As per our discussion at this month's AGM, the Elder Team has created a new Governance Manual to assist in providing clarity for authority lines within the church leadership, staff & volunteers. We are asking all church members to carefully read through the document and be prepared to vote on approving it at a future date.

To view our proposed Governance Manual Click HERE

“…in our love for God and others, we shall be primarily concerned with making
disciples of Jesus Christ. This goes beyond reaching people for Christ and includes
teaching, equipping, and developing them in their relationship with God and His
mission of redemption.”
(From our 20/20 vision statement)

Now for those of us who have been around for the last few years, we know there
have been a few bumps along the road to getting going on the vision that God has
given us. But with the hiring of Cam, who is keenly discipleship oriented this fall,
some of you have been asking, “What’s been going on for the last 3 months?! Why
aren’t we moving forward?” Well we can tell you that the Elder Team has been
busy! In addition to our regular ET meetings about every 3 weeks or so, for 8 weeks
in November and December weeks we met at 6am every Thursday at the church for
what has been named “Discipleship Boot Camp”. Can someone check the “sacrifice”
box please?? Cam lead us in learning basic principles of discipleship and disciple
making. We have been studying the Word each week and learning that, quite
frankly, for decades, we have had the wrong idea that we need to have “all the
answers” before we can properly disciple someone. Discipling should be done by
the “professionals”, right? Wrong. It has always been about ordinary people simply
following Jesus.

Anyhow, this change in our way of thinking is going to require us a change in our
DNA which will better align us to the Great Commission of “go and make disciples of
all nations…” (Matt. 28:19) Unfortunately, changing DNA is not a terribly fast
process. It takes time and considerable effort. Let me paint you a little picture in
hopes of helping you understand where we are. In the training that Cam has been
doing with the ET, there is an image of a sailboat with 7 sails. The 7 sails are the
different elements of a “Disciple Making Movement” or DMM. It is our jobs to hoist
those sails so that we can catch the wind of the Holy Spirit and really start moving
out to sea. But before we hoist the sails, we need to do the really hard work of
rowing our ship away from the dock, out of the harbor into open waters. Once we
are there, that’s when we hoist the sails and wait for the Holy Spirit to move us
forward.

Are we saying to NOT do anything until then? Absolutely not! Read the Word, pray
for opportunities, listen to the Spirit’s promptings, reach out to non-believers, keep
rowing, and trust that God is going to do something awesome in our church body as
we move towards becoming a church that is strategic in fulfilling the Great
Commission here in Abbotsford and beyond!

- The Elder Team