Lawson Brown

This Week End At NWRC

This is the second week of the GOD IS series with Pastor Henry. As a special feature this week end, each person in the entire CSC community is invited to complete the following sentence “I know God is writing my story because….” on poster board. Each person’s picture is then taken and uploaded onto the CSC website. Of course NWRC will be joining in the fun. So please know that you will have an opportunity to write your message and have your photo taken, Sunday, Sept 18.

Each year, Lead Pastors are required to write an “Ends Report” which is then submitted to the CSC Board of Governors. For the period July 01, 2010 - June 30, 2011, we wrote anecdotal information after the Five Guiding Principles. What follows, is the report of your NWRC staff. I hope you enjoy reading this…

Northwest Regional Centre

Pursue God

• Children’s ministry searches out curriculum that focuses on biblical truth in a way kids can understand; spiritual practices like prayer and worship with the children every Sunday lead them into God’s presence
• We are growing in our expression of worship as a community; many Sundays, there is a special sense of God’s presence among us; the focus of our choir is not to perform, but to lead people to God with them in worship
• All of our small groups pray; some, like our young adults community, worship together after enjoying a modest spread of food

Pursue Relationship

• Some volunteers in the children’s area have been moving up with the kids they minister to as they grow; this allows them to maintain relationships with both children and their parents
• Families are getting to know each other through children’s ministry; some have chosen to be in the same small group together
• Our youth watched a movie together where they were challenged to reach out to hurting and lonely youth around them; one student (grade 10), shared with our youth pastor how he purposed to hang out with a young man that always sat alone in the library during lunch hour; he invited him to join his circle of friends; He made such an impact on his friends that the whole school is noticing a change in the social climate
• Every Thursday evening Choir and Orchestra meet to rehearse, pray with each other, and visit over food; “a couple of ladies have joined and it has been incredible to witness God moving so powerfully in their lives and see the Body of Christ work; these ladies have received endless prayer support and healing; as a result their testimonies have impacted many people”
• Many small group attenders meet in one on ones, outside of their group; this is sure evidence that relationships are developing

Pursue Mission

• Our staff lead team prays about and strategizes for external focus every week in our two hour meetings; our focus for EF embraces one to one, small group, and corporate expression of evangelism
• Our Lead Pastor offers an opportunity for people to respond to God's call to follow his Son, almost every time he preaches
• Two small groups joined forces to serve a delightful Christmas dinner to people in Bowness; Christmas cards, goodie bags, the Christmas story, and carol singing accompanied the food
• Our Choir and Orchestra ministered to Bowness people at Easter; one member shared: “we as a group need to reach our community at least once a month by taking our music to them”
• A grade 8 boy, after each youth meeting, shares with his parents what he learned; one of his school buddies has been coming to youth meetings and our youth pastor once asked him about his relationship with God; the young told him that his Christian friend has been praying for him every day since grade 4! Because of his friend’s persistence and love for him, he is now a follower of Jesus!
• Our children’s ministry carries off weekly Play Days in the school year in the Creekside business area; some of our moms bring “friend moms” as well as meet community moms at these events
• Our children’s pastor writes: “All of the volunteers, whether they serve in the nursery, with the grade school kids, or doing security, are leaders and it is my job as team leader to encourage and nurture these leaders so that they can then make disciples as they ministry to our kids”
• At Christmas, our entire congregation took part of a Sunday to assemble attractive gift bags for unchurched friends; each bag contained a beautiful glass ornament and an invitation; families gave away as many as 5 ornaments

Pursue Generosity

• Two adult children’s volunteers serve every week; there are several youth that volunteer every week as well
• We have some 34 small groups across all ages that require people with pastoral gifts to lead and shepherd them consistently
• A VBS project purposed to raise money for a church/school in Kenya so that they could buy chickens, goats, and seeds for their community; upon hearing this, one of our grade one kids entrepreneured a lemonade stand in front of her home to raise money for the cause
• Our congregation exceeded its assigned budget this past ministry year

Pursue Simplicity

• Our staff lead team has focused on values like being real, giving respect, celebrating creativity, external focus and caring for each each other; we believe that as we practice and model these values, our congregation will emulate the same values
• Our lead pastor leads two men’s groups that focus on friendship, exploring God’s will for men, prayer, and inter-generational mentoring; we believe that men a hungry for these experiences and that focus on these things will draw in other guys
• Our Lead Pastor and the Community Pastor for CSC NW have joined together to plan huddles for all Calgary NW small group leaders
• Our prayer team prays onsite for everything that happens Sunday mornings; they occasionally do prayer walks and pray with the children’s ministry team of the day
• Our children’s pastor writes: “We do not own our own building so we practice living simply every Sunday as we make do with the limited resources we have. Many Sundays we’ve had to run children’s ministry without adequate lighting, but volunteers, kids and parents adjust”
• Our worship pastor writes: “One of the priorities I have communicated with my leaders is covering our ministry in prayer. Recently I was approached by a young man who mentioned how he was drawn ‘into the throne room of God’ simply by watching a drummer as he played; on a different Sunday, a lady approached me almost in tears thanking the team for allowing space within a worship set to read scripture and to be in silence where she could meet with God”