During my first few months here at Laurentian one of my goals was to try and assess the immediate needs of the church. Thankfully this task was made easier for me because of the honesty and willingness of the people of Laurentian to share ideas and concerns with me. The immediate concerns that I saw that needed to be addressed are: (1) Sound system, (2) Communication, (3) Pastoral Connection and (4) Membership. None of these immediate concerns have been completely addressed but they are all in a work in progress stage and I would like to briefly update you on them.

The sound system was the most visible problem that needed to be address. Thankfully we now have a new system which has been installed but we are still working out the kinks and will be purchasing more microphones in the future.

Over the last few months we have worked hard at increasing the lines of communication within the church and outside in the community. There is still a lot of work to be done in this area. One example on how we will be improving our lines of communication is by creating a church web page hopefully sometime in 2008.

The third need I saw within our church I have labeled as Pastoral Connection. With the business of life and the constant stress that life seems to bring it is essential that the people of Laurentian feel connected with their pastor. My desire is that you will feel not only connected with the people of the church but also that you feel that you have a personal connection with me as your pastor. I want you to personally know that not only do I know you but that as your pastor I love you and I truly care.

Fourthly our church has an immediate need for official membership. I mention this concern reluctantly because I do not want anyone to get the wrong impression from me. The people of Laurentian aren’t just those who are official members but they are anyone who considers Laurentian their home church. Many people have been active participates of this church for many years and are not on the official membership list. I don’t want to take away from anyone’s sense of belonging but the fact remains currently we have only ten members on the official membership list which is the minimum number for a church to be considered an established church in the Wesleyan denomination. Currently I am addressing this challenge by preparing membership material. My hope is to start a membership class in February of 2008.

By working together we will be able to address all of these challenges in the New Year. I ask all of you to continue to pray for our church and for these specific concerns. I know with God working together we will do amazing things. “For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)

Pastor Chris