If you love kids…
If you love kids—and we do here at Chapel Hill—I have some exciting and important news to share with you.
First, I am delighted to announce that our new Director of Children’s Ministries, Paul Hargreaves, has arrived!
He and his wife Gina (who is teaching in our Chapel Hill Preschool) bring LOADS of experience and enthusiasm. Paul worked in youth ministry for many years but came to sense a call to work with children and their families. He specializes in building strong teams and is already at work, meeting and recruiting those who will help to craft this next chapter in our ministry to kids, something that has always been a high priority at Chapel Hill. I will be interviewing Paul as part of my message this weekend; I know you will be as excited as we are to hear of his vision for how to equip and support parents as they raise up young disciples of Jesus.
If you love kids—and we do here at Chapel Hill—here’s another change you need to be aware of. In these days when even churches are vulnerable to violent attacks, we are being proactive in renovating a space that prioritizes security for our children. More than a year ago, we brought in an expert from the Department of Homeland Security to assess our facility. One of their greatest concerns was the number of unsecured entrances and an inadequate check-in system. They had strong recommendations on what we must do to make our building safer.
The Session made this recommendation a top priority. Some of these changes are going to impact your access to the building and I want to give you a heads up! Within a few weeks, Door C will be the only point of access into our children’s ministry wing. Every child will be checked in through a computer program and then proceed to their classes from there. We are finalizing the installation of security doors that will ensure that only authorized, identified persons will be able to access the spaces where our children are being trained and cared for.
What this means is that, within a few weeks, Doors A and B will be locked on Saturday night, Sunday morning, and weekday mornings during preschool.
We realize this will be inconvenient for those accustomed to entering from the north end of the building. But limited access is essential to making our children’s facilities safe and secure.
We do not want to live in fear, but we also want to be wise. The elders feel it is much better to deal with this proactively than, God forbid, to respond after an incident.
We will keep you well-informed as the date of the transition approaches. But I wanted you to hear from me about this slightly disruptive, but really, really important change. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Ryan Palmer, Paul Hargreaves, or Dan Griswold.
If you love kids, and we do, there’s nothing you wouldn’t do to keep them safe. I’m sure you agree. I’ll see you this weekend.
Pastor Mark