Central’s Elders met this past week to spend time in discussion around what many of you were able to get a glimpse of at the recent Annual General Meeting. As with all our meetings, we began in a time of prayer for our church, our ministry partners, our staff, and one another. We spent time praying for the those who are hurting, as well as celebrating the many good things that God is doing. As the AGM took place at the beginning of March, we spent some time debriefing how it went, any potential changes for next year, and making sure that any outstanding items and questions coming out it were being addressed.
This month we also spent time discussing a chapter from Nine Marks of a Healthy Church related to Missions. A key missions focus of Central over the last decade has been reaching out and planting healthy campuses around the Fraser Valley, and we discussed what more could be done both in local mission as well what an increased role in overseas missions could look like. We look forward to continuing that discussion in future meetings and praying that God would continue to make us a sending church who go across the valley and to the nations.
Recently, an Ash Wednesday service was held at a number of Central campuses, marking the start of the season leading up to Easter. We were encouraged by the turnout which saw 150 people, plus another 150 youth, attending in Chilliwack, as well as 60 people north of the Fraser and another 50 up at Promontory. It’s exciting to see the engagement of the church across all the campuses as we continue pursuing our mission to reach the eastern Fraser Valley with the gospel. We’re also looking forward to the upcoming Easter Sunday, which in addition to being so important, will see 11 people baptized from 3 of the campuses. Please pray and consider who you will invite to join you for one of our Easter services.
While several ministries have been going through a transition stage recently, we were encouraged to discuss the upcoming Men’s and Women’s Summits that are planned for May. Please be in prayer for the church as we continue in our search for the Women’s Ministry Director role. There was exciting news about Central’s expanding Care and Counselling ministry as we seek to equip the saints to provide robust care in our church. This is comprised of 3 key areas:
- Equipping our lay and staff leaders with resources like the Counselling in Communities course.
- Biblical Counselling Training, a program with a goal to establish an internal Care Team (Central has become the first Association of Biblical Counselors training facility in Western Canada).
- The first steps towards developing an internal Biblical Counselling Center.
Please be in prayer for this as the details are worked out.
We want to thank everyone for praying throughout the Elder Discernment process and ask for continued prayer as the process continues. The discernment team is going to be meeting with candidates over the coming weeks and we are looking forward to what God may have in store as far as adding to this team of Godly men in the future.
Tyler Schulz
- On behalf of the Elders at Central Community
Finance Update
The elders received a preliminary YTD finance update that highlighted areas of giving compared to expenses. It was noted that giving to the mission of the church continues to be strong and is running about 7% higher than last year. Although overall giving numbers are lower when compared to last year, the marriage retreat, and youth Mexico mission accounted for $45,000 of this difference. Expenses are tracking well below budget allowances with no one ministry area exceeding their budget. Needed capital equipment, computers and production equipment in particular, increased our overall YTD expenses, but these are one-time capital costs.
The elders were made aware that a section of the Chilliwack roof requires replacing having exceeded its lifespan. This cost will be an added expense of approximately $50,000 with work to be completed when weather conditions allow. Current expenses to income leave us with a $93,000 shortfall year to date. This is in line with the same period last year. It was noted that we have been able to put $50,000 into an operational reserve account and that cash flow continues to be manageable.The Elders are grateful for your continued faithfulness in contributing to the work God has called us to accomplish.
ELDER'S PRAYER
We believe in the power of prayer. We value prayer. And we believe that God answers prayer and uses it as a means of achieving His purposes in the church and world.
Central's Elders invite you to come and receive prayer in the Chilliwack Campus Sanctuary.
Tuesday, April 15 | 6.30PM - 7.00PM
Chilliwack Campus | 46100 Chilliwack Central Road
You can also submit prayer requests using the link below.
Got questions or words of encouragement? We'd love to hear from you!
Please contact The Elders - elders@centralcommunity.ca