Flexibility, innovation, faith and courage are a few of the words that we would use as we look back on an incredibly momentous year. We, as your church pastors, would like to express our sincere thankfulness to you all with the decisions and choices that we have had to make while shepherding the congregation that the Lord has entrusted to us. Thinking through this past year, we are amazed at how much God accomplished through us as we found ourselves in waters that we had never sailed.

 

“And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”

Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy!”

Psalm 126:2-3

 

2020 Highlights

 

March

• March of 2020 COVID-19 became very real and church became very different. One Sunday we were meeting and the next Sunday, not. We prayed and asked members of the church to step in and step up and WOW did they respond. A team seemed to develop overnight in which we were streaming live and reaching more people than we ever had before.

 

June

• In June of 2020, we completed an eighteen-month cooperative effort with Brown Church Development Group in which they helped us in discovering Candlewood’s strengths and weaknesses. Through that partnership we reworded our Purpose/Mission Statement along with our Core Values, and we are excited about the future opportunities that this partnership has afforded us.

 

July

• July came and so did Berk and Barbara Wilson from Raleigh, North Carolina, they provided us with direction for our evangelism outreach as a church. Because of that time many in Candlewood are learning, praying and practicing those tools that were taught to us over the course of the two days.

 

August

• August arrived and so did Church on the Green along with the purchase of the three lots that adjoin our property. On that Sunday (August 9th) we had 250 people show up for lunch, we witnessed nine people get baptized, and we did a prayer walk on the property that God has afforded us. To God be the glory!

 

September

• As an outreach and ministry partnership, we were thrilled that our church once again participated in Compassion International. Candlewood sponsored twenty-one children that we pray will all become men and women of God. We also have wanted to be a blessing to the Wilson Focus School (our neighbors) and beginning in September, once a month, we bless all the teachers and staff with a welcomed meal that you provide, thank-you.

 

October – November

• Generous hearts, willing servants, incredible leadership and, once again, we saw God do more than we could ever have hoped for with Operation Christmas Child. 663 boxes were supplied from you which translates into 4641 people hearing about the love of God through a simple box that holds the Words of Life. To God Be The Glory!

 

 

Your church pastors believe that even in the midst of COVID-19 that God’s kingdom will continue to expand. We are currently seeking the Lord and asking and believing that “we exist to be Difference Makers in our city.”

 

Join us as we finish 2020 and look forward to 2021, may we continue to exercise flexibility, innovation, faith and courage.

 

We, as your pastor team, consider it one of our highest honors to shepherd the Candlewood family.  May God richly bless you and yours during this wonderful Christmas season.

 

                                                                          Building together,

                                                                                     The Candlewood Church Pastors