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As we approach the final days of 2008, I thought I’d share a few things I’m pumped about that will be making an appearance in early 2009…

1. Leadership Coaching. We’re going to start a semi-regular (probably bi-monthly) meeting to discuss leadership principles and practices from a Christian perspective.  Not church leadership, but Christian leadership.  In other words, I’m not necessarily trying to train better leaders for RPC as much as I want to help RPC’ers be better leaders where they are – at work and at home.  It’ll be open to anyone and everyone, and details will be available soon (email me if you’re uber-interested).
2. Building more Living-Rooms. At RPC, we have our Sunday services (the “foyer”) and family groups (the “kitchen”), but we’re striving hard for more environments to connect the two (“living rooms”).  We’re passionate about creating opportunities for RPC’ers to hang out and get to know others in the church who don’t necessarily go to group together.  We used to do potluck dinners and churchwide picnics, but as we’ve grown these events have become more logistically challenging (read: “nearly impossible”).  I’m in the process of assembling some folks to brainstorm some cool ways we can stay connected.
3. Improving Communication. As our church grows I’m beginning to see more and more how important it is for those who are “heart-deep” in RPC to take ownership in it.  I believe there’s a huge difference between saying “that’s where I go to church” and “that’s my church.”  I’ve had several conversations recently with folks who are trying to be more invested but feel like they’re constantly out of touch with what’s going on around here.  Which leads me to believe that we must do better at communicating with our members and attenders.  So we’re going to be exploring ways to keep folks better informed about the major and not-so-major details of RPC, because so many of you want to know.  And if it’s your church, you should be able to.
4. Kids area overhaul. Okay, this one’s kind of a secret (and Pam may kill me for mentioning it), but we’re planning a somewhat major overhaul of the way we use our facilities for kids ministry.  The bottom line:  it’s a real pain to drop off or pick up preschool-aged kids, and if their brother or sister is in elementary school they go to an entirely different area.  And the more we thought about it, the less sense that made.  So we’re going to change some things to make parents’ lives easier (all the parents in the house say ‘yay-uh’).
5. Game Plan. On January 4th we’ll start a new series, “Game Plan”, where we’ll talk about finances and money management and lots of other fun stuff.  We WON’T be talking about giving or tithing or anything like that.  We WILL, however, talk about how to manage everything God has given us, the importance of saving for a rainy day, and why debt tends to suck the life out of us.  It’s gonna be fun, and informative, and as practical as we can make it, and it’ll last 4 weeks.  Don’t miss it.