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Have you ever tried Lechon Kawali? 

It is Filipino pork belly and it is delicious. It was just one of the many amazing foods at our CPC Town Hall & Potluck Dinner this past Sunday evening. If you were there you had the opportunity to try three different types of meatballs, roast beef and potatoes, and a myriad of all kinds of other awesome foods and desserts. 
When our church eats together I'm sometimes reminded of the pictures of God's kingdom family that are depicted with feast language like we see in Isaiah 25, Luke 22, and Revelation 19-22. There is a rich diversity to be experienced as we enjoy fellowship with one another in God's presence as we long for others to come to His table too! As much as I enjoy great food, one of the signs of a good meal together is engaging conversation. 

Sunday's Town Hall was also an opportunity for us to present a few church updates and open the floor for feedback and Q&A.

For those of you who weren't able to make it, I am sorry that I can't share any Lechon Kawali with you (it disappeared fast!), but I can relay the CPC updates to you. Allow me to recap what was discussed on Sunday night for you: 

1. General Church Updates.

  • Two signs that we are on track with God's purposes for our church are 1) People are in awe of Jesus, and 2) Friends baptizing friends in front of friends who don't know Jesus yet. We celebrated two recent testimonies of this kind of thing going on in the life of our church. Praise God! 
  • CPC Church growth in recent years (per our annual reporting to our PAOC fellowship of churches): 2019, 177; 2020, 200; 2021, 275; 2022, 375; 2023, 475; 2024, 525+? These figures represent the number of people who would say CPC is their home church and are calculated conservatively based on Sunday attendance, church database review, and Canadian church metrics measures. This tells us God is at work in our church and local community in a life-giving way. 
  • Between 2022 - 2023 giving to the church General Fund ("Tithes & Offerings") rose over 40%, while so far between 2023-2024 has slowed to an increase of around 8%. While there may be some practical and economic reasons for this, this can also tell us that sometimes some newcomers take time before settling into their home church and deciding to give regularly in support of its mission. In other words, our rate of church growth is higher than our rate of giving growth. For the mission and ministry of CPC to continue to grow we will need everyone to engage in serving and giving faithfully. 
  • We briefly discussed the make up of our pastoral staff, now that Pastor Trevor has transitioned and we have Pastors Garrett and Abi with us. It was also noted that although sometimes newcomers assume Laura is the "worship pastor" or "the pastor's wife" she is in fact serving in leadership alongside me and together we are the Lead Pastors of CPC. While we serve to pastor the church together, Laura's role has its own unique responsibilities, oversights, and leadership functions.  



2. What to do when we have an idea or suggestion for a new ministry or event? As our church continues to move forward and experience growth it is only natural that from time to time someone will have an idea or suggestion for a new ministry or event. What should someone do? How is that handled? 

  • Please submit it to pastoral staff for consideration as early as possible. 
  • Please understand that moving an organization our size forward is increasingly complex (and exciting!). Internally, our pastoral leadership and staff are tasked with managing CPC's calendar, communications, building usage/availability, time & energy resources, and focus. 
  • Please trust that our leadership operates with the big picture in mind. We must carefully nurture vision alignment in our organization and guard against 'mission drift' and multiple visions. Interestingly, one of the challenges is learning how to say no to good things we could do so that we can stay on track to see Jesus do great things through our church. Indeed, there are many things we could do, but we are tasked with ensuring we maximize focus and utilize time and energy resources best for the things we should do. Sometimes churches lose effectiveness when they veer off course just slightly by giving up time, energy, and resources for seemingly suitable things we are capable of doing instead of investing their best in the things they must do. Please pray for the important responsibility our church's leadership has. We need Jesus more than ever, as does our local community! 



3. Building Updates.

  • This year our Central Lobby, new entry, and 5 Tree Field projects have been completed. These were able to be accomplished without any loans or going to the congregation with a financial appeal. We praise God for His provision and for the dedicated work by so many of our volunteers and leaders. 
  • Three things we ponder for the future include completing the East face of our original building (the part of our building that houses the fellowship hall), continuing our work on the rest of the exterior of the building (next up potentially being the East side of the auditorium), and an opportunity we have to consider adding solar paneling at no cost (a generous offer!) but involves the cost of re-roofing a portion of our building. Decisions for these projects depend upon ongoing leadership evaluation and discussion, God's leading, and determining how to accomplish this if either giving increases at a greater rate and/or with use of a line of credit. 
  • We continue to consider a potential two-phase development plan for our building. We must steward our building and property well and ensure its needs and opportunities are addressed well in ways that serve our present and the future. While CPC has been debt-free for many years, we recognize that at some point in the future, we will have to take on new debt (mortgage) in order to take on the bigger projects that will be needed. This is a good way for both present and future generations to invest into the building and property they benefit from. However, if God provides significant and miraculous additional resources we would be happy to put that to work! 
  • We look forward to being able to improve our church kitchen. Right now we await further clarity on a potential second phase (a second larger multi-purpose room) so that we know the exact footprint and need for an updated kitchen that can potentially serve two adjacent multi-purpose rooms. 

During the Q&A time, we received helpful feedback and input on these three areas of discussion. We also fielded good questions and comments concerning accommodating growth (building space & limitations), our value of the Holy Spirit and the upcoming Empower Weekend, the word 'revival', and the move of God that is already afoot in our church and community. 

So much to thank God for! 

...including Lechon Kawali. 

Pastor Mike