MAPS are Messages About Purpose and Strategy. Our purpose is singular: we exist to glorify God. He made us for himself and our lives are all about honoring our Maker. While we have one overarching purpose that drives all things we are and do, we employ many strategies in pursuing this purpose. That's how I can keep writing these MAPS week after week. There are many things we can do in order to bring God the glory he deserves. Last week I wrote about a new strategy we will be utilizing. ROOTED, a new service aimed at the young adult community, will begin meeting on Sunday nights on Sept. 13 at 7:00. I have a passion for this particular slice of the demographic pie, because it is so often neglected by churches. When the pastor search committee here was looking at me, they asked lots of questions. I remember one meeting before I was hired (it may have been with the elders, I can't remember) in which I went up to a white board in order to paint a picture of one of my whopper concerns. I drew a conveyor belt and said it represents how newborns get on track at church and receive great care and guidance through their childhood and youth. The movement of that first conveyor belt represents the passing of 18 years. There is another conveyor belt, the adult ministries track. Adults get involved in churches and, as the years go by, the conveyor belt moves along. But the conveyor belts are not attached. In fact, they are not even close to one another. At many churches, there is a terrible gap between the two. Young people graduate out of the youth group and drop into nowhere land. Very few churches keep the 20-somethings. The adult belt usually picks up people in their 30's who feel like they may want to get back to church "for the sake of the kids." ROOTED aims at closing this gap. Please pray for a successful start. We need God's power do accomplish God's goals.