Yeeeeee-HAW! Well, it’s been about a month that I’ve been “back in the saddle” as a full time children’s pastor and what a ride it’s been! I suppose I should get back to blogging and letting y’all know how it’s been going!
I’m having a blast and it’s going great so far. I’m not changing too much too fast – mostly getting to know people – learning how things are done here, and evaluating. I’m impressed with the number of volunteers, the commitment of the staff and with so much of what is already in place.
We have some excitement in the air because of a new building that will be breaking ground soon and so the opportunity is ahead of us for growth as we will be moving in to a new building (Lord willing) in the fall of 2016. That’s going to mean preparing to raise the bar in how we do thing to prepare for anticipated growth over the next year.
I’m also busy looking at how we are organized, how we process things, and how we recruit, schedule, do check in, retain volunteers and visitors and theming both here and when we move into the new building. At the same time, I’m evaluating curriculum and looking at program flow, scheduling and other things that just need some fine tuning to better engage the kids and ensure that visitors want to return as much as the regulars who are hooked due to strong relationships already established. I’m looking at communication within the staff, volunteers, and parents, and determining how much I’ll do hands on and choosing which areas to address this fall and what are more long term goals.
“Back in the saddle” isn’t a bad analogy – you are jumping on a horse that used to belong to someone else – you have to earn trust first and can’t kick too hard or try to take it too fast or in too new a direction too quickly or it just might throw you to the ground.
But so far, folks seem pretty excited to have me here and pretty enthusiastic about where we are headed. Trying to take it slow and steady!
The good news is, nothing here was done badly. But the potential for things to be done better always exists and when new leadership comes, it always brings new opportunity to try fresh approaches and the people here seem eager to see what we can do to reach kids in some new ways. And that’s exciting! And I love that I have a solid foundation to build upon!
