Church Family update from Pastor Ned
UPDATE FROM May 2nd, 2024
Dear Christ Community Church family,
I want to say again what I have said many times how honored I feel, and also deeply humbled, to serve this wonderful church body during this time of transition. I truly believe that since our Church Family Gathering a few weeks ago, Christ Community is beginning to make the turn towards healing and, what I would term, a healthy and missional future. Each week I have the opportunity to meet with your staff to encourage them and provide some insights into their calling as servants of Christ. I also have the opportunity to meet with some of you individually to hear your concerns and sometimes the hurts you are or have experienced. And I have appreciated hearing from so many how much you love Christ Community and want only God’s best for it moving forward. While I believe we’re making the turn towards healing, there is still much to be done. I’m very encouraged to see the Holy Spirit working amongst you so far to bring not just healing but a hope for a wonderful future for Christ Community.
During the Church Family Gathering a few weeks back I explained how the Session shared with me that they recognize there is a tremendous affection for Ryan Balbi as the Interim Teaching Pastor and a strong desire among many to see Ryan step into the role of lead pastor for Christ Community. But they also recognized that there are people who have concerns to not simply place Ryan automatically and conveniently into that role without some process to at least assess and vet Ryan’s abilities and capabilities to be the lead pastor. Hence they asked me if I would perform such an assessment of Ryan and make a recommendation to them. I asked for 90 days to complete my task. I wanted to get to know Ryan, observe him in leadership settings, and have serious conversations with him while being fully transparent about what stepping into the lead pastor role involves.
I then crafted a process where Ryan would be assessed by leaders outside of Christ Community to assist me in my recommendation. I reached out to five lead pastors of similar size and larger churches, whom I know personally and have tremendous respect for their leadership insight and experience. Ryan reached out to each of the five leaders and they interviewed him, asking questions they felt were important in assessing his abilities and capabilities to step into the role of lead pastor. I was 100% confident that the five leaders I asked to help would do a thorough job and was not disappointed. Ryan completed those interviews about 10 days ago and I received the feedback from those five leaders. Then last week I conducted a two and half hour interview with Ryan. Additionally, I have had a prayer team lifting me, the five pastor leaders, and Ryan up in prayer through the entire process. I share all of this so you know the extent of the process I engaged in for this task.
This past Tuesday (yes, just 2 days ago) I sent my recommendation to the Session. You may be thinking, “Wonderful, Ned, tell us what you recommended?” I am not going to share that with you at this time. Now you may be thinking, “Why be so secretive?” That is not my intent at all. I was asked to complete an assessment and make a recommendation to the Session which I have done. It is now the Session’s responsibility to make a decision about my recommendation and then share with you what their recommendation is. The next Session meeting is a week from this Tuesday, May 14th, when I will meet with them to help them process, deliberate, and make a decision regarding my recommendation. I anticipate that will happen. I have requested that they communicate their decision on my recommendation to you well in advance of the June 2nd Congregational Meeting so you will have plenty of time to process and pray before that day.
Please note that I am not the one who decides Ryan’s or Christ Community’s fate in this decision, nor is it the Session’s. That decision ultimately lies with you, the congregation.
Last week I shared with you that a Senior Pastor Search Formation Team has been formed to present to you, on June 2nd, a Senior Pastor Search Team for your approval. The Search Formation Team of four will have its first meeting this Saturday to discuss the best way of proceeding on forming the Search Team. A few of you have suggested names for members of the Search Team but please suggest more if you are so led. My email is at the bottom of this blog.
Finally, I want to ask you to pray! I know many of you are and I appreciate it so much. Prayer is not part of this process or transition it must be at the heart of it. Hearing God’s voice is very essential for the decisions that will need to be made. Specifically pray for me; the Session, especially for their May 14th meeting; pray for our church staff; and also for yourselves as Christ’s body here in Carmichael; that His voice would be louder than any other voice in your heart. I’m attaching a link to a video of a song below that speaks to this very thing. Finally, I need more people to serve on the prayer team for this transition. If you can serve, please let me know!
I look forward to seeing all of you this Sunday, May 5th for worship and of course I will be available to answer any questions you have!
In His Service,
Pastor Ned
UPDATE FROM APRIL 25, 2024
Dear Christ Community Church family,
I want to give a brief update following our Session meeting on April 23rd and some decisions the Session made as we move forward as a church focused on Jesus!
First, the Session is distributing the three VitalChurch Ministry health reports for the congregation to review. For those who want the snapshot version, download and read the Christ Community One Page Overview. If you want to read through the report that was given to the congregation, read the Christ Community Executive Summary. If you want to read the full 140-page report, read the Christ Community Ministry Assessment Final Report. I want to reiterate that the issues and recommendations raised in the report are not unique to Christ Community. Most churches in America are struggling with the same issues Christ Community is going through. What I can share is that many of the issues and recommendations in the report are already being addressed and I am greatly encouraged to see a plan developing to address the remaining issues in the report.
Second, the Session is taking the necessary steps to form our Senior Pastor Search Team, which is required by the EPC in order to interview and recommend a Senior Pastor candidate to the congregation. The Session asked me to work with the four-person team who will interview potential Search Team members. The four people I have asked to serve on the Senior Pastor Search Formation Team are Kari DeLyser, Joan Evans, Don Werkhoven, and Bob Balzhiser. The goal is to present the Senior Pastor Search Team candidates to you at our Annual Congregational Meeting on June 2nd and inform all of you how the selection process was completed in order for you to have confidence in both the process and candidates. If you have someone you want to suggest to serve on the Search Team, please email their name to me, and I will enter them into the process. As a reminder, members of Christ Community will be asked to vote for the candidates on June 2, so I will keep you updated on the process in order for you to make an informed decision. Please pray for this team and for the Holy Spirit to identify the men and women He has called to serve Christ Community on the Senior Pastor Search Team.
Finally, I spent time at our Session Meeting last night beginning to walk through the Session's governing documents to encourage and strengthen them in their responsibilities as Elders and Deacons of Christ Community. They are well aware they have been called to a big task, to represent the mind of Christ for this church body. Already in my time with them I can sense their deep desire to lead well and “keep the unity of the Spirit which is the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). They are striving toward this unity among each other and the congregation. PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM! They need and desire your prayers. You’ve heard me saying this many times already and I want to say again, hearing and obeying God’s voice are the keys to Christ Community’s future of being a healthy and missional witness in this community.
I want to end with what I have also said multiple times, that the best years of Christ Community are yet to come—I believe that with all my heart IF we are captured by God’s magnificent love, we grow in that love, and we give that love to each other and the world.
Your humble servant in Christ,
Pastor Ned
UPDATE FROM APRIL 18, 2024
Dear Christ Community Church family,
I want to thank all of you who were able to attend last Sunday’s family gathering. I wish in this note to you I could cover all that I shared at the meeting but given that I had 11 pages of my own notes to cover it would be extremely difficult to cover everything. What I can share with you is that the transition Christ Community has gone through was rough and it actually started with Covid, then the RCA split, joining a new denomination, and having your lead pastor resign and move three months later.
Then in my humble opinion, IMHO, the transition was not set up in the right way which means, IMHO, the pastor search process was not set up in the right way either. Plus your Session was not equipped or trained to deal with all this transition brought to Christ Community. The result was anxiety set in, communication was poor, not the best decisions were made, and people’s feelings were hurt in the process. Truth is this transition was messy, more messy that it ever should have been and (IMHO) there is plenty of blame to go around.
When I first came onto campus after being asked to be the Transitional Pastor, I had this deep feeling that Christ Community was under spiritual attack; that there was a spiritual oppression on this church–which is why I made a passionate plea for Christ Community to pray–pray that we hear God’s voice over our hurts or our frustrations–that we hear His voice for each of us to do everything we (individually) can do the “keep the unity of the Spirit which is the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). To go and be reconciled to whomever God puts on your heart and not delay or wait for someone else to make the first move. Hearing and obeying God’s voice is the key to Christ Community’s future to being a healthy and missional witness in this community.
I then addressed what the Session had asked me to do: an assessment of Ryan Balbi, of whether he is ready to step into the role of being the next lead pastor at Christ Community. I am in that process now and have elicited the help of five of my dearest friends who are or have been lead pastors of large church ministries. These five men have interviewed Ryan over the past 2 weeks and they will give me their thoughts on Ryan. Then, in the first week in May I will give to the Session my recommendation regarding Ryan. I know there are many who are ready to make Ryan the next lead pastor now, but I really believe this process I’m engaged with is important to go through first. Rest assured you will have an opportunity to give your input and decision into this if my recommendation is a “yes” regarding Ryan.
The last part of the meeting I walked through the VitalChurch Ministry summary report that was shared a month ago. The written report will become available to you soon. In the family meeting I gave some of my thoughts on that report. What I can tell you is that the issues and recommendations raised in the report are not unique to Christ Community. Most churches in America are still struggling with the same issues Christ Community is going through. What I can share is that many of the issues and recommendations in the report are already being address. I am meeting with people who were hurt from the transition to see how to help them heal.
I have taken the staff and the Session through training on conflict management and communication–and there will be more training to come for them. I will meet with the Session on April 23rd to begin a more extensive training to strengthen them as a board moving forward. I made a plea for people to join a special prayer team for the church as we move forward through all the issues before us. Satan is not done picking at Christ Community, seeking to divide us even more. If you want to be on that prayer team, please email me. In fact, in closing I want to make myself available to anyone who would like to speak with me personally about, IMHO, this wonderful church family and how to strengthen it to be a healthy missional witness. I shared about 6 weeks ago when I preached that I believe the best years of Christ Community are yet to come IF we are captured by God’s magnificent love, we grow in that love, and we give that love to each other and the world.
Your humble servant in Christ!
Pastor Ned
email: pastorned@mac.com