As most of you are aware, a leadership team at Central has been engaged in a discernment process for several months, with the goal of intentionally FIRST seeking God’s will for our church, rather than “thinking of a plan and asking God to bless it!” The team: Mary Sheffield, Dot Moore, Kimberly Rand, Jennifer Goodwin, Michelle Carlson, Darla & Marty Petty, Phillip Ransbottom, Pastor Sonny, and I met regularly for weeks…focusing on prayer and spiritual conversations that we hoped would lead us to a vision of meaningful ministry engagement for Central for the next 9 months or so.
As a result of our discernment process, the three initiatives that the Dawnings team is proposing to the church involve both personal growth and change, and action/outreach.
These initiatives are:
Engage in specific, intentional actions to become more welcoming, friendly and inclusive to EVERYone.
Identify and nourish our individual spiritual gifts and passions so we can each connect to a place of service.
Strongly emphasize outreach to families with children and youth, ensuring that everything we do as a church reflects our love for this group.
For the next few weeks, we will be expanding and clarifying these initiatives in worship; Sonny will begin to do this today in his sermon on Acts 10, as well as in subsequent sermons. You will also hear testimonies and specific plans defining this vision in action. You will hear plans/ideas to enlarge meaningful ministries that are already working. You will hear ideas for new programming, or possibly de-emphasizing some things as they “always were before.” God’s church that meets at 142 Fairview Avenue is about to re-connect to our DNA that calls us to serve.
Make plans now to be present so you’ll be prepared to get on board with every aspect of Central’s next chapter. The Dawnings team believes that God has much exciting work ahead for us, but each person in our congregation is needed to work this process. The prayers and preparations are just beginning! Neither age nor infirmity nor general busyness excuses us from action. Won’t YOU make the commitment to do your part in this plan? I believe that God will continue to equip us because we are called to do His Kingdom work!
Thank you for supporting the Dawnings team through this initial discernment process; now we can get to work TOGETHER!
In gratitude and grace, Linda Pigott
386.255.2588
secretary@centralbc.org
