Why We Invest in the Jesus Mission

Posted by: Julie on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

event-hitchhikers268×66.gifThis weekend I was reminded once again what an incredible group of staff and leaders we have here at Community.  This past weekend our NewThing team hosted what we call our ‘Hitchhikers’ Guide to Multi-Site.’  We had over 45 pastors and leaders from churches all across the country come to Community this weekend to observe and learn how we do multi-site.  The weekend began Saturday morning with Leadership Community, the monthly gathering we do for all of our staff, coaches, and leaders from all nine locations.  We worship together, celebrate new leaders together, have a vision time with Dave, and then break out into our campus and ministry huddles.  So we took our ‘Hitchhikers’ with us to Leadership Community and then gathered them together in our large conference room to do a Q & A time with some of our staff.  I have to give some kudos to the staff team who presented Saturday morning – they are the best!

Sean Bublitz, Creative Arts Director for our Naperville-Yellow Box location shared thoroughly about how artists are recruited and developed and how our arts catalyst develops content that is adaptable to all nine locations.  Sean is responsible for overseeing the programming and production of six services at the Yellow Box.  His extensive team of worship leaders, rehearsal leaders, vocal coaches, sound leaders, tech leaders, media leaders, and set design leaders is very impressive!  Not to mention that he’s one of our best worship leaders himself!  Can we have 6 Seans please?

Eric Metcalf, Small Groups Director for our Naperville-Yellow Box location and Adult Ministry Champion for all locations gave an excellent account of how leaders and apprentices are developed through small groups and how critical small groups are when launching a new site.  Eric is incredibly gifted at developing the spiritual maturity of Christ followers.  In fact, he has put together some exciting revelations for this next ministry year that are going to take us to a new level of what it means to be a 3C Christ follower!  Look forward to it!

Pat Masek, Executive Assistant to Dave Ferguson (Lead Pastor) and really The One Who Runs the Place!, gave a vivid description of our new organizational chart as well as how marketing is done for a new campus launch.  Ask Pat anything!  She’ll know the answer!  It is continually impressive to see how Pat is able to do far more than her ‘executive assistant’ title suggests.  She interviews potential church planters, she helps coach churches in their multi-site journey, she’ll even ‘be Dave’ sometimes when he’s too busy!  It’s hard to tell the difference!  Tammy Melchien, Kids’ City Director for our Naperville-Yellow Box location and Children’s Ministry Champion for all locations explained what to look for in hiring team members and team leaders in children’s ministry.  Tammy is one of the best developers of leaders on our staff.  She not only oversees the children’s ministry directors for all nine locations, but she also develops curriculum, coaches other multi-site children’s ministries, and runs a Kids’ City team of her own at the Yellow Box!  Ask her anything about leadership development, and she’ll knock your socks off!

Brian Zehr, Campus Pastor for our Naperville-Downtown location and Multi-Site Coach for the NewThing team shared how critical it is for all locations to stay aligned when going multi-site.  Brian has had experience in several other ministry settings prior to joining our staff four years ago, and he continues to bring a wise and discerning eye to the table.  Brian is one of the most respected coaches in the multi-site world, and he recently developed a whole NewThing conference with new content for reproducing churches in the post-launch phase!  Look for more great stuff from this guy!

Carrie Larson, Executive Assistant to Jon Ferguson (Co-Lead Pastor) and Administrative Director for NewThing, organized this entire event and executed it with excellence!  From the marketing to the registration to the hospitality to the follow up, Carrie makes sure our Hitchhikers’ Guide conferences go off without a hitch!  J  Carrie not only serves as Jon’s assistant, but she also has recently taken on much of the human resources responsibilities for all of Community.  She also did a terrific job alongside John Ciesniewski in leading our capital campaign last year.  Don’t try to pull anything off without Carrie!  She’s vital to the team!

When I think about why I am generous to Community Christian Church, these above people (and others like them) are many of the reasons why.  This church is filled with talented people, both on and off staff.

Before I end this blog post, I must mention another group that continually knocks my socks off.  That is our Leadership Commission – what many of you would call an elder board.  Our Leadership Commission oversees doctrine, direction, discipline, and development of our church.  Three members of our Leadership Commission served at our Hitchhikers’ event this morning, and they were Jeff Miller, Rudy Stefanski, and Paul Warner.  Talk about three guys who ‘get’ generosity.  That would be these three.  They have served on more campus launch teams and on more ministry teams and small groups than anyone I know.  And they are brilliant.  Ask them anything!  And I must give credit also to their wives – Janet, Amber, and Katy.  These three couples, along with many others on our Leadership Commission, really get what it means to be generous.  They model it in their own lives and in their roles as the leaders of this generous church. 

Thank you Jeff, Janet, Rudy, Amber, Paul, Katy, Sean, Jill, Eric, Erin, Pat, Rick, Tammy, Brian, Judy, Carrie, and John!  You are living out our investment in the Jesus Mission and demonstrating how generosity directly impacts our ability to help people find their way back to God!

 

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