Dear TCBC
friend,
As Dan Hickman and Mark Legler both recently
reported, the Development Committee has compiled all of the information you provided
from the ABF meetings, thought Jogger surveys, and forwarded this to the elders
for their review. We are happy to report that progress is being made in many
areas, thanks to the Lord’s blessing of His work at TCBC and your faithful
service. As your elders, we sincerely
desire to make the most of every opportunity for Christian service. We
believe that if the Lord has made these areas of ministry important to us, He
will provide the labor necessary for them to be fruitful.
Below
is a list of the “short term” goals we as a body identified and indicated were
important ministries to consider. We’ve included the progress to date so that
we may all give thanks to our Lord as we clearly see His hand guiding our
process in the following ways:
Counseling Ministry We are very excited about the
progress of this ministry. Many hours have been spent in creating the
right format to take this opportunity into the future. A separate entity
has been created to allow a limitation of liability, individuals have been in
the process of receiving their certification, and budgets are being prepared to
determine the projected cost. We are pleased to announce that the name of
this new entity/ministry is Tri-County Biblical Counseling, LLC. We
anticipate being able to provide increased counseling opportunities later this
fall. The need for this ministry is great, and we are thankful to have
resources to meet this need.
Manna Ministry We have prayed and discussed the pros
and cons of this ministry and have determined that there are several ideas to
consider. Like other ministries, this will require a significant amount of organization
and involvement, so that it can function in a
God-honoring manner. It will also require a significant amount of storage
space which we do not currently have. We believe, though, that there is opportunity
for this in the future. Perhaps this may tie
into the Kitchen relocation? More consideration will be given to this early
next year, after we have the Counseling Ministry in place.
Mentoring Ministry Praise the Lord for His encouragement and
confirmation! The surveys indicated that mentoring was an important step in
improving our ability to minister. As elders, we’ve been working in this
direction for quite some time. Our goal is to provide a firmer foundation for
those serving, something that would create consistency and facilitate a better
understanding of the many opportunities here at TCBC.
After
assembling a “ministry handbook” we met with all of our ministry chairmen last
month to create a dialogue in this process and
allow the chair to provide input to make the handbook a working set of
documents. Over the next two months, we will meet one-on-one with ministry
chairs to further refine the ministry descriptions and finalize the handbook.
During this time, we’ll work together to sharpen one another so that areas of
responsibility are clearly defined. Going forward, the ministry chair will
utilize the handbook to facilitate their individual ministry process. This will
be a foundation for future leaders to use. In our “Intro to TCBC” class we’ll use
this to encourage newer individuals, and to provide an overview of ministry
opportunities. We are excited to know that the Lord has confirmed His direction
to us through you in such a specific manner and we believe this process will
bear fruit for many years to come here at TCBC.
Relocation of Kitchen With
the deacons’ help, we are in the process of forming a committee to investigate
the costs of relocating the kitchen. Our thought is to include a key
representative from the Buildings Grounds, our kitchen staff, the ABF breakfast
staff, and perhaps Beau Graf who has experience on developing a kitchen and has
volunteered to help. Blue prints have already been created for this
in the past and can be used as a reference point and changed to fit our current
needs. We will keep you up to date on this possibility when the committee
prepares its findings for us to review.
Church Plant In conjunction with
bringing Jamie & Jacob Sechrest to TCBC as missionary interns, the elders
had proposed that mentoring in the area of church planting be a
prerequisite. Once again we have clearly
seen that the Lord is providing direction, as you have seen this to be a
priority as well. Praise the Lord! In this regard, we’ll be putting out
feelers to see what God has in mind in regard to a potential church plant in Newton
County.
Faith Seminary Training As
reported previously, we have a unique opportunity to work with Faith Church to
provide free seminary training to individuals who we sponsor by providing a
3-year internship. The thought is to lighten the student’s load both
financially, in regard to tuition, and spiritually and physically by ensuring
their home church has supported them through an internship. Since initially
reported we’ve had a few individuals express interest and have worked to see if
the Lord might provide direction as to timing. This program has a (3) year
cycle and this fall is open to new students. Brian Hannon hopes to attend in
the future, perhaps 2016. If you are interested, let us know. Clayton Evans is
ready to attend this fall. We have applied to Faith as the sponsor for Clayton.
He has applied for the program. If approved, he will begin classes in August.
This will necessitate a reduction of his current hours here at the church as
Pastoral Assistant and the hiring of a part time secretary to handle the office
related items. Dividing these hours allows us to stay in line with our current
budget and it’s our hope that all will proceed accordingly. Please pray for
this process, for Clayton & Cayla as they undertake this journey and for a
secretary. Our hope is for TCBC to be an “incubator” of sorts, raising up men
& women for the work our Lord calls them to, and we rejoice in this great
opportunity.
BCM Missionary Another
unique opportunity the Lord has brought to us to consider is supporting a
missionary for a specific purpose here in our community. Jim & Peggy Steele
have long been supported by TCBC as missionaries, and the organization they
serve with, BCM International, provides missionaries that teach Bible-based
curriculum to public school students during school hours. This is a “release
time” activity in which parents sign release forms to allow their child to
leave the school during the normal school day to attend these classes offsite.
The elders have asked the mission’s committee to investigate all of the
parameters and report back on this work to see if God would have this for
us. As we understand this so far, our only responsibility is to help
provide support to the missionary.
In Conclusion: We are thankful for your
efforts in communicating to the Development Committee the things that you
believe God is presenting as opportunities for us here at TCBC. God has placed
each one of us here “for such a time as this,” to serve Him in reaching the
lost and encouraging His church. There is no mountain too high that He can’t
accomplish His will through us if we are yielded to serve. These are only the short-term goals that you
believe God may have identified for us; many other long term goals have also
been articulated. We join with you in
eagerness to see how the Lord wishes to use us for His glory.
In His Service,
Your TCBC Elders
Andy, Glen, Jeff, Jim, Mark, Mike
