COM Meeting

The Council on Ministries is our group of Ministry Team Leaders who gather and discuss the various ministries of Mt. Auburn and how to care for and promote them. Although leaders NEED to be there, any member of Mt. Auburn is welcome to attend. Anyway, last nights COM meeting (made up of about 30 people) was focused on the O'Dell Family Life Center and the possibility of eventually using it (temporarily) for our worship services along with the possibility of moving from 3 services back to 2 on Sunday mornings. As you can probably imagine this would be a huge change to our Sunday morning programming, so we began by coming up with a list of Benefits & Obstacles. Many of each were named, but here are a few of the big ones...

Benefits

• More room for growth (as our present Sanctuary holds about 200 and most of our services are filling up.)
• Opportunities for more Sunday school classes and less confusing Sunday school schedule.
• Possibility of offering a Children's Worship Service in our present Sanctuary (which would be converted into a Children's ministry area.)
• Would be less taxing for our present choir (warm up's & practice) and Pastors.
• Less Congestion between services.
  
• Should get us to a new Sanctuary faster!

Obstacles

• A gym isn't as pretty to Worship in as a Sanctuary.
• Would take a lot of work to set up and tear down for Sunday services. Saturday evening use of the gym would be extremely limited due to Sunday morning preparation.
• Pleasing lighting and acoustics might be difficult to achieve.

Overall, last night's meeting was successful and (I thought) uniting. Obviously nothing is set in stone as things will have to pass through the Ad Board and be well presented to the congregation, but I feel that change is good for the soul. It keeps us focused on our worship of God and relying on Him to show up and make it what it is.

One of the best messages that I received from Jim's sermon this past Sunday was when he mentioned a passage from Deuteronomy 32. Although he was speaking figuratively about the current economic recession, I think the metaphor can be applied to the OFLC as well.

He spoke about a mother Eagle shaking her nest so as to teach her little eaglet to fly (as is its purpose). "The baby Eagle doesn't really want to leave the nest... In the nest he's safe and well fed by his mother." Jim said, "Like the Mother Eagle, I believe God is shaking our nest, so we can soar to new heights and fulfill the purposes that he has planned for us."

Whatever your feelings about the uses for the OFLC, please keep the matter in prayer. Mt. Auburn is a family and it is our responsibility as disciples to invite others into the family of Christ. A gym will not make that happen. But God can use anything he chooses (even a gym) as a doorway into the hearts of future believers.