The Shoreline Insider

I know it has been a couple of weeks since our Leadership Pipeline but I wanted to give an update to those that didn’t attend as well as some new info to everyone. I have been really busy as I am going to Iowa with Joe our youth intern to speak at a youth retreat. So, not only have I been having to stay on top of our own messages, but I have been having to prepare 4 messages for that trip.

The numbers are in.

The numbers are in for October. We did not have 1 Sunday under 350 people. Our lowest Sunday was 351 and our highest was 372. This may not sound like much to you but this is exciting because it means we had good steady growth over September and our average wasn’t high because of a spike. September’s numbers were 324, so we were up 34 people in the month of October over September. That growth was in both kids and adults. October was now our highest average ever. Our previous high months were April of this year (Average 350; Easter service – 472) and August (Average 343).

Now, we don’t just look at numbers but numbers are one of the indicators of health. Growth is an indicator of health. If you kids don’t grow, you know there is something wrong. Some of the other things we look at are…

• #  of people involved in Life Groups
• # of people volunteering
• stories of life change and testimonies of God moving

Right now, all those are good.

Leadership Pipeline Recap

• Connection Award – Given to the volunteer who has stepped up and mirrored Shoreline’s Core Values – Joe and Melanie Hunolt – Joe is our Production Manager. What does that mean? That means he is in charge of the storage facility and he plays a mean game of Tetris in real life with our storage closet. He is a super-faithful man who is there for both services. They also host band practice at their house. The won some move tickets and dinner at Mellow Mushroom. Thanks for putting the ball through the hoop.
• Church Review – We gave a review form out to Shannon Cherry along with a $50 gift card to Chilies. Shannon was going to get the bass player from his band to come to church and critique Shoreline. For his services, he gets the gift card from Chilies. If we are called to reach unchurched people, then their opinion counts. We also had some more copies of the Church Review Form available for those who wanted to buy someone’s lunch in order to bribe bless them to come to church. If you are interested you can get them from the office.
• Radiohead – Pastor Sam talked about the band Radiohead. This well known band by-passed the traditional way to sell records and sold them on line for whatever a customer was willing to pay for them. When it comes to innovation, the people or organizations that are innovative are either the new ones on the scene or the very established ones who like the newbies, have nothing to lose by trying something different. Sam related that to Shoreline and how if we move to the middle ground of medium or later adopters is to invite the sure death of mediocrity.

As it turns out, in the previous month’s Leadership Pipeline (Sept.) we asked for innovative ideas. Many were sent to us via e-mail. We went over them and one of the ideas was a Wednesday Night service for those who can’t make Sunday morning but to do it an a bar like McGuires Irish Pub. Everybody seemed to like that idea the best. So please be praying with us as we try to schedule an appointment with the manager to see of they would be open to us having a service on the 3rd floor on Wednesday nights when the season starts in March.

• Shipwrecked – We are going to finish up the Shipwrecked series on the 11th of November (My birthday but don’t tell anyone – shhhhh) with a 90 day tithing challenge. This will be for families who have never tithed. We are going to challenge them to tithe regularly for 90 days and if God doesn’t bless them at the end of 90 days , we will refund their money. You will be able to log onto one of our websites, www.richtowardgod.com for more info.
• Boundaries – We are super excited about a series we will be doing in January. We will be exploring the boundaries of drinking alcohol, sex, kids and when to say NO. It should be a very good series to invite people. We will be supplying invite cards, e-vite cards and hopefully some community advertising.

That is it for now and remember … you had me at hello.

Pastor Eric