Notes from the Dialogue

September 28, 2008

Our quarterly Church Family Dialogue meetings are key opportunities for the leadership to communicate events and goals on the horizon and for the body to discuss ways we can better glorify God by reaching up, in, and out.  For those who were unable to make the meeting on Wednesday evening, here are some of the items we discussed:

Mission and Mercy Month

We have a string of exciting opportunities this October to learn about ways to be involved locally and globally in God’s kingdom work of displaying mercy and declaring the gospel:

October 5th: I will be preaching on spiritual and physical adoption.  A representative from Christian Family Care Agency will share the various needs for foster care and adoption, and we will also unveil an opportunity for the whole church to be involved in making adoption financially feasible for Whitton families.

October 12th: Vermon Pierre of Roosevelt Community Church will be sharing about God’s activity in the downtown church plant that he pastors and the place of local church planting in the Great Commission.

October 19th: Kyle Wisdom will highlight our calling to spread the gospel to unreached people groups.  He will also talk about his unique opportunity to shepherd a church of expatriates in Indonesia while some of his church members target the unreached Sea Tribes people.

October 26th: Members of the Congo Team will share about their work this summer reaching out to the abused and traumatized in that war torn country.  Steve Tracy will preach on the pursuit of joy in Christ in the midst of difficult and even dangerous circumstances.

Neighborhood Outreach

Our outreach to the neighborhood is one of our most urgent needs for prayer and laborers.  God used our time of dialogue on Wednesday night to sharpen the vision of what our neighborhood outreach picnic should look like.  Because of this discussion we reconsidered our plans and have set the date of our next picnic for Sunday late afternoon, October 26th.

I also shared about the neighborhood children’s Sunday school class that will be beginning soon as well as our growing relationship with the elementary school down the street and the police officer that often parks in our lot.

Finally, I invited those in attendance to help us think through a time, place, or venue that would enable a broader participation in these Church Family Dialogues.  I welcome any suggestions that any of you have.

Thankful to be one of your elders,

Pastor Chris