With just a few weeks left in the official summer break, leaders at The Sanctuary are busy making plans for the fall. We are excited about starting a new ministry year, getting back into small groups and approving a new budget.
Here are a few things to be praying about these last few weeks of summer:
SMALL GROUPS
Small group sign-ups will begin Aug. 29 and continue through Sept. 26. You will be able to sign-up for a small group either at the Welcome Table on Sunday mornings or through the web site.
Our small groups this year will continue to be sermon-based. In other words, we will be diving into the same topics that are covered during the Sunday morning messages at our small groups.
This is a great opportunity for our church body to grow together as we all study the same topic. The midweek study will not be a repeat of Sunday mornings, but it will complement the Sunday sermon.
We will have three opportunities to join a small group during the ministry year, which runs from September to May. However, once a small group session begins (about every three months), new members will need to wait until the next session to join a group.
Why? We believe one of the benefits of a small group is to be accountable to each other, to grow together and to get to a comfort level where we can be vulnerable with one another. This is harder to do if new people are coming in and out of our groups each week.
So how will you select a group? We will have sign-up sheets with short bios of our small group leaders. You might choose a group based on the night it meets, location or a shared interest with the leaders.
We know you will have lots of questions about this new process. We will be available at the Welcome Table beginning Aug. 29 to walk you through it. We also will be providing more information through e-mail, our blog and on Sunday mornings.
MINISTRY
The new ministry year also is a great time to find a way to use your gifts and talents to serve our church body. If you have a specific areas of interest, fill out the contact form at the bottom of this blog post. You also can read about our ministry areas here.
The area where we are in the greatest need right now is our KidsTown ministry. Whether you would like to teach, serve as a helper or rock babies in the nursery, we have a spot for you! Use the contact form below to let us know of your interest.
NEW BUDGET
Finally, we will be voting to approve our new budget at our annual meeting Sept. 19. Please be in prayer as we finalize that budget.
If you would like to understand all of the details of our budget, please make plans to attend our budget meeting Sept. 12 . Our leaders will review the budget in detail and answer questions at that meeting. Members are encouraged to attend, but the meeting is open to anyone who attends The Sanctuary. The budget meeting is at 3:30 p.m. at the church office.
If you have a specific question or would like to find out more about how you can serve at The Sanctuary, please fill out the contact form, which will go directly to our staff. You also can leave a public comment below.
