together on Resurrection Sunday after the morning service. However, logistically it is becoming harder to quickly tear down and set up for such a meal. Because of that, we are going to try something new this Easter. We are planning to have a sunrise breakfast BEFORE the worship service. It will start at 7:30 a.m. and last until 8:30 a.m. with a half-hour to clean up before the service. Expect to hear more about this in the coming weeks as we anticipate this joyous time of year, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We ask you to pray for your leaders and do that with joy. We continue to strive to honor Him in all that we say and do and keep our “snow globe” from being a place of chaos and instead a place of beauty and order to the glory of God.