- unlike most years, we didn't spend a ton of time looking back -- there was a short video, but usually Cal devotes a good portion of his talk to looking back and celebrating, but not so much this year (I kinda missed it...but that's okay.)
- Cal then basically peeled by the cover on his life for the last 3 or 4 years as he has struggled with whether or not to stay at Northwoods or move on.
- He then talked about his vision for church that he believes was given to him by God on July 13th of this year, and his journey of affirmation as he's consulted with the elders.
- Which leads us to the E4 church which stands for the "empowered" church, based on Ephesians 4:11-13. There are four components to this "model" -- to help people encounter God, be established in their faith, and then to be equipped to minister in power in order to engage the world.
- Probably the biggest news, and frankly the most controversial, is Cal's public statement, that at Northwoods we will welcome all the spiritual gifts. Call us charasmatic if you must, but Cal made a big point, that we're not becoming a "charasmatic church," but that we're becoming a church where different "streams" of Christian expression are converging.
One last note...with the beginning of 2007 my job changed from the full-time "young adult director," to half-time "young adults director" and half-time "E4 Development Team." So I'll be on the team that is writing, strategizing and developing discipleship tools for this new model.
If you're really interested in what's happening at Northwoods, come to New Community the next three weeks, as Cal we be talking about the four E's
No comments:
Post a Comment