Breaking News!

Elder Minutes – Blog Edition
Highlights from Elder Meetings from mid January to mid February

Breaking News! Update on Church Expansion

After months of prayer and discussion, the elders have come to the place of discerning God’s direction for our future expansion. The dedicated work of the Next Steps Task Force, consultation with Rob Hall of the Covenant, and the Vision Trip in which Robert, Bill and Lyle participated last month, have converged to lead us to the conclusion that a build-out on our property will not support the vision that God has given us. We have therefore decided against further building on our site, and are looking to acquire other property.

We are currently in discussions with a seller on a particular parcel of land. We have submitted a Letter of Intent to purchase this property, and are waiting to hear from the seller. In order to safeguards the interests of all involved, we are not at this point at liberty to make public any more details. If God leads us toward a recommendation to purchase, we will call one or more informational meetings with the congregation, leading to a vote by our membership, as required by our by-laws. Please pray that God would direct and that we would follow his leading.

The decision to expand to a different location comes out of a shared vision, to which all the elders are committed, of how God is calling us as a church community to serve Christ’s Kingdom throughout our region. It is especially this vision that we look forward to sharing with you at the informational meetings.

Please join us in thanksgiving for the clarity of the Spirit’s direction, and please continue to pray that we “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25) as together we move forward.

In Other News …

1. Office Space. Our search for offsite office space (converting current office space to Children’s Ministry space) is about to conclude. Final discussions with the owner of a site under consideration are currently in progress. Stay tuned!

2. Evaluation of Services. Whenever we hold special services, we do an evaluation: What went very well, and what did not go so well? We shared our observations about the Christmas Eve services, noting both aspects that were done with excellence, and aspects that need to be improved for the future. Additionally, we reviewed the changes in the Sunday morning services times introduced last fall, and agreed that these changes have led to an improvement in the transitions between Sunday morning services.

3. Meeting with Pastor to Students. As elders we meet periodically with Pastors and Directors for reports, encouragement and prayer. Most recently we met with Rob LaRocco. We are grateful to God for what He is doing in our student ministry, and to Rob and the many volunteer leaders in that ministry for their faithful work.

4. Membership Approval. We approved for membership several persons who have completed the membership class and who in an interview with some of the elders told their story about how they came to know Jesus Christ. It is always a joy to welcome into our family of members those who have made the commitment to make Christ Church their home church.


Faithfully, in Christ

The Christ Church Elders


Reflections with Robert Messore

Prayer as Listening

The subject of prayer has many perspectives. One way of looking at prayer is as a response to God. From this perspective, prayer then starts with listening.

I would like to invite you to take a look at the Gospel of John chapter 17. There you see Jesus praying to His Father. What He prayed is recorded for eternity. What would it be like if you were there and could have heard Jesus praying? What would it have been like if you could have heard Him praying at others times of His life? In Romans 8:25-27 it states, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” Can you imagine that The Spirit, God, is always praying for you?

How might your prayer be different if you could hear what The Spirit is praying through you? Imagine a God who prays with you, a God who causes you to yearn to pray. Have you ever had a yearning to pray? God has given this desire to you. Perhaps as a way to begin listening to what The Spirit is praying, an initial step would be to have a sense of your yearnings. The next time you pray, before you express anything to God, try listening. Listen to the yearnings, the groanings that do not have words yet. Resist speaking for a few more moments, and when you are filled with the movement of God within you, share yourself with the One who loves you and yearns for you.

If you have any questions regarding your personal prayer time, call the church office and leave me your name and a way to contact you. You can also email me directly.

For the Elders,

Robert Messore