October 2003

“Taking the Next Step”

Remember when you watched a small child learning to walk. The beautiful baby pulled themselves up by the leg of a chair or by your leg and pushed off to begin the adventure. They stood for a while wondering, "'What' do I do next." Then they started to lose their balance and began to sway. Fearing the worst, they grabbed whatever was close and held on tight. When they were comfortable, they slowly let go again and began to move one foot, then another. But they lost their balance and boom!, they sat down. They looked around. If no one was looking they got up and started off again. Soon they were running and smiling and laughing and forgetting the struggle they had at the start.

We started a long time ago in this step by step process at Community Covenant. In fact it started in 1888 when the first Covenanters established this congregation. They have been in committed ministry for Christ ever since. Sometimes over those 115 years it seemed like the church was running, at other times is seemed like it was standing still or even taking a step back. But through all of the steps we know that God has been faithful.

And now at Community we are taking another exciting step on this journey. On September 10, 2003 we voted and passed the recommendation from the Executive Board on the financial parameters for a new addition. We have the go ahead to seek a building addition costing no more than one million dollars, a mortgage not to exceed $600,000, and we must have $300,000 cash in hand to start. This gives the green light for the ministry expansion. With that decision made, we are now ready to take even more steps.

The building, finance and ministry committees will now be meeting again. These committees, established in the summer of 2001 will formulate their schedule for the next few months and keep us informed on the progress at regular intervals. I encourage you to pray for these men and women and to get involved by sharing ideas with them. I also challenge you to begin to pray about your time and financial stewardship as we look to this ministry expansion.

Let's continue to hold to the scripture in Proverbs 3:5&6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge and he will make your paths straight."

Pastor Craig