Update from Elders

Thoughts from the Elders:

Over the last few months, the Elder’s board has been challenged to discuss and seek the Lord about a number of challenges for RBC. Some of these remain items for thought an prayer while others have already resulted in some preliminary action. For the purpose of this report, we’ll pose the challenges in the form of questions and then give our current thoughts and musings to date. Hopefully it will give you some idea of what we are thinking about and give you an opportunity to engage with us in considering them…

ONE: The Gospel (“Good News”) forms the backbone of our faith. How can we remind each other as a congregation about the gospel and its implications for our lives?

Ideas/thoughts:

• A Gospel Crash Course to be held concurrent with four consecutive Sunday luncheons (Darryl is currently developing an outline for it)
• Regular Christian communion/fellowship is so important for everyone. “Hi, how are ya” on Sunday morning doesn’t allow us to engage, challenge and spur each other on to live in the power of the Holy Spirit every day. Expect more emphasis on the importance small groups and living out our faith in close community with other believers

TWO: We need to pray more, at least as a corporate body. How can we look to God together more consistently to ensure that we are looking to Him to accomplish His work in and through us as opposed to trying to orchestrate things on our own?

Ideas/Thoughts:

A team of passionate pray-ers have recently met with and made recommendations to the elders board. More info to follow… certainly there will be more opportunities to pray and we will explore the why pray question through future discussions and sermons.

THREE: C.S. Lewis once described the church as "terrible as an army with banners, spread out over time and into eternity". How might we mobilize as a congregation to spread the Gospel, locally and remotely? Our somewhat sprawling demographics (many people don’t live in the immediate region) and our limited interactions with one another (often we see each other only on Sunday morning) pose some difficulties in forming sustainable local initiatives.

Ideas/Thoughts:

• Map out where people live in order to see possibilities for regional initiatives (we started this already, remember the map in the foyer?)
• Participate in Toronto-wide initiatives that express a heart for city-wide revival (e.g. Tim Keller - FEB)

FOUR: Our building is expensive and underutilized. How can we share it with the local community of believers and also use it to reach out to the neighborhood?

Ideas/Thoughts:

• Open the facility to outside ministries
• Share the church building with another congregation
• Conversational English, ESL, Homework programs are all possibilities

This is a glimpse of some of the things we are working through. Please understand that we covet your prayers and your input. If some of these thoughts spark questions or a desire for dialogue, please speak to one of the elders. We would love to hear from you.

Bryan Campbell, Grant Caven, Dave Cook, Darryl Dash, Jon McMurray