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A Model for Future Ministry
Senior Moment
Joe and Sue Sutherland moved to the High Vista gated community to retire—but the Sutherlands don’t retire for long.
“I’ve ‘retired’ five times,” says Joe. “We started two churches and revived another one since then.”
One of these churches was in the Carillon retirement community in Plainfield, Illinois; the Sutherlands helped launch that congregation as a multisite location for Community Christian Church in nearby Naperville. Although the couple had no plans to start another church at High Vista, God presented the opportunity almost immediately—just a few days after the Sutherlands moved into the 55-and-over neighborhood in Davenport, Florida, several residents organized an Easter sunrise service in the clubhouse and invited Joe to speak.
“Immediately people wanted to gather for worship more often, and by the following Easter a 22-person ministry task force had formed to start a new church,” he says.
The group initially met monthly, then transitioned to weekly services in October 2006. Today, Community Christian Church at High Vista also offers five small groups and a Thursday night Bible study.
“With the graying of America and the aging of our baby boomers, this could be a good model for future ministry,” Sutherland says. “In this type of community, all the residents own the property together—including the clubhouse. So we worship in a building with no mortgage or maintenance fees.”
Sutherland takes no salary, so after initial start-up costs for a keyboard, computer, and projector, most of the church’s money has been poured back into ministry.
“We started by giving 60 percent of our offerings and now we give away 80 percent,” Sutherland says.
Community Christian averages 132 in worship each Sunday morning—more than 20 percent of High Vista’s total residents. These attendees include several new believers.
“Our youngest baptism has been 60 and the oldest has been 88,” Sutherland says. “I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!”
www.newthing.org/churchplanting/affiliatenetwork/99
School Play
This spring, Atlanta (Georgia) Christian College students enjoyed new recreational spaces thanks to the hard work and donations of two local Christian churches.
First Christian Church (Tyrone, Georgia) provided labor and supplies for a new beach volleyball court on campus, while Heritage Christian Church (Fayetteville, Georgia) built and paid for a covered patio just outside the college’s McKinney’s Coffeehouse.
“One of our great challenges at ACC is providing adequate ‘play space’ for students,” says Wye Huxford, vice president for student development. “The generous gifts by First Christian of Tyrone and Heritage Christian are huge contributions to meeting this challenge.”
Huxford reports the beach volleyball court and patio were both in use by students within an hour of their completion!
www.acc.edu
Learn by Art
Englewood Christian Church (Indianapolis, Indiana) and its Com-munity Development Corporation recently received grant money to host a series of “study circles,” community dialogues for local residents. After participants expressed a desire for more extracurricular activities for kids in the neighborhood, Englewood used the grant—plus some of its own resources—to develop a new summer arts program.
Brent Aldrich, an ECC member and local artist, will teach two 10-week courses for children ranging from second grade to high school.
Elementary age students will enjoy “learning to see” with an introduction to drawing, painting, and other media. In addition to teaching foundational art elements like color and pattern, the course includes opportunities for students to explore their neighborhood and apply these concepts to a familiar environment.
Junior high and high school students will benefit from Aldrich’s background in multimedia and his interest in agriculture as art. In addition to working in the church’s community garden and other local gardens, students will participate in a large outdoor project to beautify the neighborhood.
“Later this year, we’re hosting a conference about the church and agricultural issues,” says Chris Smith, an Englewood member and employee of the church’s nonprofit corporation. “We hope the harvest from these gardens can be a primary food source for the meals served at that event.”
The theme behind both programs connects to the church’s mission of instilling hope and providing options in their urban setting. “The arts help us see differently and imagine new possibilities,” Smith says. “Things don’t have to remain the same, even cycles of poverty.”
www.englewoodcc.com
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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