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Dear Church Family,
Hi there FEFCLC! I wanted to take the time to share with you some of what we can expect for 2023.
First, I am looking forward to continuing to build relationships within our body. I’ve enjoyed getting to know our board, church leaders and many of the members in our church. It has also been good to get to know the flow of ministry.
Starting this month we will begin to increase the number of CLAM meetings for church leaders. This will be our time for leadership development and a time to help strengthen communication within our leadership as we look to the future together to accomplish the priorities established by our church.
The elders and wives will be having a mini-retreat on the weekend of January 28th. Pray for us as we will give our attention to the development of our team as well as focus our attention toward what we hope to accomplish in the next several months.
Finally, we are going to take some time to adjust to change. A change in leadership is stressful on a church— even when things are going well. We also made some staffing and budget adjustments at the end of 2022 that we need to feel out and let the dust settle. With these changes, it is possible for things to get missed and we ask for your patience as we work out the kinks. We are eager to serve our body but need to adjust.
With all this being said, I need your help to continue to make our ministry successful. The next 12 months are crucial. We have a window of opportunity that I don’t want us to miss that comes with a new pastor. I want you to know that I am working diligently to get settled and plugged in here at EFCLC so that we can accomplish the dream for our church— God’s dream for us.
As we adjust together, let’s keep communication open and honest. I have an “open door” policy and if you have questions or concerns, please come visit with me. Also, the elders are a great resource that can help us navigate through frustrations or discouragements that can come with change.
We must strive for unity. The number one priority that the church prescribed for leadership is to make the necessary changes to attract families with children and youth to our church. On the surface this sounds exciting, but let’s be real. Change is not easy. It is hard. It requires sacrifice and adjustments. Change can be irritating and bring about a feeling of loss or being left behind when things don’t look or feel the same.
I want you to look forward to the future together as leadership works to essentially rebrand and rename our ministry to reach the next generation. But I also want us to be prepared to conquer Satan’s attacks on our church that could come in the form of internal complaining, gossiping, anger, discouragement, and so forth that comes alongside broken sinful people working together– even when they are redeemed and have great intentions!
The reality is that our church has identified a need to reach the younger generation. This will require every person to own the mission of our church, to give personal sacrifice so that the mission can prevail, to maintain a posture of humility, and to be a support to one another. I am grateful because we have strong leaders in our church and we are adequately resourced to reach the next generation. The only thing we need now is the heart and the grit to go after those who do not yet know Jesus!
Will you please consider how you might invest to help us accomplish our number one priority this year? I want to ask you to put your heart into reaching the next generation. We need everyone on board, all hands on deck. With God’s blessing, we can do this together!
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