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SO WHAT?

I've been in the book of Acts for my personal devotional reading lately. In Acts 6.7 it says, "So the word of God spread. The number of disciples increased rapidly." 

WHAT is the "SO" all about? Why does that statement begin with "so"? 

What was causing the word of God to spread and the numbers of disciples to increase rapidly?

First things first, obviously, the book of Acts captures the story of a move of God that birthed the church and caused it to grow rapidly as it reached ever-outward. Let's never forget that Jesus is the one who is building His church, and He is the one responsible for transformed lives and growth. However, the word "so" that verse 7 begins with follows an interesting story in verses 1-6 that reveals some of our part in God's work. The whole story depicts how God's Spirit was working through the church, and as a result of the growth, things like ongoing change and adjusted leadership roles, and structures became necessary. In fact, because the early church allowed change, customized roles, and modified structures, we get to read verse 7! 

I want to commend our church and CPC's Leadership Council. A lot has been going on in recent years. We have been seeing growth, baptisms, and transformed lives. And God gets the glory for it all! However, it is worth acknowledging how our church family and our Leadership Council have been navigating ongoing change with resolute focus on Jesus, our sense of vision and call, and a heart to continually reach toward others and make room for them. Bravo! 

Earlier this month our Leadership Council had a retreat where we considered and discussed the past, present, and future of our church and the realities of ongoing change. Here is a brief recap of some of what we covered together:

  • We began the first evening by brainstorming the changes that have occurred in CPC over the past 10 years. Then we prayerfully discussed the kind of things we could see occurring over the next 10 years.

  • Sometimes change is hard, but it is necessary if we want to continue to be true to our call to reach more people here in the Comox Valley with the message and ministry of Jesus. We don't need more ministries, we need more missionaries!

  • Over the past 10 years, we have gone from the size of church where most 'everybody knows everybody' and most 'everybody knows everything' (church decisions, details, etc.) to a size of church where everyone knowing everyone and everything is impossible. For some of us, that can take a little bit to get used to. It must have been similar for the early church (12, 120, 3,000).

  • We have also been seeing how the various pastoral roles have to adjust to accommodate ongoing church growth. This has meant dividing up some of the responsibilities that once lived only in a "Lead Pastor." This has also meant adding a new "Executive Pastor" role a year ago to oversee church management and operations, to help us multiply volunteers and leaders, and to assist in important areas of pastoral ministry. We are so thankful for Pastor Lorne! 

  • With the guidance of Ken Russell (PAOC), our Leadership Council looked at Board/Pastoral structures that are common for churches of under 200 people and then examined the kind of Board/Pastoral structure that churches of 500+ need to adjust toward. Our gracious and wise Leadership Council has already been taking several steps in these directions in recent years and found great help in seeing the kind of framework we're putting together, charted out by Ken. 

That last bullet point (where we spent most of our two-day retreat) may induce yawns for some of those reading this. In fact, some of you may wish to say, "SO WHAT."

BUT these are Acts 6.1-7 kind of moments! 

Behind the scenes of Sunday services, youth nights, children's ministry, Easter Sunday at the Sid, baptisms, and transformed lives are evolving structures, frameworks, systems, and roles.

Why?

Because we want Acts 6.7 here in the Comox Valley too!

Amen? 

Pastor Mike