I had the pleasure of meeting Pastor Dell, Oct 2021 while attending an evangelism conference at Wheaton College. We were both there with our mutual friend Dr. Darrell Farney who was serving as a director for Evangelism Explosion. While getting to know each other better over the course of the two days we realized we could work well together. Following a year of meeting regularly and praying together, Pastor Dell asked me to not only facilitate the Retool Program with LGCC, but to consider coming on staff as interim pastor. This led to more dialogue and prayer. After some time, I sensed a peace from the Lord to come to LGCC to serve beside Pastor Dell.
Here is what has been accomplished so far, our first retreat for the Retool Vision Team met on Oct 28-29, 2022. The vision team, consisting of nearly 30 people, learned how to discern the voice and will of God to help create the strategic vision that will take LGCC into the future. After our first retreat, our vision team broke into 3-person teams to work on our church health using the book Emotionally Healthy Church, by Peter Scazzero. This book will be used as primer for how our Life Groups will act and teach others to follow Christ. We experienced great success, as nine triads met regularly to prepare mentally and emotionally to be the example to the church.
On November 19th we started rebuilding our new discipleship system. This is the first of 10 systems that will be needed for our church to be healthy. We began by training all Life Group leaders as part of our new discipleship system be able to utilize their gifts to help the church grow.
The first track in our 3-track system is the Learning Track. This track is designed for new or growing believers that need to learn what we believe as Christians and why we believe it. We are so excited as we have our new curriculum specific for LGCC.
The Living Track is for maturing believers that want to learn and go beyond the basics. They will learn theology, Bible study, men’s studies, and women’s studies all from a biblical point of view. Some groups will be specific to an issue such as parenting, additions, and evangelism!
Our third and final track is our Leadership Track where men and women will be trained and equipped to lead in one of our ten ministries.
December was our fill month, meaning we spent the whole month promoting and signing up new people for their Spring semester Life Groups.
Looking ahead
On January 1, 2023, I started officially as the new Interim Pastor of Community Life. We kicked off our spring semester of Life Groups on January 9th, 2023, with nine new groups with 76 people beginning or continuing to learn to walk well with Christ.
As we move ahead we will continue building the other 9 systems beginning with Worship, then Assimilation, followed by Communications and finally Children’s. These will be top priority to stabilize what we already have and continue to grow.
We will continue the Retool process in 2023, with retreat #2 on Feb 10-11, retreat #3 on June 23-24, and we will finish retreat # 4 in early fall. At the conclusion of retreat #4, we will have a three-year strategic vision that will take us through 2024, 2025, and 2026 bringing health and life to Long Grove Community Church.