In the my absence on the blog scene, one exciting change that has kept me (and our team!) busy is the fact that ClearView has a new location for our Sunday worship gatherings! As of Sunday, September 20th, we are meeting at the
New Albany High School (
directions)! The Gahanna YMCA was a great meeting place for us...and we love the staff there. We will continue to work with the YMCA in creative programming that will impact people's lives. Even though the YMCA was a great spot for us...something in my spirit wasn't content with our situation. As I shared this with our team, we spent almost 2 months praying for God's direction.
Over the course of this summer, God seemed to bring some factors to light that convinced us He was leading us to search for another meeting location. Here are some of the ways we sensed God moving as we prayed:
- God has opened up many exciting doors to serve in the New Albany Community. We enjoy positive relationships with the Events Board, Chamber of Commerce, and have coached, and served in the schools, etc. Since we are so active in the community of New Albany, it seemed to make sense to meet there. Pray that this move enhances our ability to invite people we serve at an event to join us on a Sunday morning at ClearView.
- We're making a major push over the next few weeks to invite the community to our Grand Opening. As we invest resources in mailings, a billboard, and newspaper ads, it made sense to use this media to also communicate about a new location.
- At some point, we will outgrow the limited space of the YMCA. At that point, a school in New Albany would have been our primary choice of location. So, why not make the change now and grow into a new space?
- Our people were of one mind about the change in venue. I was shocked (forgive me Lord, for my lack of faith!). Usually, any change means challenges from a leadership perspective. However, as we prayed as a team... people were excited and communicated
positive impressions. God has given us great unity around this decision! Praise Him!
As we have moved ahead with meeting in the school, I have been thrilled with the:
- Increased space this gives us for our worship gathering (the mini-theater we meet in has seating for about 150- no setting up chairs!).
- Increased participation from our team. Moving has served as a catalyst for us- new people are getting involved in serving. This has been so thrilling for me to observe: people are stepping up to leadership and others are filling in needed roles. Our critical teams (KidView- children; Wow Factor- guest relations; etc.) are fully staffed and people are jumping into new positions to help us get sound and video capabilities up and running. God has been meeting our needs for human resources.
Praise God!
I'm looking forward to ClearView's presence at New Albany's Oktoberfest this weekend! This is a community event that runs all day on Saturday, October 3, from Noon-11p. The event features great food and drinks, all kind of activities for children and families, and Big Ten football on jumbo-tron-style TV screens. ClearView will be hosting a 10x30 booth space where we will provide free face-painting, colored hair spray (OSU colors!), crafts, Chulo the Clown, and the infamous "fish-bowl" game (where kids can win gold fish as prizes- we ordered 1,000 of them!). We are also providing two inflatable bounces houses for the event (thanks Special Event/Plane Things!).
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