Living out our mission

By Theo Olson, Council President

This year the council asked you to take a leap of faith with us as we moved forward on utilizing the property to live out our mission of Proclaim, Welcome, Serve!  The council has really wrestled with how do we balance living out our mission with the practicalities of the budget. I'm extremely grateful for their thoughtful discernment and am happy to provide an update on some of the wonderful progress:

Parsonage
One of our big questions has been what to do with the parsonage. As a congregation we are blessed to have this space available for ministry. While many ideas have been floated, including many wonderful suggestions from you, we find we still need time to explore longer term solutions that align with our ministry.

Last Council meeting we were presented a short-term option via an inquiry from our sister congregation, Advent Lutheran (Morgan Hill), who are in need of housing for an intern. The Council agreed to explore this opportunity to serve others, in this case the ELCA, by supporting the development of our new church leaders. 

We are thrilled to announce that the parsonage will be rented to Advent Lutheran to support the internship of Brandon Peck, who you might remember preached at CGS a few Sundays ago. He and fiancé David, will be moving in the parsonage officially on July 1, 2019, but are planning to move things in the week before. They'll be living in the parsonage until August 31, 2020.

In addition, this is a wonderful opportunity for Advent and CGS to partner in ministry together as we welcome Brandon and David. Advent is developing a list of furniture and household items the guys need and we'll join them in doing a drive for these items. We also look forward to hosting a joint work day at the parsonage to spruce the home and yard up. Please stay tuned on how you can join in welcoming and serving Brandon and David in the next few weeks.

Classrooms
The Council is also excited about the progress with the classrooms. As you know, Godly Play has moved into one of the classrooms which provides a much better space for our children to learn and grow in their faith. Thank you to everyone that assisted with preparing the room for this important ministry of our congregation.

Classroom #1 is now the location for most of the recovery meetings. One group will continue to hold their meetings in the Great Hall. This room is also used by Christ Community Multicultural Ministry, the new congregation we're helping Pastor Jared and Nora establish.

We look forward to providing more updates on how the remaining spaces will be used to further our mission of Proclaim, Welcome, and Serve as they are finalized in the weeks ahead. 

With all the new ways we are using the space for ministry and outreach, the Council has agreed to purchase new chairs for the classrooms. Laura, our Office Manager, found a great deal on chairs similar to the maroon stacking chairs we currently use, including free shipping! This nominal cost will ultimately save us in time spent by staff moving chairs around the property each week.

Thank you for your generosity
None of this ministry is possible without your generous support of Christ the Good Shepherd. On behalf of the Council, thank you for your ongoing gifts of time, talent and treasure. God is indeed working through our hands here at CGS.