The Year Ahead

Dear Christ Church Family,

Thank you for your wholehearted participation in the services at Christ Church during Holy Week! It was a gift to reflect solemnly on the death of Jesus Christ and to celebrate his resurrected life with joyful exuberance on Easter. Our God has done great things for us and will never fail to keep his promises in Jesus Christ.

After a long and wearying year, our Session looks forward to guiding our congregation through a process of evaluation and renewal as the pandemic abates. Due to our renovation project and the interruption of COVID-19, we’ve experienced two full years of ministry disruption. We are eager to pick-up many of our cherished traditions, enjoy fellowship without social impositions, and adopt some new patterns in our life together. Please stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details!

Also, please be assured that our Session will evaluate our current operating procedures to determine the best ways ahead. As we do so, we appreciate your ongoing patience, prayers, and endurance. There are many difficult and delicate issues to address that require grace, humility, and wisdom that comes only from God.

We desire for the coming year to be one of celebration and thanksgiving at Christ Church as we renew our communion with God and with one another. Currently, we are developing plans that will allow us to pursue these goals in new and enhanced ways. In keeping with this, the Session has also decided to grant our pastor, Chuck Colson, a fourteen-week Sabbatical in the summer of 2022. After nearly twenty years of full-time ministry, we desire for Chuck to have a sustained break that will allow him to engage deeply with God and his family in order to be renewed for future service among us.

Our Session is excited to afford the Colson family this rest and is unanimous in the decision. However, we also recognize that this is new information for you! To close this gap, we are including a Frequently Asked Questions document that will address certain questions and we’d like to invite you to a congregational forum this Sunday, April 11th, 2020, following the worship service. A brief presentation will walk through the Session’s rationale and there will be an opportunity for questions. Please join us!  

Again, thank you for your patience and endurance through this odd season and be assured of our ongoing prayers for God’s face to shine on you, renewing you in the knowledge of his grace and love revealed in Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace in Jesus,

Dave Lowe, Staff Committee Chair

Jim Dickenson, Clerk of Session (on behalf of the Session)