Direction for 2007
Ministry direction for the coming year and beyond
Our vision is to be a growing and loving international community glorify God by bringing people together in the Lord Jesus.
Our mission is to preach christ so that His people are saved; His people grow; and His people are prepared for service.
Holding our course
Our pastoral team
In 2005 we said that over the next 3 to 5 years our vision was to add two part-time pastoral assistants to our pastoral team. At that time we believed that we needed to appoint one pastoral worker in children’s ministries and one in women’s ministry.
We saw the first part of this vision become a reality with appointment of Masako Dunn as our pastoral assistant in children’s ministry in February this year. This happened 12 months ahead of schedule and was a real answer to prayer. We thank God for his generosity.
As yet, the second leg of the journey hasn’t begun. 2007 will be the year for planning the second leg of the journey. In this next year we need to be praying and planning for another pastoral assistant to develop our women’s ministries. We need to be praying for the resources and for the right person. We ought to pray that at the right time the Lord might raise up a gifted and godly woman to nurture, train and equip the women here at Chatswood.
Our family ministries
This last year saw us introduce a new years 6 to 8 group to help children through these years of transition. Next year we will seek to develop our pastoral care of children by developing a new group on Sunday mornings to cater for years 5 and 6. We have more older primary school children now attending which makes it possible to give more attention to different age groups.
Last year also saw our first parent training night held. Parents heard talks on discipling children and they discussed parenting issues over coffee and cake. In 2007 we are planning for at least three of these evenings for our parents. We hope to foster an environment in which parents are encouraging and supporting one another in the nurture of their children.
Our men’s ministry
In 2006 TRAIN became the name of our men’s ministry. Our chief focus this last year was developing a range of different events to which men could invite their friends to meet their mates at church and hear the gospel. Over this last year we held Blokes n’ Spokes and Twilight Bowls as well as a dinner for men to think more about work. Our Fit 4 Life night is to be held soon and we are praying that many of our friends will turn up. Next year we plan to keep this pattern and hold a number of similar events. Our TRAIN team, next year, will focus more on our accountability groups, encouraging more men to encourage one another in these groups.
Our women’s ministry
Next year we also hope to begin a women’s ministry group similar to our TRAIN team to coordinate and oversee our women’s ministries. We have many events and ministries involving women. As a church we want to encourage more women to be leading and training and equipping other women for ministry.
