Welcome home! September’s upon us and there are some important items I would like to share.
- Welcome to our new Worship Pastor – September 1st is a Sunday and that’s the start date for Pastor Avri Paul’s new ministry assignment. Avri grew up at Broadway Church in Vancouver and her husband is a schoolteacher. Welcome Nathan & Avri to CLA! She’s been involved in music and worship since she was a child. At Broadway she helped in Youth, Young Adults, recruitment and training in the worship department as well as Sunday celebration services. She graduated from Summit Pacific College with a degree in Pastoral Theology. She comes to us with strong skills in music, communications and administration. She has a love for God’s people and we’re thrilled she is here to help develop our teams and organize Sunday worship.
- Two Services in Langley & a new sermon series – a reminder (most of you will get this via email on Friday) that we return to two services on Labour Day long weekend. People often tell me they love it when we get one service at Advent or summer. However, the reality is, we only have 1440 seats in Langley and that is not enough for most seasons, especially the fall. Over three thousand people call CLA home and 75% of them are in the Langley Campus. This weekend we launch a 13-week sermon series on LIFE. We call ourselves Christian LIFE Assembly. What’s in a name? A lot. Just think about ours! Over the next three months, especially as we launch a new campus, we remind ourselves of the life we have both as Christians and as a community of believers.
- Sunbeam is expanding – an important arm of our church is our preschool and daycare. They won three prestigious awards this summer: Best Daycare, Best Preschool and Best Childcare Center. The demand is always high as family needs are great. Therefore, we are expanding the daycare into two more rooms upstairs in the kid’s classroom area. There will be a couple new teachers and a couple dozen new families joining us, most who are on a waiting list. Kristen Pue has given outstanding leadership in this ministry.
- The Gathering for Young Adults – this weekend there is a table in the foyer to welcome our new and returning young adults. If you are a new university or college student drop by and say hi. They launch their ministry this Thursday evening in the Conference Hall. They also have a retreat coming. If you’re interested in helping sponsor YA’s to go to this special weekend, they would love to hear from you! You can give today.
- Back to School, Back to Rev – Pastor Breanne, Pastor Brendan and Sam welcome our middle school and high school students back to Tuesday nights this week. As you saw last week in the recap video, camp was amazing with many water baptisms to celebrate.
- Abbotsford Campus (CLA is four campuses plus Recovery Church) – This week we release our Beyond Our Walls video for September rejoicing in a new opportunity. Together we are planting a new CLA Campus in Abbotsford. Together we pray, give sacrificially and send some of our best into this new CLA expression. Can you help us? One of the best ways to grow the Kingdom of God is to plant churches or campuses. Next week we have our commissioning service.
- Practicing the Way (Be with Jesus, Become Like Him, Do as He Did) – each autumn I like to encourage your spiritual growth with a few ideas. Building your Christian library is one. Consider picking up John Mark Comer’s new book, Practicing the Way, either as an audio book or paperback. We will also have a couple copies available soon in our Langley library.
