HOPE & TRUST IN GOD
Above all, we continue to affirm our trust in the Lord to provide for us today and in the future as He has in the past. We recognize that the anxiety and distrust that seem pervasive in our culture these days will only serve to inhibit us from being the Christ-centered community to which we’ve been called. We proceed with a spirit of hope toward the continual unveiling of God’s good plan for us. Trusting in God and filled with gratitude for God’s faithfulness, we continue to focus on encountering God, entering into a life-changing relationship with Christ, and allowing the Holy Spirit to help us find our place in God’s work.
PASTOR NOMINATING COMMITTEE
The newly elected Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) has just begun to meet. Their work will go through many phases. Initially, they will get to know one another and begin to form relational bonds, receive training about their role and responsibilities, and come up to speed with all the work that the Session has done. In light of CPC’s mission and vision, they will begin to clarify the skills and attributes that they discern are most important for our next pastor. Eventually, they will create a job description which is called a Ministry Information Form (MIF) which will help potential candidates evaluate if their skills and ministerial call are a match for CPC. Once applications begin to be submitted, the PNC will review and consider each one carefully prior to conducting interviews and making their final selection of the person that they feel the Spirit has led them to recommend for our next pastor. This is a lot of work! Regular updates on their work and progress will be provided. Please pray for the PNC throughout this process.
INTERIM PREACHING AND TEACHING
One of the key elements of the Session’s transition work has been to re-examine our core theology, mission, and vision during this time. God has called Columbia to continuously wrestle with its core theology and the issues of the day. During this interim time the Session has reaffirmed our commitment to being a Christ-centered church that is firmly rooted in the Reformed Tradition. The church has reaffirmed its commitment to the authority and centrality of the Word of God in our life together. The Session and staff have also reaffirmed our mission statement and our three-pronged vision: Discipleship, Intergenerational, and Missional. The pastors plan to spend the coming months preaching on that core mission and vision as well as on other basics of our Reformed faith. We hope that you will be re-energized by this reminder of who God has called us to be as a congregation as we re-affirm these commitments.
INTERIM LEARNING SUMMARY
Over the last 9-10 months the Interim Head of Staff provided a unique perspective as someone new to our community that helped us learn about our culture and our habits. At times these identified traits can help move our mission forward or inhibit it. In the next month or two the staff and Session will assess what we have gleaned from this important work and how we can learn from these insights. A similar process was used in the 2006 interim period and proved crucial to the work of the Pastor Nominating Committee. A short summary of what we have discovered about CPC will be provided. Paired with our 2020 Mission Study, this “Interim Learning Summary” should give us a clear and honest picture of our strengths and weaknesses.
SESSION WORK
The Session will be meeting in the coming months for its annual retreat. We will spend time working to get clear and specific on CPC’s current needs and goals, and any other key items that we need to get clarity on. While focusing on our mission and vision, we realize that in each phase of our life together the specifics of what we prioritize, plan, and implement must be identified and will profoundly affect every decision we make. This sort of work will enable CPC to allocate its budget and staffing resources to appropriately align with our mission and vision. This process will begin prior to calling our next Head of Staff and will continue in every chapter of our life over the next few years. This Session work will provide important clarity to the Pastor Nominating Committee as they move forward in listening for the voice of God. We at CPC have a history of responding with energy, dedication, and generosity to the ministry to which God is calling us, so we undertake this hard work with joy and hopeful expectation. It will also require CPC to then allocate its budget and staffing resources so that they appropriately align with our mission and vision. This is hard and lengthy work that will need to precede our next Head of Staff hire and it will also need to continue in every chapter of our life.
CONGREGATIONAL INVOLVEMENT
Pastor Scott will be organizing various opportunities led by different congregational leaders, in-person and online, so that together we can learn more about where we are as a congregation and revisit information to date and as we go forward. Small groups will be able to consider and discuss the implications of any findings for CPC’s future. We want to give everyone an opportunity to engage with this important work that we are doing together, offer any feedback or encouragement, and creatively explore ideas for activities and ministry that you might have. The primary communication vehicle we be the Columbia Weekly for short announcements of progress and opportunities to meet in small groups.
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