10-22-25

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
October 22, 2025
Many of you heard the announcement on Sunday, but in case you did not, let me share the exciting news. A family in the church has agreed to give an additional gift, enough that will allow CCCC to hire a full-time ordained minister to give leadership to Family Ministry, with an emphasis on Youth Ministry. This is beyond exciting! The people I currently work with at CCCC are quite extraordinary, yet an area that currently encumbers our capacity to take our growth to the next level is Youth Ministry. This new minister will help cast a vision for our programming from nursery through high school, but then work directly with youth and their families as they strive toward Putting Love First In All Things. If you’ve never done Youth Ministry, let me try to explain to you this  wonderfully crazy, extraordinarily demanding, extremely exhausting, exceedingly rewarding ministry. Not only are there the weekly meetings that need to engage a wide range of interests, unique abilities, and the general moodiness of youth, but then there are the retreats, lock-ins, mission trips, camps, etc. Youth Ministry will nearly kill a person if done well, yet we do not want to kill or scare off our new Minister for Youth and Families. So as I said in my sermon on Sunday, we are not going to thank this individual for joining us, and then send that person into some silo where we expect her/him to do this ministry on our behalf. We want parents and non-parents, along with your random church members and visitors to find a way of being supportive in this vital and consequential work. Unlike many churches, we have visitors every single Sunday. In fact, last Sunday, we had ten first-time visitors. We just want these visitors to be greeted by a dynamic student ministry, where the young people are excited to be involved, while encountering and being shaped by God’s unconditional love. It’s a tall order, but I believe the right person is out there. Though as I shared with the congregation, we are needing to increase our overall giving by 8% in 2026. What does that mean? I believe it begins with everyone, longtime members and new people, those who have been thinking about increasing their giving for more than five years, and those who have been stretching themselves for a number of years. And in the end, by the grace of God, we’ll see it happen. 

Generosity spills forth, and it inspires more generosity. You are forever generous, Amazing God, and all the joy, goodness, and life we know is connected back to your giving. So thank you! Amen.