This is my last message before my long service leave begins and I wanted to update you on a couple of things that will be happening while I’m away. First, let me encourage you again to participate in the discernment process and prayerfully consider where you believe God may be inviting us in the future and submit those to the discernment group. I am looking forward to hearing the themes that emerge from our community of faith!

Second, as some of you are aware, we delayed our decision to introduce a new model of membership at our last church meeting. The reason was that it was clear that further clarification was needed. In the next few weeks we’ll be releasing a paper to clarify and answer some questions and to solicit some further feedback from you. This will shape our next steps. We don’t want to rush things, but do want to move forward. We are tentatively planning to address this proposal in late August, but we’ll wait and see.

Third, for those of you who were waiting for the AGM to become members, you can still do so! In the next few weeks we will be inviting people who wish to become members to take that next step.

Finally, some of you have expressed interest in following my hockey career (and even threatened to attend a game). If you’d like to you can follow the scores, get the schedule, and keep track of the standings here, under the Senior division 4 (Canterbury Eagles 4).

I’m looking forward to my break and to all that God will continue to do in our midst while I’m away! See you soon and God bless!

Marc Rader | Senior Pastor