I am excited about some new directions for ministry at CCBC – I thought I might email you and see if you might be interested in them too. For as long as I can remember, CCBC has had ministry teams for our children’s and youth ministries. While I am not certain of our YAM’s leadership in either of those areas, I know both our children’s and youth ministries have greatly benefited from your regular service. Bravo!
With my transition into a position that, essentially, is responsible for developing ministries along the lifespan, we are starting some new ministry teams. Specifically, ministry teams are being created for our young adults, middle adults, and senior adults. The function of these ministry teams is to make sure that we are caring for our own – but to also help us strike a healthy balance in being outward focused too.
President Abraham Lincoln spoke of government BY the people, FOR the people (all of the political conventions recently have compelled me to reread some of my American history!). Well, with these ministry teams, they are FOR their age group (ie., young adults, senior adults, etc.), but they will by BY whomever is willing to serve. This means that I would love to see senior adults serving on the young adult team and vice-versa. Now, realistically, I don’t expect to see any kind of flood of enthusiasm related to this model. I am convinced, however, that working to break down some of our generational barriers in order to produce some inter-generational fellowship is a worthy goal.
In light of all of this, I am diligently looking for men to lead these ministry teams. The mix of things I am looking for in these leaders really limits the number of folks who would be eligible – and all the ones I have approached and am considering are already vitally involved in ministries at CCBC. Please pray that the Lord will lay conviction upon men’s hearts to help lead our church in ministry! My most regular prayer right now for CCBC is that God would raise up 5 men who really get the big picture of what the church is all about – who love the church (even with all her warts), God’s Word, and who are willing to roll up their sleeves in order to move our church forward.
In this regard, many of you are aware that Jeremy Benge has happily agreed to lead our Young Adult Team. I am very glad at this development and hope that you will join Jeremy in making our Young Adult Ministry a success. In reality, this position is not about Jeremy at all – it is about ministry. That means that it is about you too. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul uses a metaphor about how our lives are like a building. Everything we do adds to our “building”. The question he asks is, “With what kind of quality are you building”? That’s a very practical question for those of you who consider yourself mature Christians – what ministry are you building here at CCBC? It doesn’t have to be the YAM – because there are other options – but which one are you actively engaged in? A life worthy of the investment of Christ’s cross has to move beyond passivity and apathy. And I believe this ministry reinvigoration can begin with our YAM’s and spread to the rest of the church – but that remains to be seen.
If you are interested in the YAM ministry team – please make it a point to let Jeremy know you are willing to be a contributing team member. If you sense that another team is right for you, then please let me know. My only request is that you not sit on the sideline as God begins an interesting work here at CCBC – you will not want to miss out!
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