On Tuesday night (9/2/08), I went where I've never gone before; I became a
fantasy football team co-owner and participated in a live draft.
This must be the year of "firsts" for me or something. (See my
Renaissance Faire post.) Another thing I've contemplated but never chose to take the time to do is to own a fantasy football team. This year is a bit different. My daughter and family (including my 3 grandkids!) recently moved to Pennsylvania from Colorado. My son-in-law is even more of a football fan than am I, and he's a "major league" fantasy football fan.
He and I had the opportunity to co-own a team this year in our neighborhood's league. These are the guys that I've spent lots of time with over the years as part of our neighborhood pool league and other stuff. I've been fortunate to make friends and stay connected to a bunch of guys who are not part of our church community.
As leaders in the church we are especially required to make and foster friendships with people outside the church. The best way to do this, of course, is through doing stuff that we like to do. I love to shoot pool (and am pretty good at it), and I love NFL football. Now I'm part of our neighborhood's fantasy football league.
We'll see if I'm any good at it!
Posted by: Kevin M. Stone in Resources, Outreach on
Aug 20, 2008
When we first moved into our new building in July of 2006 we had an immediate problem with trying to run a Hospitality ministry. Due to budget cuts and having to radically reduce the size of our building to get the project done for the money available, we couldn't build any space to even support Hospitality outside of the building. The single "kitchen type" sink in the building is located in a children's classroom and is only for use during the week. It doesn't help much, though, on Sunday morning.
For the first year (spring through fall) we made coffee in a couple of locations around the building (storage rooms, etc.) that were out of site and waited until after our 3 services to clean everything up. We even used a water hose on the curb in front of the building to rinse out coffee pump pots and other utensils. Needless to say, our volunteers weren’t very happy with us. We lost a number of team members during that period.
A way had to be found to provide something for the team to brew coffee and otherwise support a Hospitality area on Sunday mornings. Again, due to lack of space Hospitality has to be outside the building. Thankfully we have a large patio area in front of our building that can be used (weather permitting).
Enter the coffee cart.
Terri, the leader of our First Impressions ministry, suggested we find some kind of mobile or portable way to get the job done. Along the way, we found
Carts of Colorado. They manufacture carts or kiosks that businesses such as Starbucks use in malls and other public spaces for coffee and snack service.
I’m happy to say that we have had our cart for this entire season and it has been a HUGE success. If you have a similar need, I would suggest you contact them. Check out their website by clicking
here.
Posted by: Kevin M. Stone in Outreach on
Aug 14, 2008
Since joining the staff at
my church I’ve found it challenging to stay connected to people outside the church. As a corporate guy I obviously spent my whole day working with people outside of the church, many of whom very far from God. Now, I really have to work at it.
For more than 4 years now the guys in my neighborhood have gotten together every other week to shoot pool. It is organized league play (8-Ball) with a cash prize for the top 3 players and a catered event held at one of the participant’s homes at the end of the season. One of the things I really like about how the league is organized is that the purpose of the league is clearly understood. Being the winner and being all concerned about winning the game is not the focus. We do the league because we’re interested in spending time together and getting to know one another better as neighbors and friends. Cool!
Last night was league night. We had a larger than normal turnout (about 14 players). It was a great night. Yes … I won all 3 of my games, but that’s not why it was a great night. The number of players that showed up to play (at Joe’s house) and the fun we had together is what made the night great.
It’s been fun for me to have made the career transition to ministry that I’ve made since the first season of league play. The guys are curious to hear about
CCV and how we’re growing. I’ve had the pleasure of talking about our building programs, Kids’ Camp, and all the other cool stuff that’s happening around here. Of course, I often invite them to church or to bring their kids to one of our children’s events.
So far, none of them have come to church. But, you know what? I don’t really care. I don’t think that is what it’s all about. Just hanging with them and being part of their lives is all that I’m doing for now. Hopefully, I’m still here and available to serve them in some way when the time comes.
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