East & West Sioux Classis Leader Report
Synod of the Heartland Spring Meeting - April 2018
Chris Godfredsen
The vision of West Sioux Classis is Setting People Free to Serve Jesus by coming alongside congregations to encourage cultivation in Christ, to equip emerging leaders of today and tomorrow and to engage in Christ’s Kingdom mission.
That vision sounds pretty similar to the overarching vision of the RCA. It is encompasses the focus of my work.
I have been commissioned to help the church be healthy (strengthen churches) and to multiply (start churches). To that end, these are things I have been engaging in:
~ Two Discipleship Learning Communities
~ Ridder Church Renewal
• Helping to create Ridder: Churches Learning Change & recruit participants
• R:CLC Taste & See event is April 14, launching again in September 2018
~ Inviting people into an 8-Week journey called “Multiethnic Conversations”
• 10-20 leaders (lay and pastoral) from NW Iowa working thru Mark DeYmaz guide, wrestling with what we are present to concerning multiethnic friends/ministry possibilities
• Some face to face, some by way of Zoom
~ Search processes
• Middleburg installed Mark Schwarz on March 25
• Primghar will install Cory Grimm on April 15
• First, RV will issue a call to Verlyn Boone April 8
• Peace, Sioux City continues its search
• Bethel, Ellsworth is assembling search team
• Ireton and Doon will be open early summer
~ Multiplication
• Celebrating 304 people in two Easter Sunday services in Hawarden
• Cast vision to Storm Lake, IA several years ago…
• Brokering relationship between FRC Orange City & Ricky Sanchez,
with possibility of other partners in a planting effort there
• Multiethnic ministry possibilities
• Having friend I met in Mexico, Joca Gallegos, come to Iowa for a week in mid-May to see if she would want to serve here, and to see if any of our churches are ready to move in an intentionally multiethnic direction
• Meeting with another East Sioux church to discuss multiplication this
month.
~ Missional Engagement
•One Good, our version of the Compton Initiative, is identifying projects.
What we learned was do something and start small. So we will…