Hello BCC Family!

Last night we had an excellent Elders meeting! At that meeting, one of the things that we discussed were goals for 2012 for BCC. I shared with the Elders what I believed God was calling me to focus on during this new year. I'd like to share that with you so that you might pray with me and our church. 

First of all, what a great 2011 we had! Wow! It was exciting and fun and faith stretching! We had a very exciting time for us as a church as we moved forward on the remodel project. While that project consumed a lot of time and energy, it did not take us away from our main goal which is to "Make Disciples" (Mt. 28:19), according to Jesus' command. By God's grace, we had the privilege as a church to lead at least 25 people to Christ during the year. To the best of our knowledge, that represents 5 adults, 5 teens and 15 children. All of these were through direct relationship with someone here at BCC, so that natural follow-up is built it through our church discipleship process. We had a great Baptism Sunday in August when 20 people were baptized in the faith. And we had a great year of ministry through all of the ministries happening in the church. So praise God for all of that. But we are not content! We must keep praying, reaching, discipling in the name of Jesus!

So, for 2012, here are the four goals which I shared with the Elders, for which we are seeking God:

1. Hire an Adult Discipleship Pastor 

We will look for someone who can do for adults what Pastors Val, Mary, and Max are doing for Youth, Children, and Senior Adults. That is, we are looking for someone who can oversee our small groups and adult classes and men's and women's discipleship ministries. The membership at the Annual Meeting approved the plans to go ahead on this, as the 2012 budget includes the costs for such a position.

2. Improve our Welcome System

BCC is a friendly church. So we want to build upon the friendliness and warmth by making sure that our guests easily find out how warm and caring this church can be. We want to roll out the red carpet for them and make them feel loved by Christ and His family when they walk in the door. We will provide training for our welcome teams (Greeters, Welcome Table Hosts, Ushers), and clear signage so guests can find their way around the church. We will also be supplying you with simple tools, like "invite cards" which you can use to easily invite your friends to join us.

3. Expand and Improve Our Bridge-Building Outreach Ministries

How thankful I am for Pastor Doug Whittlef! It was God's gift to us to lead us to Pastor Doug this past year as we sought a new Care Pastor. Pastor Doug embodies the love and warmth of Jesus. And he shares this love not only with the BCC family as he provides comfort for the sick and grieving, but Doug also shares this love with the community. He has a heart for evangelism and care. Our newly formed Care & Prayer Commission, which is headed up by Pastor Doug, will be used to provide care through Bridge-Building outreach ministries. These would be things like GriefShare, DivorceCare, Trusted Friends, Love, Inc, etc. So please pray for Pastor Doug and the entire Care & Prayer Team as we seek to share the love of Jesus with the community at large.

4. Improve our Small Group Support System

Right now, thanks to the commitment and efforts of staff and volunteers, we have a very robust system of small groups. Did you know that we have 25 identified small groups in this church? That is a lot of groups. And that is a lot of work for the volunteer team that is tasked with helping to provide oversight and care for our groups. Dr. Oliver Blosser, and Pastor Mary, and Carmen Wyatt are all helping with our small groups. But additional help is needed as we grow. More small groups need to be started, and more leaders need to be trained. One of the responsibilities of the new Adult Discipleship Pastor will be to not only help with our adult Sunday School classes, but also help with our Small Groups. So please pray for God's blessing.

So, as I said, I'm sharing this so that we can all pray together and seek God's blessing and guidance as we move forward into ministry in 2012.  

Thank you for your prayer support for me, the staff, and our ministry together!

Pastor Bill