Bright Spot, Consistory, News

Congregational Meeting Update

Sunday, Nov. 11 we celebrated God’s continued work to grow the kingdom though the ministries of our congregation!  At our annual congregational meeting we reflected on these goals:

One Church doing life in community.

  • Develop an all church experience to build unity.
  • Enhancing oneness through deeper connections.

Many Places doing life on mission.

  • Train missional community leaders.
  • Add project management to assist in growth.

Following Jesus by doing life on life.

  • Grow disciples who make disciples in small groups.
  • Live life together, practicing forgiveness, repentance and confession.

Transforming the Corridor

  • Grow hospitality through “Starting Point” and “Open Table”
  • Grow generosity so that we exceed budgets in 2018 and 2019

We Affirmed the 2019 budget of $887,057. (A decrease of 4.2% from the 2018 budget.)  MSC 122-3.

We Affirmed the Elder and Deacon nominees. MSC 122-1.

  • Elders: Robin Joens, Gary Mills, Bruce Crowther
  • Deacons: Josh Oberembt, John Davidson, Mel Dahm

We voted to elect Jeremy Van Genderen as an elder. MSC122-1.

Thanks for your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for God’s Spirit to lead us!

Family and Children Ministry, Holiday, News, Worship

Thanksgiving Eve Service

Join us for Thanksgiving Eve worship, Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 6:30pm.  This service is lighthearted and family friendly! It takes place in the Gathering Space – lots of room for the little ones to move and make noise. 🙂

We’ll be creating a thankfulness craft, worshipping, celebrating the Lord’s Supper and sharing a fruit salad. Bring a piece of fruit (precut, please) or berries to share in the salad.

The nursery will be available for families to use but not staffed. An audio feed of the service will be playing in the nursery.

This is one of our favorite services of the year.  In this season of thanks, come and give thanks to the One who created all things and holds all things together.

Bright Spot, Holiday, News, Transform the Corridor

Salvation Army Bell Ringers

Cedar Hills and Salvation Army are transforming the corridor – help us support our outreach partner by signing up for an hour of bell ringing on Cedar Hills day.

We’ll ring from 10a-8p on Saturday, December 8 at the Johnson Avenue HyVee.

**Update – we filled all our time slots for that day! If you’d like to ring on another day, use this bell-ringer signup on the Salvation Army website.

To view your scheduled time slot, our Dec. 8 schedule is available here.

Holiday, News, Transform the Corridor

Holiday Volunteer Guide

United Way Holiday Volunteer Guide

Are you looking for a  family or small group outing this Holiday season?  Why not try volunteering?  It’s a great way to help Transform The Corridor!  Click here to go to the United Way Holiday Volunteer Guide to find a volunteer opportunity.
The website has a ton of great ways to get involved. Some examples of ways you can volunteer this holiday season:

Family Volunteer Day

Adopt a Family

Cedar Chips, Consistory, Saturate, Transform the Corridor

Core Discipleship Priority: Disciples Making Disciplies

Annual Report – Special Edition

Core Discipleship Priority: Disciples Making Disciples

A disciple is someone who follows Jesus. “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fisherman. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him” (Matthew 4:18-20).

  • “Come, follow me” Disciples follow Jesus.¨
  • “and I will make you” Disciples are changed by Jesus.
  • “fishers of men.” Disciples take up the mission of Jesus.

Discipleship is based on our identity in Jesus.

  • In Jesus we are Family
  • In Jesus we are Servants
  • In Jesus we are Missionaries

As disciples we live out our identity in the everyday stuff of life, learning to follow Jesus 168 hours a week! Disciples who make disciples submit increasingly all of life to the lordship and empowering presence of Jesus.

  • Life on Life: We connect with others one-on-one.
  • Life in Community: We need the input, encouragement, and gifting of a whole group of people to grow in Jesus.
  • Life on Mission: We reach out with the love of Jesus in Word and deed to friends and neighbors.

Disciples practice six rhythms common to all people – these six activities make up much of the everyday stuff of life.

  • Story-Formed: Our stories intersect with God’s Story. Story-formed people grow in understanding our neighbor’s stories and we share God’s Story.
  • Listen: We set aside regular times to listen to God by dwelling in the word and prayer. We take time to slow down and listen to others. We ask questions!
  • Celebrate: We gather together to celebrate God’s goodness and God’s extravagant blessings. We invite others into this celebration regularly and engage the celebrations of those around us.
  • Bless Others: We intentionally bless others through words, gifts, or actions because God desires for all people to be blessed through Jesus.
  • Eat Together: We regularly eat meals with others to invite them into the community. We see our dining table as the best tool for reaching out. We invite friends, neighbors, and the poor over for dinner.
  • ReCreate: We take time to rest, play, create, and restore beauty in ways that reflect God to others. Part of our recreation includes Sabbath rest and worship.

Cedar Chips, Consistory, News

Proposed 2019 Budget

Annual Report – Special Edition

(We will be voting on the budget at the Annual Celebration Sunday, Nov. 4 at 12:05pm, immediately following the 2nd worship service.  Come for a cinnamon and enjoy a time of community with the whole church.  The meeting should last around 25 minutes.)

Thank You for your gifts!

Our ministry is funded by the generous donations of the congregation. Every gift matters and we appreciate it.

Additional giving will be used to fund additional missions.

We give thanks to  those who are able to make extra year-end gifts. These funds allow us to begin the new year on solid financial ground.

Bright Spot, Cedar Chips, Days for Girls, Missions Team, News

Mission Team – 2018 Report

Our mission is to fulfill the Acts 1:8 calling that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us so that we will be witnesses here and around the world! This verse gives us our purpose. Our strategy is to love Cedar Rapids and the world. We carry out our strategy by praying and asking God to grow a love for people in Cedar Rapids and around the world. We do this by inspiring awareness of God’s work locally and globally, sending people out in response to God’s call to reach out, and supporting missions here and around the world.

Because of your support in 2018, Katie Smith reached out to students at the University of Iowa and Linda DeBoer reached Chinese students studying in Michigan. We partnered with Matthew 25 to support refugee farmers and we repaired homes during Transform Week. We continued our partnership with Safe Families and started a partnership with Family Promise. We fed hundreds of men, women and children through the Open Hands Food Pantry. We reached around the globe into Niger (Jeremy and Susan Beabout), Papua New Guinea (Gary and Denise Abbas), The Czech Republic (Beth Larson), and Turkey (John and Becky Leverington).  We served women and girls in Africa through Days for Girls.

Your generous support made a difference here and around the world.

These are some of the ways we are the hands and feet of Jesus fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28 to go and make disciples of all nations!

Pastor Kent & Missions Team

 

Cedar Chips, News

Missional Communities on the Horizon

Annual Report – Special Edition

Our focus for adult discipleship is evolving into an emphasis on Missional Community. A Missional Community is a family of Missionary Servants who make disciples who make disciples in the everyday stuff of life. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Missional communities are groups of believers who live and experience life together like a family. They see God as their Father because of their faith in Jesus. This means they love one another as brothers and sisters.

Our identity in Jesus also makes us missionaries sent by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news of the kingdom.

A missional community is more than a bible study or a small group that cares for other believers. A missional community is made up of Spirit-led people who do life together for the mission of making disciples of a particular people and place.

We also live together as servants.  A missional community serves those around them as though there are serving Jesus. Jesus commanded us to make disciples who believe the gospel, are established in a new identity and are able to obey all of his commands.

The missional community is the best context in which this can happen through life on life, in community, on mission.

Pastor Kent & Pastor Alan

 

Cedar Chips, News

The Family of God

Annual Report – Special Edition

The dominant metaphor for salvation in the New Testament is “the family of God.” St. Paul writes, “You are no longer strangers . . . but members of God’s family.  Together, we are his house, built on the . . . cornerstone of Christ Jesus himself” (Ephesians 2:19-20).

This family is not defined by human blood lines, but by the blood of Jesus. It’s a diverse family made up of young and old, rich and poor, male and female, black and white. Christ’s sacrificial love for us on the cross shapes our relationships and transcends our differences. Because we experienced God’s mercy, we are able to live patiently and mercifully with each other.

This sort of community is not an ideal we have to attain by our own efforts. It is a gift from God in which we are called to participate. In spite of our messed up lives, we hold on to each other in love because Jesus showed us that God never gives up on any of His adopted sons and daughters.

As Pastor of Care, I get to witness many examples of this togetherness and mutual care. As we experience the tragedies of illness and death, I see you comforting one another. When disagreements arise, I see you finding a way to live at peace.  When troubles overtake us, I see you bearing each other’s burdens. When we hurt each other, or feel broken down by the cares of life, I see you forgiving and encouraging each other.

This kind of community is costly.  It requires dying to self and making room for God’s unconditional love to reign in our hearts. But denying ourselves is also part of the gift that only Jesus can give us! And through these sacrificial “one another’s,” shaped by Jesus’ love on Calvary, we experience the healing presence of Jesus in each other, the gift of salvation.

Alan Crandall
Pastor of Care

 

Bright Spot, Cedar Chips, Family Adventure, Family and Children Ministry, Marriage and Family, News, Transform the Corridor

Children & Family Ministry – 2018 in Review

Annual Report – Special Edition

The past nine months of ministry that I have experienced here at Cedar Hills as the Children and Family Director has been nothing short of a remarkable experience. An experience that I am incredibly grateful for! My family and I, have been received with incredible warmth and immense support. In every portion of the ministry, there are volunteers, who are gifted and passionate about serving the littlest kiddos of the church!  It was such a blessing to be able to step into such a strong ministry and to be able to take the time to learn the culture around the church. On top of that, the kids of this church are so eager and excited to be able to learn and fellowship together.

The months of Fall have seen a few changes in the ministry, most specifically around the formal programming of this ministry. We’ve began a twice-a-month programming, affectionately call Family Adventure. The meetings are broken into two specific parts. The first part is an activity for the entire family (Either the 2nd Wed or Sat of each month), designed to allow families to share a fun and memorable experience together. The second part is an up-tempo experience (The last Sunday of the month) that focuses on unpacking the monthly theme and how it ties into enhancing family discipleship. Each theme this year has been centralized around the life and ministry of Jesus, studying Scriptures of how he lived out that particular characteristic. So far, we have covered, how Jesus was…missional and brave. For the month of November, we will be covering thankful and in December the theme will be loving. Our ultimate hope for this particular programming, is to afford families more time and encourage intentionality towards modeling a gospel-centered life.

We can’t wait to see what God has in store for the ministry!

Kyle French
Director of Family and Children’s Ministry

 

Love. Belong. Serve.