Chestermere Church Plant

 In an effort to keep you up to date, following is an summary of the Town Hall Meeting on June 16, as well as the letter sent by Pastor Evan outlining his call to plant a church.

Town Hall Meeting Summary

Wednesday evening June 16

Hope Community held a “town hall meeting” to discuss the church planting initiative and the plans for Hope in 2010-2011.  Over 50 people were in attendance and experienced a positive spirit of anticipation and sharing of information.

The meeting covered the following topics:

1)      Rod Peterson opened with prayer and scripture reading Matthew 28 and commented on Jesus launching the church with the disciples.

2)      Pastor Evan and Christin Dewald retold their story over the last few years of calling and affirmations they have received in their listening to God.   After being asked 5 years ago to consider a new work in Chestermere, they have completed the church planter’s assessment and been endorsed by the Canada Conference and Evangelical Covenant Church to start a new church.  The church plant will receive appropriations over a five year period to help fund their ministry.  

The church planting strategy will be grounded on prayer and relationships.  It will include creating a core group of people interested in the new church in Chestermere, will include starting small groups, perform a needs analysis and exploratory activities to understand where God is working in the town.

3)      Pastor Roger Gilbert described the “big picture” plan for Children’s, Community Life, Youth and Search committee staffing including general timeframes.  In regard to:

Children’s Ministry – Christin and Alicia will continue directing the children’s program, with Alicia taking over more responsibility as Christin eventually spends more time with the Chesteremere work.

Community Life – While Kirsten is on maternity leave, in the Fall Evan will work more with discipleship and small group initiatives.  Ideas that he has for Chestermere will also be considered for Strathmore to help us fulfill our mission of living for the sake of the world.

Youth Ministry – Evan will remain involved with the youth during the Summer, but our intention is to hire a Interim Youth Pastor (3/4 time) from August 15, 2010 to next summer.  Evan will mentor this individual encouraging them to maintain and enhance the good work with our grade 7 to grade 12 youth.  Council is in the final stages of negotiation with that individual.

Search team – A search team will be created to help us understand our desires for the next full time Youth Pastor with goals of the position details being defined by October, and interviews with candidates by winter 2011.                                      

4) Rod Peterson announced that the Canada Conference will help support Hope Community representing a portion of the tithe of the families involved in the Chestermere work.   We briefly discussed the financing of this next year.

5) We held question and answer session, followed by a prayer and response time lead by Pastor Kirsten Waldschmidt.

Key thoughts of those in attendance include:

Excitement for:

            God is at work in Chestermere and Strathmore.

            Church planting will be a catalyst for Strathmore congregation too.

            A genuine partnership can be shared between Strathmore and Chestermere.

            The generous Canada Conference support for both congregations.

            A Spirit-lead change in our hearts.

            We are seeking the kingdom and the King.

Prayer for:

            The Dewald children, land for a home, transition for all.

            Openness regarding the town of Chestermere (officials and people).

            Encouraging Pastor Roger and the staff here.

            The adjustment for the youth of all ages at Hope.

            Discernment for Council, decisions and timing.

            The Interim Youth Pastor

 Suggestions of:

            Continuing mentoring for Alicia (hire a family pastor?)

    Pursue input from the congregation about our children’s & youth ministries.

            Continue to anchor this work with prayer.

6) The meeting with closed with prayer by Amy Wegner.

Overall, it was a great night and we thank all for coming out.  If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact one of the pastors or council members.

Submitted by Pastor Roger Gilbert

June 11, 2010

Dear Friends

This June at Hope we have been talking about what it means to live our mission.

Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, “The time is fulfilled!” he said. “God’s kingdom is arriving! Turn back and believe the good news!”      Mark 1:15

It makes sense for us to look at the mission and message of Jesus as we talk about our own. Jesus invites us to join him in his kingdom.  So what is our place in his kingdom? Well, this might be hard for us North American control freaks to accept but, what it all boils down to is we are servants.  Deeply loved servants but, servants just the same.  Jesus our King taught us through his life, death and resurrection that he is the King who built this kingdom and we are welcomed to be in it, even called to care for it. Perhaps we could think of it like this, we are gardeners. The King has placed each of us in our environment (town, work, school) and asks us to tend to his garden. We plant, fertilize and water, however the mysterious work of growing is up to the king to do. We must faithfully/obediently live out his mission, trusting that he is doing the work of growth in us and around us.

Since 1997 when Hope began there has been discussion around here about being a church that plants churches.  Chestermere has always been one of the places which have come up.  For the last five years Christin and I have felt Jesus asking us to make ourselves available to tend that particular part of the garden. With the help and discernment of the Covenant, both in Canada and the US, as well as the pastoral staff and Council at Hope Community, we have felt confirmed in this call to plant a church. We believe it is time to begin over the next year making this transition.  Even though the next steps for Christin and I are still being worked out, we are confident and excited that our king knows the way.

It’s our hope that you know how much we love you and this place.  It’s our love for you and the love we have received by this family that has given us so much joy in serving you over the last 13 years and the year to come.  I heard someone once say, “If you want to lead people well, you better be willing to go first.”  For us we believe that “as a community of Jesus, we exist to make and mature disciples of Jesus Christ, who live for the sake of the world.”

We would love to have you join us and our leaders on Wednesday night (June 16) at 7:00 pm, to discuss further our plans, as well as the future plans at Hope in this transition. Please fell free should you not be able to make it, to call and we can set up a time to talk with you about this new kingdom opportunity Jesus is putting in front of us.

Pastor Evan & Christin Dewald