Community Update from Dr. Bob: 7/17/2024
It has been a privilege working with you as your Transitional Leader since January 2023. During this season, we have accomplished a great deal.
I have walked with you through the retirement transition of Pastor Rob, the right-sizing of the staff and budget, increased financial stability, and the clarification of your mission and vision. We have worked together on getting the focus back on experiencing God, and especially zeroing in on the mission Jesus called us to. We recognized that the church is supposed to be far more than a social club with teaching. Rather, we are called to live and love like Jesus, engage with the world around us, and make disciples of those we encounter. This outward missional focus has been the main thrust of the sermons, then was explored further in the Discipleship Lab, and finally found a more lasting form in Friday Night Church.
Having connected the church with ASPIRE, I am sensing my time as your Transitional Leader will be completed by the end of August. Yet it’s not a time of endings, but a time of new beginnings. ASPIRE is fully aligned with your vision and mission—one that I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically endorse:
We aspire to be a church that makes disciples who make disciples who make disciples. We want to grow as disciples of Jesus while making disciples of Jesus, and we recognize that we cannot do one without the other. As individuals and as a church community, we want to be a people who listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit, discerning where God is at work, and then joining him there. In this way, we will be part of bringing God’s Kingdom to earth. Toward that end, we desire to serve the community around us and demonstrate the love of Jesus to all those God puts in our path. In this way, we make disciples of all who are willing.
Bringing this vision to reality—and not just having it be an aspirational sentiment on paper—will require significant behavioral shifts:
- The shift from complacency in our relationship with God to dynamic intimacy and personal growth
- The shift from indifference to the plight of the lost and the poor to true compassion
- The shift from an inward focus on ourselves—our wants, needs, desires—to an outward focus on the needs of the surrounding community
- The shift from concern about how we appear to true authenticity about who we really are
- The shift from busyness with programs and internal tasks to a life of simplicity that frees us to engage with those who don’t know Jesus
When you make these shifts, you will begin to see the vision becoming reality. Nothing less will accomplish it.
I completely trust the wisdom and skill of ASPIRE to lead you through the leadership and strategic challenges that are necessary if you are to become the church God is calling you to be. The multiple assessments completed over the past six months and confirmed by ASPIRE are all the same: a church on life support in need of a fresh re-start with new leadership.
Community Church is now ready to enter the next phase: one of new beginnings. The board has engaged with ASPIRE and embraced the new vision. ASPIRE has been consulting with them and making specific strategic and leadership change recommendations, including the setup of a transition team and formation of a pastoral search committee. Stay tuned for next week’s newsletter—we’ll share more as it happens.
In the meantime, please be aware of the following dates:
- We’ll have town hall meetings after the Sunday services on July 21 and July 28.
- On Sunday July 28, we’ll also have a special “Service of Surrender” as we kick off the next phase in our transition towards new leadership.
The next few months will determine the church’s future. The board has clarity on where the church is, where it needs to go, and it has connected with ASPIRE to make the changes needed to get there. Pray with me during this season for the humility, courage, and willingness necessary to start a new thing.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19)
In prayer with you,
Dr. Bob
