Grace Community Christian Church

 

Archived Things Above

Some Positive New Direction! (10/9/03)

If you weren't here Sunday night, you missed a really good congregational meeting. The spirit was good, some important decisions were made, & some critical areas of need were identified. As you'll read about elsewhere in this newsletter, the overwhelming input from the congregational questionnaires was to leave our Sunday morning service time at 10:00. While it is hoped that eventually we may be able to add a full schedule of children's & adult ministries on Sunday mornings (ie: Bible School classes), right now we're better off trying to strengthen the existing children's ministries, & move adult studies to week nights. Volunteers are definitely still needed to help in Junior Church, which presently spans ages 3 through grade 5. You don't have to have a degree in Education to realize that's a huge gulf, & extremely challenging for one adult leader & a teenaged assistant.

We would like to see the following occur, perhaps beginning as early as November:

  • Recruit teachers & assistants for ages 3-5 class (Chris & Debbie Potter will lead this effort! They may be calling you!)

  • Begin middle school age youth group to meet during the week (Teresa Barker will lead.)

  • Children 1st grade through 5th will remain with parents in worship assembly until dismissed to Junior Church. Ages 3-5 years will be downstairs for the entire worship time.

  • Kim Dewar is still the overall co-ordinator for Junior Worship, & encourages all current & any prospective Junior Church workers to attend a Training Session on Sunday night, October 26, at 6:00. In addition to these changes in Children's Ministry, two new adult classes will be forming:

  • Sharon Poole will lead a study at her home on Wednesday nights, beginning October 29, at 7:00. Study material will be The Eyewitness Reports of Jesus (from the Reality Check series by Willow Creek Resources.)

  • Jim Dewar will lead a study on Tuesday nights at 7:00 pm, alternating with the Prayer Meeting. Beginning in November, we will be looking at John Fischer's book, 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me). This study will be held at the church building. Please use sign-up sheets on back wall for both of these studies. Books for both Bible studies can be ordered from your local Christian bookstores. Both these studies are scheduled to conclude in December, at which time we'll evaluate, re-group, & decide which new way to go!

    It was apparent that there is an overwhelming desire for people here to get into serious study of the Bible & to deepen their walk with Christ. We hope that you will take advantage of these opportunities, because they're also tremendous ways to strengthen your relationships with other believers (& pre-believers) who hang around here! "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do." (2 Tim. 3:16-17, NLT)


    Jim Dewar --

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