Ministry Updates, page 2

The Diaconate

"After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it,
just as Christ does the church - for we are members of His body."
Ephesians 5:29-30

"Deacons, Diaconate, Under-Shepherds" ... If those terms don't have much meaning for you, maybe we should call ourselves "The Body Builders!" Yep, that is what we do and we really enjoy our jobs! We build up the Body of Christ, especially when some part of it is hurting, needs a helping hand or just needs some chicken soup and TLC! We are not very comfortable 'blowing our own horn,' so you may not know who we are, but when any one member of The Body needs care, we gather around like a bunch of white blood cells and go to work. You may be aware of us sometimes when we call on you to lend a hand in our Body shop, (Care Teams, meals, rides, etc.). Please join us, you won't be sorry. In fact, the showers of blessing come more abundantly when you let Jesus use your hands and feet to take care of The Body!

Stop by the Deacons' Desk some Sunday morning and check out all "The Body Care Jobs" that need just your touch! We are at the western end of the Concourse anxiously waiting to meet you!

Showers of blessings on you from the Deacons

Paraclete Ministry

Stephen Ministry: Christ caring for people through people. Pictured are Stephen Ministers who are training and working together. They are being equipped to care for God's people in a compassionate and biblical way.

"Share one another's burdens and
thus fulfill the law of Christ."
Galatians 6:2

Grief-Share is a new group meeting on Sunday mornings that is exploring the journey "from mourning to joy."

Small Group Ministry

OVERVIEW: Central currently has 40 active small groups, not including the Women on Wednesday groups. This year, the SGMT focused on cultivating leadership, connecting people with groups, and forming and nurturing new groups.

LEADERSHIP: The SGMT trained leaders at two "Filling Station" events, offered How to Lead Life-Changing Small Groups to all leaders, contributed books on small groups to the church library, and encouraged and thanked group leaders at a family picnic, which included games, testimonials, and discussion of the challenging experience of leading small groups. We are just beginning a coaching component to encourage, provide direction for, and support leaders as we grow.

CONNECTION: Using sign-up tables in the Concourse last February and a September Kick-Off Rally, we helped over 30 people to connect to both new and existing groups. The Rally also afforded an opportunity for teaching and equipping, fellowship, and distribution of new curricula.

NEW GROUPS: From the September Rally, three new groups were formed to serve 22 new people, and new groups are also arising out of Alpha and the Lenten church-wide Bible studies.

Website Ministry

2004 has been a productive year for Central's website development team with some growth in our volunteers and our capabilities.

Central's website continues to support our vision by reaching WAY beyond our walls into every country and household connected to the internet. Unlike many church sites which only provide information about that particular church community, our vision is to provide strong Biblical teaching to the world via sermons and other teaching resources. Currently, we have over 286 sermon transcripts and 126 sermon MP3's. Both formats are popular, with sermons making up to 30% of our page hits and drawing people to our site directly from search engines. MP3's allow us to get sermons online more quickly, often the same Sunday preached, and offer an alternative to those who prefer listening to reading.

In addition, the site continues to offer comprehensive information about 'most' of what is happening around Central, and a welcoming introduction to those searching for a church in our area. Anecdotally, I'm often told of new visitors or members who come to Central as a direct result of what they have learned about us via the website.

Another first for us was the posting online of synchronized small group study resources as we went through a sermon series. We hope to enhance other teaching at Central by providing online share access to such materials.

Looking forward, a new web server will soon add some exciting new capabilities such as content management, photo galleries and discussion forums. With luck, we'll be able to offer private online discussion areas for ministry teams and small groups in 2005.

P. S. Did you know that our site averages around 2000 page hits per day?