January Elder Update '10

01.01.10

    2009 has been a great year in the life of Village Bible Church. It has also been a year of wonder and of change.

     

    2009 has been a great year in the life of Village Bible Church. It has also been a year of wonder and of change.

    This was our first full year in our new building - and with that came many new ways to impact our community Awana, sports camp, weekly basketball and volleyball that draw many from the community...as well as the ability to carry out more effectively the ministries we were already doing, such as VBS, Sunday School, children's worship, MOPS, outreach events (Valentine’s dinner & movie), fellowship meals (and wow - they've been awesome meals!), etc. The time, energy and money that you gave to build this building have already reaped much eternal impact.

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    At the same time, we expanded our “family life” space with the new Family Life Center, and as the church continued to grow, the sanctuary seemed to get smaller and smaller as it became fuller and fuller. We suspected the day would come and had been planning for it for the previous two years...and in the middle of 2009, we started a second Sunday morning worship service. While this required an adjustment on everyone's part, in the end we’ve opened up plenty of space for others easily to join us for worship. In so doing, we also alleviated the overcrowding issues we were experiencing in the nursery and children’s worship, as well as in the parking lot.

    We had the privilege of being part of the baptism of 17 believers and the dedication of 19 children to God. One hundred thirteen of our current attenders began attending the church in 2009 - some as very new believers, some as mature believers - and we can't forget those 14 who came as newborns! Nineteen individuals became covenant members of VBC this past year.

    2009 also saw the rapid growth of our Sunday evening Generations ministry, and our men's ministries, women's ministries and small groups have had a huge impact on a record number of people. And all have seen new leaders step up to help grow the impact of each of these ministries. We also saw God using our own people around the world, as mission teams were sent to Chicago, Detroit and Alaska, while individuals from VBC also participated in mission trips to Swaziland, Kyrgyzstan and Mozambique.

    The list goes on and on. God's blessings are all around us. We have so much to be thankful for. And we haven't even touched on the awesome ways the Lord provided financially for the needs of Village Bible Church in 2009 through you - the people of this church - in a year when financial resources for many of us have been diminished. That's really amazing. (More details on page 18.)

    We'll end this brief review with a vision that began in 2009 and will become either a distant memory or a new reality in 2010. In what the elders believe is an answer to our seeking of God's will for the next step for VBC, we began a “trial phase” of a ministry designed to help sister churches grow their impact by joining forces and becoming one ministry in multiple locations - with the vision to accomplish more together than we could collectively accomplished separately. We’ve called this vision “Resurgence,” as it is our desire to be used by God to bring

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    a resurgence, or a revitalization to other churches that seek our assistance. As you know, two churches have formally requested to be part of this new model - Grace Bible Church of Aurora and First Baptist Church of Shabbona. resurgence - Resurgence - The Road to...

    After a year of “trial” we’ll be bringing this concept before the church family for further dialog on Sunday evening, January 17, and if the Lord continues to lead in this direction our plan is then to bring the adoption of Grace Bible Church up for a vote on February 7 (and then the adoption of First Baptist of Shabbona shortly thereafter). We would ask that everyone, regardless of whether you're a member of the church or not join us on January 17 for this important evening when together we’ll explore this proposed future aspect of our ministry as a church as we seek God's wisdom and direction!

    Join us for a month of prayer as we pray for our missionaries, for our fellow believers in our church and around the world and for the ministries and future impact of our church. Pick up a January 2010 Prayer Calendar at the Welcome Center today!

     

    Your Elder Team,

    Al Gonnerman, Mario Arindaeng, Tim Badal, Scott Capp, Keith Duff, Jon Pilkington

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