Sunday morning, September 23, we unveiled a new direction and vision for the leadership of our church. As your pastor I am committed to leading us to walk in obedience to the word of God and to be as healthy as we can be. For the last couple of years God has impressed upon my heart several things we need to do in order to accomplish this. I shared these with you Sunday morning and in case you missed it, I want to summarize them for you.

First, I believe we need to define and clarify what it means to be a church member that we might covenant together. If we were to ask the people of our church what a church member is or why
membership is important, we would get a lot of different answers. The more I read through the NT, the more I see that there is not just a framework of attending church but that we are called to be a part of something. This is not to say that we don’t welcome attenders, of course we do, but that the ultimate goal is not just for people to attend but to become part of the body of Christ.

Second, we need to define and strengthen the ministry of the deacon body and add new deacons in the future. Much like the first, if I were to ask you what a deacon is and what they are to do, we would get a lot of answers. We need to clarify for the church and future deacons what the ministry of the deacon is and then seek to add new deacons that they might be more effective in serving and ministering to the body of Christ.

Third, I feel that we need to appoint and implement an elder body to work alongside the pastoral staff in order to help shepherd, lead, oversee, and build-up the body of Christ. This will be the newest change but as I laid out Sunday morning from scripture, I believe it is a biblical process that will help us provide pastoral care and leadership in a more effective way to our congregation. In the coming weeks I hope to further explain what this leadership is about, to give us a clearer picture, and show why I think it will add to our overall church health.

Please be in prayer over these things, look at the scriptures for yourself, and be willing to follow as the Lord leads. I love you and look forward to how God is going to bless us in the future.

For His glory and your joy,
Pastor Charlie