RCC's Teachings

In the hands of the potter email updates

June 27, 2008

Hello and Welcome to the Potter's Wheel Update!

Here's some items to make you aware of:

·Semi Annual Meeting: The meeting is this Sunday right after the second service. We have one agenda item to tackle, the budget for the last six months of the year. The second service will be over at 12:15, which is when folks can start checking in and getting their ballots in the Celebration Hall. There will not be any child care during the meeting so we are asking everyone to pick their kids up from Redwood Kids and bring them with you into the meeting.

·Meeting with our Consultants: On Tuesday, July 1, the staff and elders will be meeting with our consultants and our conference Superintendent to hear the results of the surveys, interviews and focus groups. In addition to the results our consultants will be making some recommendations for our future based on the information that they have collected. The consultants have asked that we all be praying for the work they are doing now and for the meetings that will be happening on July 1. We look forward to sharing their information and recommendations at a congregational meeting that will happen later in the summer.

·Adriana Update: A lot of you have been asking about how Adriana is doing and we have been trying to figure out the best way to communicate all that has been happening. For now, we will give weekly updates here in the Potter's Wheel.

Adriana arrived on June 5 and since her arrival she has had numerous doctor's appointments, consultations and tests. The original thought after a couple of appointments was for Adriana to have surgery to remove an infected part of her lungs. A few more tests revealed that Adriana does not have enough lung capacity for the surgery to safely take place. So, the doctors moved to plan "B" which was to manage the infection through medication and a "percussor" machine that would loosen up the junk in her lungs so she can cough it up and get rid of it.

In the midst of all the busyness of traveling and running around for doctor's appointments and the severe heat from last week, Adriana started to get really tired and run down. Last Saturday she was having a real hard time breathing so she was taken to the emergency room. They discovered that her lung infection had flared up and that she had pneumonia so they admitted her to the hospital. While it might sound like a setback, it's actually a very good thing. She has been in the hospital since last Saturday, getting strong IV antibiotic treatments and getting a lot of good, focused care. The staff at the hospital have been amazing. The plan now is for her to be in the hospital until next Tuesday so she can get a full ten day treatment of antibiotics. She is looking really good and her spirits are up.

Many students are visiting her and the elders and a few other folks have stopped by to pray for her as well. We don't want to overwhelm Adriana (or the hospital staff) so we are trying to keep the number of visitors down. The best thing to do for Adriana now is to continue to pray for her and her health.

That's all for now!

In His Service,
The Management Team

< Back

June 20, 2008

Hello and Welcome to the Potter's Wheel Update!

We've got two important bits of information to share with you today.

The first important note is about our, Semi-Annual, Annual Meeting. It is happening on June 29 right after the second service, beginning promptly at 12:30. When the second service ends at 12:15, folks will be able to start registering and picking up their ballots. Parents who attended the second service can pick up their children and bring them into the meeting with them. This meeting will be solely focused on approving our operating budget for the next six months and that is the only thing we will have on the agenda! As Pastor John said in his congregational letter, we anticipate having another congregational meeting before the end of the summer to update everyone on the progress of our re-visioning and share the information that our consultants have gathered. We are going to save our discussions about re-visioning for that meeting and plan to stay focused on the budget for the meeting on June 29.

Secondly, as Pastor John said in his letter last week, we have scheduled Tuesday, July 1, for the meeting between the consultants and the staff and elders. We would ask you to continue to pray as we gather for this meeting to hear what our consultants have to share with us from the survey, focus groups and interviews. We look forward to sharing their information and recommendations with the whole church at the anticipated end of summer meeting.

Thank you for your continued prayers as we seek God's will for His church!

In His Service,
The Management Team

< Back

June 13, 2008

Dear Congregation,

I wish I could just ask you personally "How are you all doing out there?" The staff and elders pray for you regularly and we pray for specific individuals when you write notes to us or come to be prayed for. We know that some are struggling in the midst of this economic downturn and we pray for your peace and provision.

For us all together as a church, we are weathering the economic downturn. All of us have continued to contribute to provide the resources necessary to carry on our ministry and mission. So we have been maintaining our cash reserves, doing fruitful ministry and maintaining very close controls on spending. Although, our income through May is running about 3% less than planned, our actual cash position is better than expected at this point and we just experienced a strong beginning in June. We believe we are seeing God's blessing upon our commitment to responsible stewardship. Praise God!

Income through May $844,684
Budget through May $869,281
$(24,597)

I know many of you are frustrated with the pace of the re-visioning process and some are even unclear why we are doing it. We are doing it because we, in the leadership community, had lost a sense of clarity and cohesion about the focus of our ministry and we were struggling with some excessive friction in our leadership relationships. In addition, we had been experiencing increasing struggles with our organizational structures and decision making systems. We needed help to get both a better understanding of why we were having difficulty as well as what we needed to do to get our relationships and our organization working better and our clarity and alignment focused in the same direction.

That said, we recently delayed a meeting where our consultants were going to give us our first load of information. We delayed that information meeting, (now rescheduled for July 1) in order to process some of the relational difficulties we have been experiencing, which is part of our re-visioning process. Our consultants, the Goehner Group, recommended this, as well as our conference superintendent, Evelyn Johnson. A conference representative was sent by Evelyn to oversee a healing and reconciliation meeting. Many people have been praying and I am glad to report that the Holy Spirit helped us, our conference superintendent helped us and we did engage in serious reconciliation and healing. We have already experienced some good things happening in staff and elder's meetings this week as a result.

We've also got a semiannual meeting coming up on June 29, right after church. We've got just one item to deal with at that meeting, approving the budget for the next six months. You can pick up a copy of the budget this Sunday and next. This is a very conservative budget because we are trying to build a solid foundation from which to move forward. The amount is what we talked about six months ago, an amount equal to the income we received in 2007. We are on target to achieve that.

I want to add a note here about something the elders are praying about that we would like you to pray about with us. We have been concerned that our giving to denominational missions and missions in general is less than what we want it to be. We also recognize that we need to look more closely at how much mission work we carry on within our own ministries that is somewhat hidden from view. What we are praying about is a proposal that will require congregational approval but it would involve dedicating something like 50% of any surpluses over our expenses towards denomination missions and the remaining 50% of surpluses divided towards, for example, mortgage debt pay down, building cash reserves, or put simply, saving. We'll bring something like that to the next congregational meeting. We believe that next congregational meeting will happen sometime in late summer or early fall when we are finally able to exercise what we have learned from our consultants. As soon as we have received the first load of information from our consultants, our re-visioning updates will contain more than just hopeful words. I trust you are looking forward to that as much as we are.

We have also added some good news and ministry updates from some of the staff in the rest of this letter. We thank God for this wonderful congregation and we look forward to continuing to become more mature, more effective and more fruitful in reaching the lost, growing in the likeness of Christ and serving the needy both here and far away.

God bless you all,

For the Elders and Staff,
John Strong

< Back

June 6, 2008

Hi!
Welcome to the Potter's Wheel Update!

Well, we asked you to be praying for our meeting with the consultant on Thursday, June 5 and we really appreciate all the praying that took place, but the meeting had to be postponed!

In the last two weeks, in an effort to be really thorough with his recommendations to us, our consultant has been talking to our Conference Superintendent, Evelyn Johnson. (For those of you who might not know, our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, is divided into nine regional conferences in the United States. Our conference is called the Pacific Southwest Conference and it includes California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Hawaii. The Conference Superintendent in each conference assists churches in planning, finding pastors, church growth struggles and a whole bunch of other important things.) Our meeting was postponed at the request of Evelyn so that she could have a little more time to look at all the information that our consultant has gathered and the recommendations that the consultant is planning to share with us. So, we have postponed things until Evelyn gives us the green light to move forward.

While this is a small delay, it does not stop the process that we are in or change our plans to work with our consultant in the re-visioning of RCC!

So, we are back to waiting, which is not much fun, but probably necessary to make sure that we thoroughly go through this process and get the maximum amount of valuable input from our consultant and our Conference Superintendent. Please continue to be praying and waiting with us for the next step of the process. As soon as a new date is set for the meeting that was supposed to happen on June 5, we will let you know.

As always, if you have questions about the process we are in (or why it might be taking a little bit longer that we originally planned!!), please contact us, we would love to talk you!

In His Service,
The Management Team

< Back

May 30, 2008

Hi!

Welcome to another Potter's Wheel Update! We have one more week before the next significant meeting with the consultant. On Thursday, June 5, the ministry staff and elders will meet with the consultants to hear a summary of all their findings and their preliminary recommendations. This significant meeting will begin the next "phase" of re-visioning plans where we will start focusing on developing a core vision and strategic plans based on what we hear from the consultant. Like last week, we want to encourage you to continue to pray for this whole re-visioning process. Here are some specific things you can be praying for:

·Pray that all of us, the consultants, the congregation, the staff and elders would be focused on trusting God and letting Him guide the whole re-visioning process.

·Pray that we would all be patient with the process that we are in.

·Pray that we would not rush the re-visioning just to get it done, but that we would patiently follow God's leading so that this whole process will be done thoroughly and correctly.

·Pray for our consultants as they continue to look over all the data they have collected about RCC. Pray for their discernment and wisdom as they prepare their presentation on June 5.

·Pray for the staff and elders as they look forward to June 5 and all the work and planning that will follow.

·Pray for all the continuing ministry at RCC while the re- visioning is happening.

·Pray that each of us would be open to the "molding" that God wants to do in our personal lives and in the church. Pray that each of the four areas that we want to focus on during the re-visioning process (forgiveness, unity, surrender, prayer) would be more evident in our individual lives and at RCC.

That is all we have for now. Thank you for your continued prayers during our re-visioning process!

In His Service,
The Management Team

< Back

May 23, 2008

Welcome to the Potter's Wheel Update!

Well, we certainly don't have a lot to tell you this week and it might even seem like nothing is going on, but nothing could be further from the truth! Our consultants are hard at work, digging their way through all the data they have collected from us.

While they are busy working on discerning which way we need to head as a church, we have some work to do as well! We need to be praying and trusting! As soon as the staff and elders receive the report from the consultants on June 5 there will be a lot of visible work for us to do, but we need to be doing this less visible work of praying and trusting to build a solid foundation for all the other work that is to come! So, to help us and encourage us in this work of prayer and trust we have included some scripture passages and quotes below. Please read through this, think about these and allow them to lead you into prayer for our work and trust in where God wants to lead us!

Psalm 25
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; 2 in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

Proverbs 3
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Ephesians 6
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Philippians 4
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

"The splendor of the human heart which trusts that it is loved gives God more pleasure and delight than the Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, and all the other human glories combined. Why does our trust offer such immense pleasure to God? Because trust is the pre-eminent expression of love. Thus, it may mean more to Jesus when we say, "I trust you" than when we say, "I love you."
-Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust

In His Service,
The Management Team

< Back

May 16, 2008

Greetings,

Thank you for your praying last Tuesday for the two half-day retreats; they both went really well. Our consultant met first with the ministry staff and then, later in the day, with the Elders. The first exercise at both meetings was to walk back through RCC's history and highlight it's ministry milestones. After reviewing these significant events, we took time to recognize the positive milestones and any that may have gone uncelebrated and also the bumps in the road experienced along the way. We then paused to thank God for His blessings, while seeking forgiveness and repentance for the mistakes and any poor decisions of the past. This makes the road ahead of us much smoother!

We then moved on to discussing what might be the next chapter in RCC's history. What will be our mission, our vision, the core ministry values that will guide us? What will be our focus? We began that discussion and it will be revisited several times in the next few months.

We also received preliminary data that showed the results from the one-on-one staff interviews and the focus groups. This early data pointed to our strengths and weaknesses as a church, and also pointed out potential opportunities, as well as potential threats that we could be facing as a church.

The Goehner Group received the results from our all church survey late last week and with the results of the discussions from Tuesday's meetings made up the final bit of data needed to compile all of the information needed about RCC.

The consultants will take the next three weeks to compile all of the information and to complete their report on our church. They will then present their results and recommendations to RCC's ministry staff and elders on June 5th. Until then, please patiently be praying for all that God wants to do as He re-shapes us for the future! We know that it might be hard to be patient during these quiet periods; it might even seem like nothing is happening, but we are confident in the process, in our consultants, in the work they are doing and in where God is leading us!

In His Service,
The Management Team

< Back

May 2, 2008

Please continue to pray for our re-visioning process, the Elders, Management Team and Staff. The Elders and Ministry Staff will be preparing for their retreats on May 13th as mentioned last week. Next week as we learn more, we can let you know more specifically how to pray.

-The Management team

< Back

April 25, 2008

Thanks to everyone who took the all church survey last Sunday! There were about 795 of you who
participated and shared your thoughts. We appreciate it! Some were prepared to take the half
hour survey and some were wondering where the sermon went! No worries. This Sunday pastor John returns to his series on Ephesians. Back to church as usual!

The survey's are going to be taken to the Goehner Group down in San Jose on Monday. Yes, we're actually driving them down on our way to Mission Springs for our annual staff retreat. This will save a ton of money on shipping and will speed things up as well. They will then send them off for processing as we all wait with anticipation. These past few months have included:

Interviews
Focus Groups
and Surveys

This means the first phase of our re-visioning has been completed! Now, we wait a bit. Our consultants will have a lot of information to sift through, think about and pray over. We will get the survey results back in early May.

Our next phase is to have two - half day retreats on May 13 . The Ministry staff will meet with
Don the first half of the day and the Elders will meet the second half. During these meetings they will
present some of the preliminary data that has been collected and both groups will be discussing
and discerning how God wants to use the data that has been collected to help guide us into the future.

So, until then, we are in another quiet period where a lot is happening, but not much is being seen.
During this time we want to continue to be focused on turning to God in prayer, in submission to Him
seeking His will for us as a church. Also, please be praying for our consultants and all the data that
they will be looking at. Pray that God will guide them as they continue to guide us!

We'll continue to keep you posted as we know more.

In Christ,
-The Management team

< Back

April 18, 2008

Its survey Sunday!!! This Sunday as a congregation we will take time during our church services to fill out the church wide survey. The information that will come from the survey will provide our consultant and us with another valuable piece of the re-visioning puzzle. We would like to encourage everyone to prayerfully approach the survey in submission to God. Our main goal in this re-visioning process is to discern and discover how God wants to shape RCC for the future and our wants and desires and agendas need to be cleared away so we can clearly see our way to His will. So please spend time in prayer as we head into Survey Sunday and then on Sunday morning during the services place yourself in God's presence and allow Him to guide you as you respond to the survey!

Also this weekend our consultant will be wrapping up the focus group interviews. Our consultant will have all the necessary data that they will use to guide us in the next steps of the re-visioning process. Please be praying for them and for their discernment as they sift through a lot of information, input and data.

-The Management Team

< Back

Friday April 11, 2008

Here's the Potter's Wheel Re-Visioning Update for this Week!

The most important bit of information for all of us is to make sure that Sunday, April 20th is circled on the calendar! On the 20th we will be taking the all church survey during the services. The results of this survey are an important tool that our consultant will be using as he continues to guide us in the re-visioning process. So, please plan to be there!!!

As much as we want to have everyone present on Survey Sunday, we are aware that for some of you the timing just does not work out and you will not be able to be there on the 20th, so we have put together some alternative times to take the survey.

< Back

Friday April 4, 2008

Hi there!! This is RCC's weekly update about all that is happening with Re-Visioning here at RCC.

April is a huge month for re-visioning!! The one-on-one interviews continue with our consultant and elders and staff. Our consultant will be sitting down in focus groups and talking with those involved in core ministries here at RCC. And most importantly, the entire church will be involved in taking an all-church survey on April 20. This is probably the most important aspect of providing valuable information and feedback to our consultant as he guides us in this re-visioning process. Again, we want to encourage everyone to circle the 20th of April on their calendars and make sure they are here.

Also in April, as Pastor John continues preaching from Ephesians, he will be doing a "series within a series" where he will be talking about surrender and submission, one of the four main points we are emphasizing during the re-visioning process. The idea of surrender and submission is central to the whole re-visioning process. As a congregation, each of us needs to be surrendered to God and His will as we seek the future vision and direction for our church body. If we are not surrendered, then we will find ourselves being tossed around by the agendas and desires of individuals and groups instead of being led by God. So, as we get closer and closer to the 20th of April with the all-church survey and as focus groups share their thoughts, the focus of surrender and submission to God is vitally important!

That's all the news for now!! Talk to you next week!

< Back

Friday March 28

Happy Easter!
Just to continue the rejoicing from Easter Sunday. Around 1900 folks celebrated Easter services here at Redwood Covenant Church, we rejoiced in Jesus' resurrection and we rejoiced in the reminder of how much God loves us. We rejoiced with the 50 who declared they wanted something more and deeper in their relationship with God and walked across the bridge as a visible expression of their desire. So, it was an incredible Easter Sunday! Praise God!

Re-visioning - the process has started and continues:
As you know from the last email, we started the first round of the interview process last week with our consultant (Don Goehner of the Goehner Group) and church leadership. We are off and running! It will start again in April, 8th & 9th and then again April 18, 19 and 20.

There are two ways in April you can participate in the revisioning process:
Sunday April 6th there will be Prayer and Worship Service from 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Sunday, April 20th - ALL CHURCH SURVEY! This is very important and we need everyone to try and be here. On that Sunday, our consultant will be distributing a survey church wide that will be a central part of the re-visioning process. This allows every single person who attends RCC to give their input and feedback. The survey will be distributed at the end of each service. Make sure you are here on the 20th!

That's all for now, see you next week!

< Back

March 13, 2008

Each week we will be sending this out to all of you to let you know what is happening with Re-Visioning here at RCC. Most folks know about this and have been waiting, others may not know, so read on! Some weeks there will be a lot of news, other weeks the news will be kind of light but every week you will hear something in this update! S0 enjoy!

Re-Visioning Update: Here's the latest!

We know it seems like it has been kind of quiet with all the re- visioning stuff that was first announced at the Annual Meeting in January and in the services in February. Well, now we finally have some information to pass on! There has been a lot of "background" activity going on. The Management Team has been talking with our consultant setting up meetings and finalizing calendar items and setting up all the plans.

As we follow the "instructions" of our consultant, (Don of the Goehner Group), there are basically three segments, Staff and Elders one-on-one interviews, focus groups and the all church survey.

A note on focus groups: Those that participate in a focus group will not have the opportunity to complete a survey! The criteria Don has for the focus groups are those volunteers that are heavily involved in: Life stage ministries, worship and outreach ministries. Those that are new to RCC, pioneers or old timers and a couple of miscellaneous.

The selection of those in the focus groups are decided by the department heads. We have to admit that we have a bit of a dilemma with the total number of folks here at RCC and the limited space in focus groups. Please, we ask for prayer, patience and grace as we fill these spots.

In the Hands of the Potter - Prayer, Unity, Surrender, Forgiveness

As we actually start doing some of the practical work of re-visioning through meetings, focus group and surveys, we do not want to forget about the important work of making sure we are sitting on that potter's wheel, letting God shape us individually and corporately according to His wheel.

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Resources Teachings Support and Recovery Individual Support	In the hands of the potter email updates June 27, 2008 Hello and Welcome to the Potter's Wheel Update! Here's some items to make you aware of: ·Semi Annual Meeting: The meeting is this Sunday right after the second service. We have one agenda item to tackle, the budget for the last six months of the year. The second service will be over at 12:15, which is when folks can start checking in and getting their ballots in the Celebration Hall. There will not be any child care during the meeting so we are asking everyone to pick their kids up from Redwood Kids and bring them with you into the meeting. ·Meeting with our Consultants: On Tuesday, July 1, the staff and elders will be meeting with our consultants and our conference Superintendent to hear the results of the surveys, interviews and focus groups. In addition to the results our consultants will be making some recommendations for our future based on the information that they have collected. The consultants have asked that we all be praying for the work they are doing now and for the meetings that will be happening on July 1. We look forward to sharing their information and recommendations at a congregational meeting that will happen later in the summer. ·Adriana Update: A lot of you have been asking about how Adriana is doing and we have been trying to figure out the best way to communicate all that has been happening. For now, we will give weekly updates here in the Potter's Wheel. Adriana arrived on June 5 and since her arrival she has had numerous doctor's appointments, consultations and tests. The original thought after a couple of appointments was for Adriana to have surgery to remove an infected part of her lungs. A few more tests revealed that Adriana does not have enough lung capacity for the surgery to safely take place. So, the doctors moved to plan "B" which was to manage the infection through medication and a "percussor" machine that would loosen up the junk in her lungs so she can cough it up and get rid of it. In the midst of all the busyness of traveling and running around for doctor's appointments and the severe heat from last week, Adriana started to get really tired and run down. Last Saturday she was having a real hard time breathing so she was taken to the emergency room. They discovered that her lung infection had flared up and that she had pneumonia so they admitted her to the hospital. While it might sound like a setback, it's actually a very good thing. She has been in the hospital since last Saturday, getting strong IV antibiotic treatments and getting a lot of good, focused care. The staff at the hospital have been amazing. The plan now is for her to be in the hospital until next Tuesday so she can get a full ten day treatment of antibiotics. She is looking really good and her spirits are up. Many students are visiting her and the elders and a few other folks have stopped by to pray for her as well. We don't want to overwhelm Adriana (or the hospital staff) so we are trying to keep the number of visitors down. The best thing to do for Adriana now is to continue to pray for her and her health. That's all for now! In His Service, The Management Team < Back June 20, 2008 Hello and Welcome to the Potter's Wheel Update! We've got two important bits of information to share with you today. The first important note is about our, Semi-Annual, Annual Meeting. It is happening on June 29 right after the second service, beginning promptly at 12:30. When the second service ends at 12:15, folks will be able to start registering and picking up their ballots. Parents who attended the second service can pick up their children and bring them into the meeting with them. This meeting will be solely focused on approving our operating budget for the next six months and that is the only thing we will have on the agenda! As Pastor John said in his congregational letter, we anticipate having another congregational meeting before the end of the summer to update everyone on the progress of our re-visioning and share the information that our consultants have gathered. We are going to save our discussions about re-visioning for that meeting and plan to stay focused on the budget for the meeting on June 29. Secondly, as Pastor John said in his letter last week, we have scheduled Tuesday, July 1, for the meeting between the consultants and the staff and elders. We would ask you to continue to pray as we gather for this meeting to hear what our consultants have to share with us from the survey, focus groups and interviews. We look forward to sharing their information and recommendations with the whole church at the anticipated end of summer meeting. Thank you for your continued prayers as we seek God's will for His church! In His Service, The Management Team < Back June 13, 2008 Dear Congregation, I wish I could just ask you personally "How are you all doing out there?" The staff and elders pray for you regularly and we pray for specific individuals when you write notes to us or come to be prayed for. We know that some are struggling in the midst of this economic downturn and we pray for your peace and provision. For us all together as a church, we are weathering the economic downturn. All of us have continued to contribute to provide the resources necessary to carry on our ministry and mission. So we have been maintaining our cash reserves, doing fruitful ministry and maintaining very close controls on spending. Although, our income through May is running about 3% less than planned, our actual cash position is better than expected at this point and we just experienced a strong beginning in June. We believe we are seeing God's blessing upon our commitment to responsible stewardship. Praise God! Income through May $844,684 Budget through May $869,281 $(24,597) I know many of you are frustrated with the pace of the re-visioning process and some are even unclear why we are doing it. We are doing it because we, in the leadership community, had lost a sense of clarity and cohesion about the focus of our ministry and we were struggling with some excessive friction in our leadership relationships. In addition, we had been experiencing increasing struggles with our organizational structures and decision making systems. We needed help to get both a better understanding of why we were having difficulty as well as what we needed to do to get our relationships and our organization working better and our clarity and alignment focused in the same direction. That said, we recently delayed a meeting where our consultants were going to give us our first load of information. We delayed that information meeting, (now rescheduled for July 1) in order to process some of the relational difficulties we have been experiencing, which is part of our re-visioning process. Our consultants, the Goehner Group, recommended this, as well as our conference superintendent, Evelyn Johnson. A conference representative was sent by Evelyn to oversee a healing and reconciliation meeting. Many people have been praying and I am glad to report that the Holy Spirit helped us, our conference superintendent helped us and we did engage in serious reconciliation and healing. We have already experienced some good things happening in staff and elder's meetings this week as a result. We've also got a semiannual meeting coming up on June 29, right after church. We've got just one item to deal with at that meeting, approving the budget for the next six months. You can pick up a copy of the budget this Sunday and next. This is a very conservative budget because we are trying to build a solid foundation from which to move forward. The amount is what we talked about six months ago, an amount equal to the income we received in 2007. We are on target to achieve that. I want to add a note here about something the elders are praying about that we would like you to pray about with us. We have been concerned that our giving to denominational missions and missions in general is less than what we want it to be. We also recognize that we need to look more closely at how much mission work we carry on within our own ministries that is somewhat hidden from view. What we are praying about is a proposal that will require congregational approval but it would involve dedicating something like 50% of any surpluses over our expenses towards denomination missions and the remaining 50% of surpluses divided towards, for example, mortgage debt pay down, building cash reserves, or put simply, saving. We'll bring something like that to the next congregational meeting. We believe that next congregational meeting will happen sometime in late summer or early fall when we are finally able to exercise what we have learned from our consultants. As soon as we have received the first load of information from our consultants, our re-visioning updates will contain more than just hopeful words. I trust you are looking forward to that as much as we are. We have also added some good news and ministry updates from some of the staff in the rest of this letter. We thank God for this wonderful congregation and we look forward to continuing to become more mature, more effective and more fruitful in reaching the lost, growing in the likeness of Christ and serving the needy both here and far away. God bless you all, For the Elders and Staff, John Strong < Back June 6, 2008 Hi! Welcome to the Potter's Wheel Update! Well, we asked you to be praying for our meeting with the consultant on Thursday, June 5 and we really appreciate all the praying that took place, but the meeting had to be postponed! In the last two weeks, in an effort to be really thorough with his recommendations to us, our consultant has been talking to our Conference Superintendent, Evelyn Johnson. (For those of you who might not know, our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, is divided into nine regional conferences in the United States. Our conference is called the Pacific Southwest Conference and it includes California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Hawaii. The Conference Superintendent in each conference assists churches in planning, finding pastors, church growth struggles and a whole bunch of other important things.) Our meeting was postponed at the request of Evelyn so that she could have a little more time to look at all the information that our consultant has gathered and the recommendations that the consultant is planning to share with us. So, we have postponed things until Evelyn gives us the green light to move forward. While this is a small delay, it does not stop the process that we are in or change our plans to work with our consultant in the re-visioning of RCC! So, we are back to waiting, which is not much fun, but probably necessary to make sure that we thoroughly go through this process and get the maximum amount of valuable input from our consultant and our Conference Superintendent. Please continue to be praying and waiting with us for the next step of the process. As soon as a new date is set for the meeting that was supposed to happen on June 5, we will let you know. As always, if you have questions about the process we are in (or why it might be taking a little bit longer that we originally planned!!), please contact us, we would love to talk you! In His Service, The Management Team < Back May 30, 2008 Hi! Welcome to another Potter's Wheel Update! We have one more week before the next significant meeting with the consultant. On Thursday, June 5, the ministry staff and elders will meet with the consultants to hear a summary of all their findings and their preliminary recommendations. This significant meeting will begin the next "phase" of re-visioning plans where we will start focusing on developing a core vision and strategic plans based on what we hear from the consultant. Like last week, we want to encourage you to continue to pray for this whole re-visioning process. Here are some specific things you can be praying for: ·Pray that all of us, the consultants, the congregation, the staff and elders would be focused on trusting God and letting Him guide the whole re-visioning process. ·Pray that we would all be patient with the process that we are in. ·Pray that we would not rush the re-visioning just to get it done, but that we would patiently follow God's leading so that this whole process will be done thoroughly and correctly. ·Pray for our consultants as they continue to look over all the data they have collected about RCC. Pray for their discernment and wisdom as they prepare their presentation on June 5. ·Pray for the staff and elders as they look forward to June 5 and all the work and planning that will follow. ·Pray for all the continuing ministry at RCC while the re- visioning is happening. ·Pray that each of us would be open to the "molding" that God wants to do in our personal lives and in the church. Pray that each of the four areas that we want to focus on during the re-visioning process (forgiveness, unity, surrender, prayer) would be more evident in our individual lives and at RCC. That is all we have for now. Thank you for your continued prayers during our re-visioning process! In His Service, The Management Team < Back May 23, 2008 Welcome to the Potter's Wheel Update! Well, we certainly don't have a lot to tell you this week and it might even seem like nothing is going on, but nothing could be further from the truth! Our consultants are hard at work, digging their way through all the data they have collected from us. While they are busy working on discerning which way we need to head as a church, we have some work to do as well! We need to be praying and trusting! As soon as the staff and elders receive the report from the consultants on June 5 there will be a lot of visible work for us to do, but we need to be doing this less visible work of praying and trusting to build a solid foundation for all the other work that is to come! So, to help us and encourage us in this work of prayer and trust we have included some scripture passages and quotes below. Please read through this, think about these and allow them to lead you into prayer for our work and trust in where God wants to lead us! Psalm 25 1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; 2 in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Proverbs 3 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Ephesians 6 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Philippians 4 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. "The splendor of the human heart which trusts that it is loved gives God more pleasure and delight than the Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, and all the other human glories combined. Why does our trust offer such immense pleasure to God? Because trust is the pre-eminent expression of love. Thus, it may mean more to Jesus when we say, "I trust you" than when we say, "I love you." -Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust In His Service, The Management Team < Back May 16, 2008 Greetings, Thank you for your praying last Tuesday for the two half-day retreats; they both went really well. Our consultant met first with the ministry staff and then, later in the day, with the Elders. The first exercise at both meetings was to walk back through RCC's history and highlight it's ministry milestones. After reviewing these significant events, we took time to recognize the positive milestones and any that may have gone uncelebrated and also the bumps in the road experienced along the way. We then paused to thank God for His blessings, while seeking forgiveness and repentance for the mistakes and any poor decisions of the past. This makes the road ahead of us much smoother! We then moved on to discussing what might be the next chapter in RCC's history. What will be our mission, our vision, the core ministry values that will guide us? What will be our focus? We began that discussion and it will be revisited several times in the next few months. We also received preliminary data that showed the results from the one-on-one staff interviews and the focus groups. This early data pointed to our strengths and weaknesses as a church, and also pointed out potential opportunities, as well as potential threats that we could be facing as a church. The Goehner Group received the results from our all church survey late last week and with the results of the discussions from Tuesday's meetings made up the final bit of data needed to compile all of the information needed about RCC. The consultants will take the next three weeks to compile all of the information and to complete their report on our church. They will then present their results and recommendations to RCC's ministry staff and elders on June 5th. Until then, please patiently be praying for all that God wants to do as He re-shapes us for the future! We know that it might be hard to be patient during these quiet periods; it might even seem like nothing is happening, but we are confident in the process, in our consultants, in the work they are doing and in where God is leading us! In His Service, The Management Team < Back May 2, 2008 Please continue to pray for our re-visioning process, the Elders, Management Team and Staff. The Elders and Ministry Staff will be preparing for their retreats on May 13th as mentioned last week. Next week as we learn more, we can let you know more specifically how to pray. -The Management team < Back April 25, 2008 Thanks to everyone who took the all church survey last Sunday! There were about 795 of you who participated and shared your thoughts. We appreciate it! Some were prepared to take the half hour survey and some were wondering where the sermon went! No worries. This Sunday pastor John returns to his series on Ephesians. Back to church as usual! The survey's are going to be taken to the Goehner Group down in San Jose on Monday. Yes, we're actually driving them down on our way to Mission Springs for our annual staff retreat. This will save a ton of money on shipping and will speed things up as well. They will then send them off for processing as we all wait with anticipation. These past few months have included: Interviews Focus Groups and Surveys This means the first phase of our re-visioning has been completed! Now, we wait a bit. Our consultants will have a lot of information to sift through, think about and pray over. We will get the survey results back in early May. Our next phase is to have two - half day retreats on May 13 . The Ministry staff will meet with Don the first half of the day and the Elders will meet the second half. During these meetings they will present some of the preliminary data that has been collected and both groups will be discussing and discerning how God wants to use the data that has been collected to help guide us into the future. So, until then, we are in another quiet period where a lot is happening, but not much is being seen. During this time we want to continue to be focused on turning to God in prayer, in submission to Him seeking His will for us as a church. Also, please be praying for our consultants and all the data that they will be looking at. Pray that God will guide them as they continue to guide us! We'll continue to keep you posted as we know more. In Christ, -The Management team < Back April 18, 2008 Its survey Sunday!!! This Sunday as a congregation we will take time during our church services to fill out the church wide survey. The information that will come from the survey will provide our consultant and us with another valuable piece of the re-visioning puzzle. We would like to encourage everyone to prayerfully approach the survey in submission to God. Our main goal in this re-visioning process is to discern and discover how God wants to shape RCC for the future and our wants and desires and agendas need to be cleared away so we can clearly see our way to His will. So please spend time in prayer as we head into Survey Sunday and then on Sunday morning during the services place yourself in God's presence and allow Him to guide you as you respond to the survey! Also this weekend our consultant will be wrapping up the focus group interviews. Our consultant will have all the necessary data that they will use to guide us in the next steps of the re-visioning process. Please be praying for them and for their discernment as they sift through a lot of information, input and data. -The Management Team < Back Friday April 11, 2008 Here's the Potter's Wheel Re-Visioning Update for this Week! The most important bit of information for all of us is to make sure that Sunday, April 20th is circled on the calendar! On the 20th we will be taking the all church survey during the services. The results of this survey are an important tool that our consultant will be using as he continues to guide us in the re-visioning process. So, please plan to be there!!! As much as we want to have everyone present on Survey Sunday, we are aware that for some of you the timing just does not work out and you will not be able to be there on the 20th, so we have put together some alternative times to take the survey. < Back Friday April 4, 2008 Hi there!! This is RCC's weekly update about all that is happening with Re-Visioning here at RCC. April is a huge month for re-visioning!! The one-on-one interviews continue with our consultant and elders and staff. Our consultant will be sitting down in focus groups and talking with those involved in core ministries here at RCC. And most importantly, the entire church will be involved in taking an all-church survey on April 20. This is probably the most important aspect of providing valuable information and feedback to our consultant as he guides us in this re-visioning process. Again, we want to encourage everyone to circle the 20th of April on their calendars and make sure they are here. Also in April, as Pastor John continues preaching from Ephesians, he will be doing a "series within a series" where he will be talking about surrender and submission, one of the four main points we are emphasizing during the re-visioning process. The idea of surrender and submission is central to the whole re-visioning process. As a congregation, each of us needs to be surrendered to God and His will as we seek the future vision and direction for our church body. If we are not surrendered, then we will find ourselves being tossed around by the agendas and desires of individuals and groups instead of being led by God. So, as we get closer and closer to the 20th of April with the all-church survey and as focus groups share their thoughts, the focus of surrender and submission to God is vitally important! That's all the news for now!! Talk to you next week! < Back Friday March 28 Happy Easter! Just to continue the rejoicing from Easter Sunday. Around 1900 folks celebrated Easter services here at Redwood Covenant Church, we rejoiced in Jesus' resurrection and we rejoiced in the reminder of how much God loves us. We rejoiced with the 50 who declared they wanted something more and deeper in their relationship with God and walked across the bridge as a visible expression of their desire. So, it was an incredible Easter Sunday! Praise God! *Re-visioning - the process has started and continues:* As you know from the last email, we started the first round of the interview process last week with our consultant (Don Goehner of the Goehner Group) and church leadership. We are off and running! It will start again in April, 8th & 9th and then again April 18, 19 and 20. *There are two ways in April you can participate in the revisioning process:* Sunday April 6th there will be Prayer and Worship Service from 6:00pm to 7:00pm Sunday, April 20th - ALL CHURCH SURVEY! This is very important and we need everyone to try and be here. On that Sunday, our consultant will be distributing a survey church wide that will be a central part of the re-visioning process. This allows every single person who attends RCC to give their input and feedback. The survey will be distributed at the end of each service. Make sure you are here on the 20th! That's all for now, see you next week! < Back March 13, 2008 Each week we will be sending this out to all of you to let you know what is happening with Re-Visioning here at RCC. Most folks know about this and have been waiting, others may not know, so read on! Some weeks there will be a lot of news, other weeks the news will be kind of light but every week you will hear something in this update! S0 enjoy! Re-Visioning Update: Here's the latest! We know it seems like it has been kind of quiet with all the re- visioning stuff that was first announced at the Annual Meeting in January and in the services in February. Well, now we finally have some information to pass on! There has been a lot of "background" activity going on. The Management Team has been talking with our consultant setting up meetings and finalizing calendar items and setting up all the plans. As we follow the "instructions" of our consultant, (Don of the Goehner Group), there are basically three segments, Staff and Elders one-on-one interviews, focus groups and the all church survey. *A note on focus groups: Those that participate in a focus group will not have the opportunity to complete a survey!* The criteria Don has for the focus groups are those volunteers that are heavily involved in: Life stage ministries, worship and outreach ministries. Those that are new to RCC, pioneers or old timers and a couple of miscellaneous. The selection of those in the focus groups are decided by the department heads. We have to admit that we have a bit of a dilemma with the total number of folks here at RCC and the limited space in focus groups. Please, we ask for prayer, patience and grace as we fill these spots. In the Hands of the Potter - Prayer, Unity, Surrender, Forgiveness As we actually start doing some of the practical work of re-visioning through meetings, focus group and surveys, we do not want to forget about the important work of making sure we are sitting on that potter's wheel, letting God shape us individually and corporately according to His wheel. < Back


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