Dear CCPC Family,

The past few weeks have been a blur since joining the Church Staff as your new Director of Outreach. Before I began I spent quite a bit of time listening to members express their hopes and dreams for our church... and, yes, just a wee bit of complaining as well! I learned a tremendous amount during the Vision Task Force process by participating in a Prayer Triplet (thanks Rod and Karen!). I discovered the power of a church-wide prayer effort and learned to trust our visioning process in moving forward to the next chapter of our church history.

One thing I did hear about was concern over better communication among our membership. So, our staff and key committee volunteers have really put forth an effort to get the news out, especially about our Fall Offerings. I hope by now you've seen this information. It's been in The Clarion, in Sunday bulletin inserts, in a mailing from the Membership Committee, on our newly retooled website and eSpirit emails. We will also have old-fashioned sign-up sheets available at the Connection Corner on Sunday mornings!

Virtually everyone I spoke with expressed a deep desire to do more as a church to reach out to our community. And -- for all the right reasons -- to bring more of our neighbors into a relationship with Christ. I've had the privilege of working with a group of CCPC members from the 8:30 Service of Worship that felt a strong call to launch a new, "truly contemporary" service to be held at a time more in tune with today's young adult lifestyles. Last week, Session approved this new service called Live316. We are planning to launch it in early October. The name Live316 comes from John 3:16 in that we wanted to create a total immersion "live" demonstration of God's love targeted at the unchurched, or for those who have been away from the church for a while. Feel free to give me a call at 972-238-8103 ext. 309 to discuss Live316. More news about this service will follow in The Clarion.

Another very positive result bubbling forth out of the visioning process is a stronger emphasis this fall on education. Staff and teacher volunteers have designed a number of outstanding new programs to appeal not only to church members, but also to draw our neighbors into the building. We are NOT throwing the baby out with the bathwater! All our beloved teachers, such as Robert Hall, Pat Markell, Andy Raub, and Stacy Ikard will still be providing their excellent leadership in the classroom. You can register RIGHT NOW for any of our classes, just CLICK HERE.

Our Vision Task Force focus groups also identified a pressing need in our area for quality education courses in fine arts, computers, fitness, language, and many other areas. Looking forward to next spring, we hope to offer a more complete slate of offerings. A course on Christian stewardship of the environment is already on the drawing board. So, if you have an area of expertise that you feel would provide significant benefit to our North Star Neighbors, please contact me about teaching next spring. More to follow...

In His service,
Sarah Riehm
Director of Outreach