October/November 2024

CENTRAL GULF COAST

CONNECTION

A WORD FROM PASTOR RYAN

These are good days to BE CGC!

The Lord is doing amazing work across our district. It continues to be a joy for Jamie and me to travel the CGC and worship with all of you. There are a couple of highlights since our last newsletter…

Jamie and I attended YouthQuake. It was packed with teenagers focused on being missional. 70+ teens attended and worshipped Jesus and then went to Robertsdale, Alabama, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I am so proud of our CGC teens living out Jesus' mission.

We also had our Ministry Team Retreat at Navarre Beach, Florida. 90+ pastors and spouses joined together in worship and Word. Rev. Daron Brown was our speaker, and he did an amazing job reminding us that we “Begin with Beloved,” and then everything we do in ministry flows from that place. Rev. Sam Evans led us in worship. Ministry Team Retreat was a great time of fellowship, worship, renewal, and refreshing. Please make every effort to make sure your pastor joins this necessary retreat every year. It is truly worth it.

Rev. Ryan Brown

District Superintendent

Join us in welcoming some new pastors!

Although Rev. Blake Mohling is not new to the district, he is new to the Tuscaloosa Mission Area. Blake is the new lead pastor of Holten Heights COTN. Pastor Greg Wilson is the new lead pastor of Landmark COTN. We are so excited to see what the Lord does in and through these new church/pastor relationships.

Churches in Transition:

Please continue to pray for our East Brewton church as they are going through a pastoral transition.

Welcome our NewStart Churches!

Iglesia del Nazareno Hispana Cottondale and Pastor Yolanda Cordon have just begun worshipping together. We are so excited for this new Hispanic work in the Tuscaloosa Mission Area.

Fairhope and Rev. Jimmy Blackman have a launch date of January 12, 2025. There is much excitement for this new work in the Mobile Mission Area.

CGC MISSION

CGC VISION

MINISTRY TEAM RETREAT PHOTOS

Rev. Daron Brown, Speaker

Rev. Sam Evans, Worship Leader

CGC MISSION AREA SHOWDOWN

CGC MISSION AREA SHOWDOWN WINNERS!

UPCOMING TRAININGS

M25 CONFERENCE - FEB 2025 - KANSAS CITY, MO

M25 is a USA/Canada Regional quadrennial Nazarene conference focused entirely on evangelism. It will further the Regional Vision, our CoRe Strategy of the Cycle of Resurgence, and in particular our 2025 emphasis of Bringing People to Jesus. The agenda will include plenary speakers, break-out workshops, affinity group meetings and corporate worship times. Pastors, Lay Leaders, and Students will leave this conference encouraged, equipped, empowered and ready to engage in new ways of Bringing People to Jesus. Early Bird Pricing Ends December 31.

NAZARENE BIBLE COLLEGE PARTNERSHIP

The CGC and Nazarene Bible College are Covenant Partners. This scholarship initiative offers huge benefits to our district students. These benefits include 50% tuition scholarships for English speaking students and 100% tuition scholarships for Spanish speaking students.

Our NBC Annual Offering is 1/10 of 1% of your annual church income. For more information visit https://nbc.edu/covenant/.

If you have not sent your annual offering, please do so at www.nbc.edu/give.

DISTRICT NEWS & REMINDERS

AUDIT OF TREASURER'S BOOKS

Every church is advised to conduct an annual audit of the financial records of the treasurer(s) of the church. This includes the NYI, NDI, NMI, Nazarene childcare/schools, and any other financial records of the church as mandated in the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene.

CHURCH PROOF OF INSURANCE & INCORPORATION PAPERS

The District Advisory Board requests that all churches provide proof of insurance, in addition to filing incorporation papers at the District Office; unless your church has already done so.

District Finance Report and District Calendar

For Global Nazarene News visit the Nazarene Communications Network (NCN)

Nazarene Discipleship Ministries (NDI)

Brian Aaron, District NDI President

Melissa and I recently had the privilege of attending the NDI Leaders Conference in Tulsa, OK. Thank you for sending us to this meaningful time of worship, fellowship, and learning. We heard powerful messages and attended several excellent workshops. I would like to share a few words from two of the workshops.

The first was led by Rev. Dr. James Hicks who has made discipleship a continual lifetime goal. He has pointed many people to Jesus through personal contact and small group studies. Recently he has written a book that he uses for these small groups entitled “Five Core Principles of the Discipleship Journey.” This book can be purchased through The Foundry in paperback and digital format. I encourage you to check out this book and maybe start a discipleship group.

The second workshop I attended was led by Dr. Michael Benson. He spoke about the 8-word testimony. He is a leader in the Nazarene Motorcycle Fellowship and challenges his fellow bikers to share their testimony in this way. Simply put, when they stop to fill up their motorcycle gas tanks, they are challenged to speak to (witness to) the person across the gas pump with their 8-word testimony. They simply say, how is your day going? The person may respond with “It has been a terrible day at work, my boss has no idea what she is doing, and it is just making my life miserable.” Their 8-word testimony response would be “I used to have a boss like that but Jesus changed my outlook on things.” Yes, sometimes it may be more than 8 words but the idea is to simply share a personal sentence with someone which may engage them in a conversation that, in the end, points them to Jesus. These conversations may simply encourage someone in a simple conversation, it may change their outlook, or it may give you the opportunity to lead them to Christ. No matter the outcome of that short conversation, we are to share our faith and plant seeds. 1 Corinthians 3:6 says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” As these seeds are planted, the Holy Spirit continues the work in their lives through prevenient grace eventually leading to saving and sanctifying grace. We are not all called to be preachers and teachers, but we are all called to fulfill the Great Commission and to carry out the mission of making Christlike disciples in the nations. My prayer is that you will be encouraged to start a small discipleship group or share your faith with someone today, becoming an integral part of their journey of grace.

Children's Bible Quizzing Schedule

January 25 – Quiz 3 (Dothan First) Dig Sites 11-15

February 22 – Quiz 4 (Columbiana) Dig Sites 16-20

March 8 – District Quiz (Capital City) Dig Sites 1-20

April 25-26 – South Central Children’s Quiz (Atlanta, GA) Dig Sites 1-20

UPCOMING EVENTS

BALANCE DUE BY FEB 1

Click Here to Read the Global NDI Newsletter!

Nazarene Missions International (NMI)

Diane Thompson, District NMI President

centralgulfcoast.org/cgc-nmi

24 Hours of Prayer for Global Missions

24 Hours of Prayer beginning at 1 p.m. (CST) Dec 6 through 1 p.m. (CST) Dec 7

Two 2-hour blocks of prayer have been assigned to the USA/Canada Region:

5 p.m. CST on Dec 6 (23:00 UTC)
11:00 a.m. CST on Dec 7 (17:00 UTC

You may join at any time during the 24 hours and are encouraged

to join other regions in addition to our own time slots.

PLEASE NOTE:

This initiative is different from the upcoming Global Week of Prayer.

Please participate in both prayer events.

NMI CENTRAL AND KIDS KALEIDOSCOPE ADVENT SERIES

NACA Nazarene Missions Trip

NACA Nazarene Missions Trip Details

April 5-11, 2025

Cost: $55 per day per person – This includes transportation to and from the airport either from Albuquerque, Phoenix, or Flagstaff.

Transportation is on your own with arrival on Saturday mid-morning.

Sunday – Worship

Monday-Thursday – Work

Friday – Sight-seeing (optional)

Saturday – Travel home

Registration forms will be posted on NMI FB and CGC District Website in January.

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YOUTHQUAKE 2024

Adventure is Out There!

This was the theme of the second annual Youth Quake event held November 8-10 at Camp Baldwin. Pastor Tiffany Thornton, Pensacola Ensley, shared her heart with 76 teens and 25 adults.

The Holy Spirit moved upon the worship led by the TNU worship team.

The inspiring and challenging messages from Pastor Tiffany encouraged the teens to say “Yes” to God because you never know where the “Yes” will lead; whether it is taking the mission inspired challenges back to their local churches to minister in their own communities or letting God send them to worlds beyond the norm.

The teens served two ministries on Saturday as they travelled to Robertsdale. Half of the teens served Robertsdale Church of the Nazarene by pressure washing the church, cleaning out a shed, and cleaning the youth room.

Just down the road from the church, the other half of YQ teens served Robertsdale Laundry Blessings Barn ministry. They spent time cutting out gift tags, sorting donated toys and writing personal messages of encouragement to the children. The director of this ministry was praising God for their help by saying “you did in a day (really a couple hours) what would have taken me a week to do.”

CGC Youth also brought offerings in the amount of $1002.01 to support the new Iglesia del Nazareno Hispana Cottondale on the Tuscaloosa Mission Area. And that’s not all; they brought diapers and wipes to support Robertsdale COTN diaper ministry. Ms. Lisa was so happy and blessed.

Glory to God for the goodness of our teens and the leadership of Rev. Susan Sawyer, CGC NYI President. We thank Rev. Jake Hill, Ensley, for handling the YQ T-shirt including the design. Special thanks to all youth counselors for giving themselves to serve our district youth.

Chris Turner, Youth Leader from Riverside said, “All the teens had a great time, and I fully believe seeds were planted in them; looking forward to next year.

Yes, Adventure is Out There! It is the desire of your NMI Council that our CGC youth will become mission leaders in their local churches starting in their local communities.

Diane Thompson, CGC District NMI President

Nazarene Youth International (NYI)

Rev. Susan Broadhead Sawyer, District NYI President

Follow us: Instagram @cgcnyi

Facebook @Central Gulf Coast NYI

As this year comes to an end my president's heart is full of so many wonderful memories! We have glorified God with the talents he has given at Celebrate 2024 and TNT@TNU 2024. We continued to glorify God throughout the year in our local context with leading worship, preaching and teaching God's Word, helping those in need through outreach ministries, excelling in individual and group activities (i.e. sports, band, theater, etc.) and numerous other ways.

We have risen to the challenge received at NYI Convention to Reach out to connect with others and at teen camp as we learned to live out a Legendary faith. Our teens have testified to salvation, sanctification, accepting a call to ministry, and have engaged in continued discipleship in order to grow deeper in their walk with Jesus.

We have witnessed record breaking attendance at EVERY district/field event this year, which is a testimony to and an overflow of what God is doing in the local church. May we all take time to reflect on all the blessings this year has brought each of us and then begin to look forward to what all God has in store in 2025 as we seek Him.

Blessings to You All This Christmas Season, Pastor Susan