Leadership Column: Thoughts from Session

By Kathy Vaselkiv

Today, as we dedicate our new Worship Center it seems appropriate to reflect on what is constant and what has changed at Central over the past decade. Ron Scates, our Senior Pastor preceding John Schmidt, was known to say the only non-negotiables at Central are the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture. One could mark the most recent leg of Central's journey from the spring of 2000, when Dr. Paul Borden led us through a church assessment. Our leaders agreed with Dr. Borden that Central was at the peak of a decade of exciting growth. We could coast from there and risk stagnation, or ask God to give us an expanded vision for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with those outside our congregation! Our pastoral staff and Session made an intentional effort to shift the balance of our ministry from nurturing the spiritual life of our members towards outreach to an increasingly post-modern and post-Christian world. Dr. Borden also helped us understand that we needed to adjust our staffing and organizational structure to support current and future growth.

Since the spring of 2000 we have examined and reaffirmed our mission and core values, developed a philosophy of ministry that reflects both timeless Biblical principles and our current cultural context, expanded both the number and style of our worship services, identified and described our vision - moving people toward Christ where we live, work and play, and completed a major facilities addition. We have also been in an ongoing process of organizational and staffing changes to scale our support systems for a church of 700-1000 members.

Today we pause for just a moment to consider the "incredible wave," in the words of Rick Warren, we have been privileged to ride here at Central not only in the last decade, but for some of you over the last 50 years. The wave of God's purpose and presence in our midst has not been without extended times of turmoil and uncertainty, but overall we have been blessed to be a part of the expansion of God's kingdom in Baltimore and around the world. We celebrate what God has done and pray that we will be faithful and joyful stewards of the relationships and resources with which we have been blessed well into the future.