Church Organization

After 3.5 years of the Sanctuary community being together around the idea of Making Space for God, being an integral part of Greenwood, and growing in number we are now becoming an organized church.

What exactly does that mean you ask? It doesn't have to do with a better communication system (although that is also happening) nor a new administration position (but this is also happening) nor is it about giving up on our organic communal structure. Instead the greater Christian Reformed Denomination is recognizing a new phase for Sanctuary not as a church plant but as an independent church. A church that can now go and support new church plants.

During the church plant phase the denomination supported a significant portion of our operating budget as our community grew from 4-10 people meeting in a small house church back in March of 2004, to our first public worship service in October 2004 at Taproot. Over the last 3 years as the Spirit has been bringing more people to our community the denomination has been slowly setting us loose like a mother letting go of a growing daughter. Now we have reached a critical mass that nearly supports our costs of worshiping and being a community in Greenwood. We also have a group of people who are identifying themselves as members of the Sanctuary Community. Sanctuary's Leadership Team shares a larger vision of training the next generation of leadership, planting more churches and supporting the emerging churches in the Pacific Northwest region. There'll be more about this subject in a future post but for now, much of this work is still being supported by our Denomination.

Now as we embark into this new phase of Sanctuary Church I sense God reminding us to "Be strong and courageous... for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

posted by Steve-Dave @ 6:03 PM