Todd & Deb Bube

            Deb Bube started attending Glad Tidings in the youth ministry with her sister. She eventually started volunteering in the preschool class in the kids ministry department. She realized that she loved that, so she went to Kutztown University and graduated with a degree in Elementary Education.

            Deb and a friend headed up the preschool class during services, and Deb went on to direct the opening of a preschool- Lakeside Christian Early Learning Center. In the beginning of preparing to start the preschool, Deb traveled around to different churches and gleaned information that she used to help make decisions.  Today Lakeside Christian E.L.C. facilitates approximately 80-85 kids. The preschool has a high academic standard that holds a good reputation in the community.  Deb and her husband Todd began to feel a tug to move into a different branch of church ministry, so Deb handed Lakeside over and made changes in order to grow and fit into their new roles- Todd as Children’s director, and Deb in charge of the church volunteers. She is now the Director of Creative Arts and

            GT believes that their Sunday morning services are their outreaches. They focus all of their energies and resources into the Sunday morning experience- keeping it consistent. They advertise choice Sunday morning series’ extensively by sending out promotional fliers, movie theatre previews, etc. They encourage their members to personally invite friends (this is still the most effective way).  Social media is important in their promotional approach, via facebook and twitter.

            Glad Tidings has many “lifegroups” that are designed to accommodate many different people with many different interests and needs. They use this as another form of outreach, in that in the sermons, the pastor will direct people to a group or class that is relevant to the sermon, etc. It’s a form of follow-up.

            Every month they do a “serve” weekend- they focus one of the church’s ministries and highlight it in the services.  “Serve” is a process that a person in GT would go through if they were interested in volunteering in any of the ministries.

            Todd Bube is the Children’s ministry director at Glad Tidings Church over approximately 190 children’s workers. Their biggest Children’s outreach is VBS with about 1000 kids in attendance each night. They have approximately 500 volunteers.  They start planning VBS in October and do everything with excellence by sticking to their timeline of everything that needs to get done.

To create a great team of people under him, Todd has to allow his volunteers to dream- to take their gifts and their ideas into practice- utilizing who and what he has. Through VBS, parents see how excited their children are, and are interested and begin to attend the church. They also send a handout home with the parents to keep them informed and involved.

            Their regular kid’s ministry runs 550-600 kids weekly. They run the kid’s ministry like the main church, with a service for all ages and then breaking off into small groups by ages.

            Todd strives for excellence in everything he and his team decides to do. This requires a lot of work. “Anything worthwhile is a lot of work.” –Todd Bube

            In conclusion, this is a couple who has truly devoted their life to the work of the Lord.