Friday, March 28, 2008

In the Works



If there is one environment we have purposefully created here at Grace it is that of change. One of the greatest ways to send a church into neutral is to always do everything the same way. Here at Grace, change has become the norm, not the exception. Though change is sometimes tough and not everyone takes to it easily, it is still a very good thing that we should welcome. So what’s in the works here at Grace Church that could produce more change in the not so distant future? Here are just a few things:

Budget! It’s the time of year that we work through our school, daycare and church budgets for the 2008/2009 fiscal year. Our fiscal year begins July 1st so come this June we will bring our proposed budget to the congregation for approval. We are currently looking at a proposed budget increase of 10% over actual giving from this year’s income.

Small Groups! Our Elder Board here at Grace Church joins me in seeing the need for us to make it a priority to become a church of small groups so that the hundreds of people that God is bringing us are able to connect with a small group of people in order to help them grow in their faith. In the very near future we will begin training small group leaders so that this fall we can launch our first wave of small groups.

Pastor of Connections! We are currently searching to hire a Pastor of Connections here at Grace Church whose main responsibility will be to oversee our small group ministry. The Search Committee has just about completed their exhaustive looking at potential candidates and will soon be giving these names over to our Interview Committee who will be interviewing and checking references on all of these individuals and narrowing down the best candidate(s).

Patriotic Celebration! Our next major event that is on tap is our Patriotic Celebration that is scheduled for Sunday, July 6. Planning for this event will begin very soon.

Third Service! As you are well aware, both of our 9:00 and 10:45 Sunday morning services are becoming more and more full each and every Sunday. We are pushing right at the 80% capacity mark in both of these services which is pushing us closer to the need to start a regular third weekend worship service. Will this be a third identical service or one that is a bit different? Will this service take place on a Saturday night or a third Sunday morning service? Will this service include our full nursery and children’s ministry? Now that Easter is over, we will be starting strategic planning in the near future to answer these questions so that we are ready to launch when the time is right.

Facility Expansion! Our Concept Development team has done a wonderful job of talking through how we can best use the 12.5 acres of land we own across the street which will then allow us to move into expanding our current facility. In the coming months a full briefing of this will be given to our Elder Board. We are also putting plans together for a renovation of our current auditorium in order to install new flooring and more.

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