NOTE FROM PASTOR MARK As lead pastor, Pastor Mark leads the church within the boundaries set by the BOG. Happy New Year! As we close out a decade, I am reminded of the faithful love of God from one generation to the next. God is at work and he has been faithful to you and Derwood Alliance Church (Neighborhood Church) again and again. It is important to take a moment and celebrate what God did through you as a part of Derwood Alliance Church. Here are some highlights.
NAME CHANGE The name has officially been changed to Neighborhood Church. We are slowly moving forward both legally and practically with these changes. We are still working to have a sign company provide us with drawing for the changes. The hope is this will be completed in the next week. PRAYER We took a break from meeting over the holiday season, but stay tuned for upcoming prayer events! Every Sunday, the prayer room next to the sanctuary is open during both services for anyone who would like to pray specifically over the services as they happen. Praises and prayer requests are sent out weekly from the Connect cards collected at each service, and if you would like a request to be sent out during the week, you can submit a prayer or praise on the church website from the prayer page under the connect tab. WORSHIP We want to worship in all we do as we are designed to worship God as a way of life. The worship and A/V team do a great job with providing an environment for people to fully engage with God and one another. Beginning in 2020, we will have one acoustic Sunday a month to provide a different worship experience. The worship team is more and more reflecting our heart to be a multi-ethnic and multi-generational church! If you would like to be a part of helping others to fully engage in worship of Jesus, contact Hector Ayerdiz or Matthew Sutton. Hector Ayerdiz, Worship Director – [email protected] Matthew Sutton, A/V Team Leader – [email protected] EXPLORERS CHILDREN'S MINISTRY On December 3, Debbie & Isaac Raplee welcomed a new baby boy! Congratulations! On December 7, the Explorers Family Caroling Party spread some cheer (#showjesus) in the Park Overlook Neighborhood, and then gathered for crafts, hot chocolate, snacks and story time back at the church building. On December 8, ladies joined together for a baby shower for Linnea & Tim Allen. And on December 29, all generations participated in "Together Sunday" for our worship gatherings. To all of our faithful children's ministry volunteers, THANK YOU for your investment in 2019! Stay tuned for a name change for Explorers Children's Ministry... VISION YOUTH MINISTRY (6th - 12th Grade) A place to meet Jesus, continue to know Jesus & be encouraged to share Jesus. For the month of November and into December, Vision Youth has been studying the book of Mark through RightNow Media’s, “The Gospel of Mark” with teaching from Francis Chan. Also, we’re excited to announce that starting January 12, Vision Youth (soon to be Neighborhood Youth) will begin to meet on Sundays from 7pm-9pm in the worship center. The group has been growing and we’re needing to utilize a bigger space! Keep encouraging your teenagers to come and invite their friends. Tim Allen – [email protected] CONNECTIONS We desire authentic community and want to create space for transparency and real relationships. Whether you’re a regular attender or new to the church, we want you to feel connected! We do this through greeters, ushers, coffee, and follow up team. knowing you are welcomed is the first step towards cultivating authentic community. If you enjoy inviting friends to your own home and meeting new people, consider joining this great team by contacting Wendy Geraci. Wendy Geraci – [email protected] NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS The last of our fall small groups finished up in December, and after a short break, registration for winter/ spring Neighborhood Groups opened! See the website for all the details on co-ed groups, a men's group, and women's groups. If you're not participating in a Neighborhood Group, you missing the full experience of being part of this local church! Make friends, experience transformation, and live on mission together in a Neighborhood Group. MISSIONS - LOCAL On December 1, Luz Ragland headed up a team to serve a special hot holiday meal at the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless (MCCH) men's emergency shelter. Multiple households from Derwood Alliance Church (DAC) participated in Holiday Gift giving for MCCH, and DAC opened our doors for a holiday party for one of MCCH's client programs. As a church, we celebrated exceeding our goal of showing Jesus with our actions by serving those who don't yet know him for 2000 hours in 2019. We recorded over 2060 hours! And we celebrated partially meeting our goal of sharing Jesus with our words with those who don't yet know him 300 times in 2019. We recorded over 180 instances of sharing Jesus! Ultimately, we long to see more people say their first "yes" and their next "yes" to Jesus! MISSION - GLOBAL Our Paris Missions Trip Team pulled off a successful holiday cookie fundraiser. Thank you so much to those who have participated in the trip fundraisers or simply given toward the trip. Also in December, the team got to work on their last fundraiser, a Soup & Chili Cookoff scheduled for January 11. Thank you as well to all who participated in the Year End Offering for the Christian & Missionary Alliance. Together, we are part of showing and sharing Jesus in some of the least reached parts of the world. BUILDINGS & GROUNDS God has given us a great location and property. We strive to be good stewards of these gifts. Thank you to all who invest their time maintaining and improving the property. If you have interest in handy work and would like to be a part of this vital team, contact Mark Neely. Mark Neely - [email protected] LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT God has created you in a unique way and given you skills and abilities to express this to others through the community and church. We would love to see you using your time talent and treasure in an area of ministry you are passionate about. We desire to be a multiplying church, and to do this we must have a multiplying mindset of training and releasing more people into ministry. If you are not currently serving, we would love to help you discover your giftedness and where God would like to place you. Check out this page on our website. STAFF The staff manages ministry teams and meets weekly. The staff continues to meet on a regular basis for prayer and planning. Linnea will be on maternity leave beginning December 25th. We are excited for the Allen’s welcoming a new baby very soon and appreciate all Linnea has done and continues to do for DAC. For this leave and beyond, we have hired a part-time Virtual Assistant, Eileen Knowles, through Belay Solutions and recruited volunteers to help in the office. Eileen is doing a great job learning many new systems and tasks. Please show us grace during these periods of change. Change can be exciting and unnerving but we trust God is leading. Please pray alongside us that God will work in supernatural ways through DAC. ELDERS The Elders shepherd and give spiritual oversight to DAC and meet on a monthly basis. There is a great group of Elders who are serving and praying for you faithfully. If you ever would like prayer for any reason, we would love to pray for you. Our next meeting Is January 13th. Mark Trinkl – [email protected] BOARD OF GOVERNANCE (BOG) The Board of Governance (BOG) sets boundaries for the Pastor and meets minimum quarterly. The Board met on January 6th to prepare for the annual meeting. Most of the time was invested in updating the bylaws to sync with the most up to date Uniform Constitution for Local Churches of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The Board is faithfully praying and pursing God’s best for the church. Our next meeting is March 9th Chairman Mark Trinkl – [email protected] Vice-Chairman Evan Homan – [email protected] Soup and Chili Cook Off – January 11 5-7pm
Neighborhood Youth Kickoff -January 12 Small Groups Begin – January 19 MCCH Bagged Breakfast – January 19 Baptism -January 26 Annual Meeting - January 26 11:45AM-1PM |
Archives
August 2024
Categories |