Monday Memo

Here are most of the comments and questions from the weekend Communication Cards:

// Shout out to the people who decorate the stage! We are blessed by your creativity! You’ve out done yourselves. [I can't believe they found all those chandeliers! Unbelievable. That same team has been busy also working on the Christmas decorations that will be up by next weekend. Creative and tireless!]

// Appreciated Henry’s honesty and show of vulnerability! Leaders don’t do this enough.

// I wish you had a women’s Bible study in the evening as there are a lot of women who work and can’t attend a women’s Bible study in the morning. [It may not be what you're looking for, but women's BSF meets on Mondays at Five Oaks in the evening. Several of our women are involved in that. You might want to check it out.]

// I brought three friends with me today and I truly couldn’t be more proud to call Five Oaks my church home.

// Love the new set! Great job worship team!

// Love this message and three tips! Thank you!

// Excellent service.

// Opening worship set was powerful, as was the response set.  [I thought the worship team was incredible. The songs, the number of folks who led songs so well, Dan's guidance though the readings, etc. were all powerful.]

// Great worship, thank you band. Great message Henry!

// This is our last Sunday here. We are moving to FL. We will miss Five Oaks. Henry, thank you for always teaching God’s Word and desiring that we should learn and know God’s story and the love of Jesus.  Cathy Mahlum [God bless you as you make FL your home and as you look for a solid church.]

// Love the chandeliers – if I were a visitor I would want to go to this church – glad it’s my church home. Thank you Henry, life-changing fresh shift from sharing my “early Christian four-year-old conversion story and bringing faith messages” to my day to day conversations.

// Our worship team has so much talent. Thank you for your hard work! The new decorations on stage are beautiful – thank you! Happy Thanksgiving Five Oaks Church!

// Dan prepares us for the word, even when he is not leading the vocals. So effective with congregational readings. Thanks for being so transparent that we see Jesus – the love of Jesus. How Great Thou Art (Amen).

// Pastor Henry, by far one of the best studies you’ve ever done! Thank you.

// Loved the worship tonight!

// A minor issue, but have noticed for many weeks that some of the rows of chairs are quite close together and others far apart. [I know. We have to fix that.]

Monday Memo

Here are most of the comments and questions from the weekend services Communication Cards:

// Thanks for all the wonderful organization and support for our family going through the dedication service. It was wonderful! [I love the way we are doing our child dedication services, especially the fact that all the parents go through a class led by Susan Somers. Thanks Susan!]

// Thank you for addressing prayer and how we self-censor and pray later, instead of in the moment when the Holy Spirit calls us. Thank you for the challenge to be obedient to Christ in the present moment.

// Amen.

// Nice first and second song – Hallelujah, I Believe… How is this church helping to foster friendships in Christ? Lots of people come into service and then leave and never connect. I think an interest based friendship would be helpful – find groups based on interests and study the word together. Also, plus do extra thing outside in the study. [Anybody that would like to can start an interest-based small group that will also study, pray and serve together. Some churches organize their small groups in this way. Yes, lots of folks come and leave without connecting. That's why we focus three months of the year on getting people to sign up for small groups. Our ratio of people in small groups is among the highest nationally. Many folks not in our small groups are connected elsewhere. And some do not want to connect.....yet! We're always trying. And many connect through service. Tim made a great point about this. Loved his sermon.] 

// The greeting time is horrible and I never ate my Brussel sprouts. [Good analogy! Dan's comments on some people not liking the greeting time solicited this and the next response.]

// In my opinion, people don’t mind greeting each other; it’s the silly questions that we don’t like. How about we just say hello – it doesn’t put us on the spot. [Thank you for the feedback. I know you're not alone feeling that way. Why do we do the silly question anyway? Most importantly, because since doing so it's rare (maybe even non-existent) that someone says our church is cold and no one talked to them. Unfortunately, we got that response much too often before. Greeting someone with a "hello" wasn't cutting it for us. We do give you an option to ignore it, but I get it: once it's out there it kind of takes a life of its own. I also get there will be some who come and never come back precisely because we do that question thing. But I also know there are many who have come back precisely because of the results of doing it. All these kinds of decisions (e.g., do the question thing or not) always come down to choosing who you will attract and who you will turn away, but no decision is neutral. One last thought: we ask for a get a lot of feedback from first-time guests and I don't ever remember anyone mentioning our greeting time one way or another, but lots of folks talk about how welcoming we are. Besides, you have to admit, hearing Tim or Dan's answer to the question is half the fun.]