A Message from the Elders
Dear Canby Alliance Church Family,
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Jeremiah 29:11 NIV. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
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This has truly been a time of deep growth for us as a church. Here are some of our observations about where we’ve had to grow in 2023 (and where we continue to grow):
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Time to celebrate. It was a time that we needed to celebrate how God allowed us to have 37 yrs of ministry under Pastor Tim. We needed time to celebrate what PT meant to us as a community. We believe this was accomplished well with our PT farewell service.
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Time to grieve. At the same time, it was a time to grieve the loss of our dear Pastor Tim. We needed time to grieve the loss of our spiritual leader.
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Time to heal. We’ve had to part ways with many family members. COVID had a profound effect on churches throughout our country and Canby Alliance was not spared in this area. Some were able to say why they left but many just left without saying why? That sure left us confused, hurt, angry, disillusioned. It is amazing how pain and joy can co-exist in our lives to produce growth!
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We’ve started to grow again. At the same time we were experiencing decline in our church size, we started seeing a large number of new members who were actually going through the process of becoming active members! Praise God that this growth has continued. We have begun once again to appreciate what being a family is like! God is bringing new people to our family!
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Time to rediscover who we are. We started the lengthy process of PEAK (see below). PEAK has been a time for us to rediscover who Canby Alliance Church is. Who are we? What are our unique strengths? Over the history of our church, what were our unique characteristics that we can perhaps tap into in the future?
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Time to ask the questions about our community: PEAK challenged us to determine what the greatest needs of our community are and how we could possibly have an impact on those needs.
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Time to ask how we can have the greatest impact on our community: God established his church to impact the world. We’ve grappled with the question of how we can have the greatest impact on our community given our unique qualities and who our community is.
Throughout 2023, there are three things we have encouraged of all of us individually:
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Spend time sitting at the feet of Jesus, falling in love with Him and learning to sit and listen.
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Pursue a life with a deeper Holy Spirit experience.
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Becoming more intentionally evangelistic.
Why have we continued to talk about this over and over again? It is vitally important that we stay close to the Lord because it is in our deeper intimacy with Christ that we are able to hear from God, have eyes to see where he is at work in our church and community, and learn how to join in that work. This is why it is important for us to talk about what God is doing in our lives.
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The main focus of the last 6 months of 2023 was our PEAK process that has helped us to develop a profile for Pastor Next. The NW C&MA District Office requires any church going through a senior pastor search to go through the PEAK process. The PEAK process has been beneficial in helping us answer some very key questions about CAC and our community. Rather than rehashing all of the PEAK meetings, I will refer you to the numerous Elder Newsletter that gives you all the information from our monthly PEAK Sessions and encourage you to talk to any of the PEAK Team Members.
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If you have not been a recipient of these Newsletters, please call the office and give them your email to get on that email list. You can also access the Elder Newsletter on our CAC website.
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We are nearing the end of our PEAK process and will soon have the Pastor Next profile which we can post for our Pastor Next search. We have formed the Pastor Search Committee, and our first meeting will be on 2/1/2024. Please continue to pray for the Pastor Search Team as they grapple with some important questions about Pastor Next and as they begin the process of finding Pastor Next.
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The last, and probably the most important thing to mention, is our sincerest thanks for the prayer support we have clearly felt and experienced in 2023. We appreciate all the kind words of appreciation and gratitude and your notes and emails that let us know that you are praying. We even appreciate and welcome the challenging questions and requests for clarification. These are important to us so that we don’t miss important things to consider.
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We have truly felt that we are a part of a family–supported, loved, challenged, being honest, being trusted, experiencing joy and pain together and belonging. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Your Elders,
Marlin Myers, Jeff Reister, Jim Trigg, Mel Yamase
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