November Internship Report – Matt and Sarah Snyder

Published November 6, 2017

Northridge Church, Rochester, New York

Matt

Ministry Highlights

October 1st was the first of two “soft launch” Sundays for the new church campus which I’m helping to launch. We got all of our equipment – everything from sound boards to nursery toys, batteries to trailers – delivered the Saturday before and we spend the day practicing with it all. Then, on Sunday we opened the doors to our church’s 4th campus for the very first time. I think we were all a bit surprised by how  well those first weeks went, and by how much we still had to learn. They were busy and stressful weeks, but it was awesome to see the faces of people as they walked into their church – except, now in their own neighborhood – for the very first time.

October 15th was the “official” Grand Opening of the new campus. We really made sure that we “pulled out all the stops” to make this an incredible experience for those in attendance, and for the volunteers who were a part of making it all happen. To say that we’re blown away by what God is doing is such an understatement. We had over 350 people in attendance, which is significantly more than we ever thought we would have! The energy in the room was incredible, and we’re already hearing cool stories of people who decided to give God and church “one more try” because of this weekend!

The weekend of October 8th is probably the single craziest weekend that I’ve ever had in my life – but it was super rewarding. After leading staff devotions on the previous Wednesday, and spending countless hours preparing for our upcoming grand opening, I left Friday afternoon to be a part of our Youth Group’s Fall retreat. Then, I left the fall retreat on Saturday to drive back for church on Sunday. Then I left again to drive back to the fall retreat before finally coming back home on Monday evening (only to do my first ABA 48 hours later). So, definitely not the least busy I’ve ever been! But, even through all of that, this was a SUPER rewarding weekend. The fall retreat is always the highlight of our Youth Ministry calendar, and God did some incredible things in our teens this year. And, Sunday was great too. My ABA went pretty well too. It was great to see God work, because I was definitely relying on Him to make anything happen that weekend.

Probably the single coolest part of our Grand Opening was that we got to kick off our new campus with our church’s favorite thing: a baptism. The lady who was getting baptized really has a special place in our hearts, and her story of God working in her life to overcome years of abuse from her earthly father is just insanely moving. I can’t think of a better way to start a new campus. We’ve got 4 more adult baptisms scheduled before the end of the calendar year. The momentum that they’re bringing to our campus is so incredible.

Key Prayer Requests

Sometimes, you just have to hustle. On the weekend of the 8th, I was faced with the decision to either 1) honor my responsibilities as a youth leader and go on the Youth Retreat or 2) honor my responsibilities as a campus production director and stay for Sunday services. The opportunity presented itself for me to do both, but it required 20 hours of driving in a span of 48 hours. I didn’t get much sleep, but I fulfilled all my responsibilities. I’m not always a fan of brute force effort, but sometimes just plain working hard is the answer.

Life change is contagious. We were able to start life in our new campus with a baptism and an awesome story of life change on our grand opening Sunday. Since then, we’ve had 3 more people express a desire to be baptized because of that story. God’s work in people’s lives catches on. Showing people’s stories is the best way to motivate other people to let God work in their own lives.

People rally behind worthy causes. The whole reason our church has adopted the multi-site model is that it allows us to put our church right in people’s backyards. Our people don’t have to ask their friends to drive across town to come to church with them. Church is right in their neighborhood. We heard stories all throughout our pre-launch phase this summer of specific people who our campus attenders were planning on inviting to church now that there’s a campus nearby. We’ve already seen so much of that come to fruition. It’s exciting. It’s fun. It’s contagious.

Prominent Lessons

I mentioned this a little bit above, but I am slowly learning the ins and outs of leading a preschool classroom within a church setting.  I can plan, organize, and create a schedule of volunteers.  I am in a position though where I’m not only leading and teaching the kids, but I’m leading adults.  I believe this is going to be a continual learning process for me, but I have started this month realizing I need to step it up in my role.  All the background work is finalized, but building relationships with the ladies who volunteer and leading them is a stretch for me.  There are people who are looking for me to guide them.

Key Goals for the Next Month

Preach Applied Bible Analysis 2.

Finish Project 1 & 2.

Right now, my presence is very necessary in our Sunday morning services. There’s a lot that happens that only I know how to do. My goal is, by the end of this month, to have one Sunday where I don’t do anything. That’ll be the indication that I’ve adequately trained and equipped my teams.

The environments that our Youth Group meets in are in desperate need of a good once over. I want to have all the technology organized and all the little issues fixed by the end of the month.

Sarah

Ministry Highlights

On October 1st, we began our “Soft Launch” process in our new facility – the movie theater.  Basically, we practiced set up, tear down, livestream, children’s ministry, etc.  We had a few hiccups, but we were expecting a lot worse since it was our very first Sunday.

On October 15th, we officially launched our fourth campus in Henrietta, NY! Things went pretty smoothly (we had two weeks to practice).  Over 350 people came that week! We’re excited to see how God uses this new campus!

Northridge has recently started a new young adult ministry.  Matt did the research to help start this group.  We have gone to the few events that have occurred to support this ministry and get to know other people our age.

We hosted our community group one time this month.  Our home has the room, and we love having people over.  It was nice to have our group over to our home and get the chance to build relationships with one another.

Key Prayer Requests

I am a coordinator for the preschool classroom in our children’s ministry.  Things are going well in our room. We’ve had anywhere between 11 and 17 kids show up on a given Sunday.  Right now, the other coordinator and I are doing most of the work.  We’d like to get to the point where we can have volunteers step up and take specific roles.  I’m asking for prayer on where to place our volunteers, and that they take on the role that best aligns with their gifts and abilities.

We have officially launched our new campus but that doesn’t mean there are still things to get done! Matt and I both in our given ministries are tweaking things to fix and/or make better for the future.  Please pray that we can get things done the way that works best to run a smooth service on Sundays.

Prominent Lessons

I mentioned this above, but my co-coordinator and I are carrying the load of the preschool classroom.  We do everything with scheduling, weekly emails, establishing the curriculum, printing, getting materials, and more.  We would like to get to the point where our volunteers really take ownership of their roles instead of doing the minimum.  They want to serve, but my co-coordinator and I want to make sure they are placed in areas where they can use the best of their abilities.  This is a learning process, but I know it needs to be done.

Key Goals for the Next Month

I would like to talk to one of my co-workers about her faith.

This is the same goal as last month, but it’s a good goal! I would like to build a relationship with one person. I’d like to pick one person to see all the time, to take time out of the week to hang out, and to build a friendship.