HEY FAMILY!
Hey Family!
Welcome to another edition of 'The Scoop'
I can hardly believe what God has done amongst us since CoastEC kicked off in 2009, but Jesus has been true to his promise: "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it" (Matt 16:18). Over the last year, we’ve had almost 200 visitors to our various programs. A number of those people have started following Jesus and have plugged into church with us! We’ve also seen believers grow in their faith, godliness and generosity. So praise God for all of that!
As we plan for the future, we’re planning for more growth. Some of the key things we’ll need to invest in are training more leaders, growing our staff team and building our own facility.
At Dream and Scheme we shared some of our plans for the future and received lots of great suggestions. Our staff team have now refined our plans for the year ahead. I hope this keeps you informed, encouraged and prayerful as we press on together to make more & better disciples of Jesus in this beautiful region of ours.
Love you all,
Chris
Long term, we’re trying to build a staff team that will help us grow to 1000 people on a Sunday.
Meg (2024) - In 2024, Meg will be staying on our staff team to finish her ministry apprenticeship and her diploma of theology (studying via intensives). We’ll be focusing her training on leading leaders and teaching God’s Word. Lord willing, Meg will then go to bible college for 2 years full time (2025-26) to get better equipped for full time ministry. We’d love her to come back and serve with us in 2027, but we’ll have to wait and see where the Lord leads her, and what our staffing needs are at that time.
Kids Pastor (2024?) We’ve been advertising for a Kids and Youth Pastor but we haven’t had any suitably qualified applicants. Please pray for the Lord to raise up a godly and gifted leader.
Assistant Pastor (2025?) If we don’t find a Kids Pastor next year, we might advertise a new position (assistant pastor, which would include oversight of Kids) and shuffle some other staff responsibilities (depending on the giftedness of the new staff member).
Check out the pics below from our recent staff conference.
GROWING PAINS
We’re still juggling being renters and dealing with things like school renovations, back-up venues, facility unavailabilities, and size constraints.
Over the last year, our youth group outgrew the Guides hall and transitioned to the School Hall. Our 4pm service also outgrew the Uniting Church as our back-up venue. Our 6pm service is now reaching its capacity at the Guides Hall and will be transitioning to the School over the summer holidays. Praise God for growth! Please ask God to keep the doors open to suitable venues to rent.
Lord willing, one day we’ll be in our own facilities that will enable to us to keep growing and housing our ministries. We’re still chipping away at our own building project and exploring cheaper construction methods (like tilt-up concrete for the auditorium and modular for the other spaces).
One of the suggestions at Dream and Scheme was to invite people to make a pledge towards our building so we can know how much we might have to spend (and how much we will still need to borrow). When we run our capital campaign, we will do this.
If you’re able to start giving monthly to our building fund (even a small amount), this will help us demonstrate our ability to service a loan for construction.
If you’d like to help keep our block of land neat and tidy, speak to Tom Brittle about joining our Land Care Team!
Mission is about growing in our love for the lost and helping others come to know Jesus.
LIFE
As we close out the year, let's make the most of every opportunity!
Please pray for your friends and bring them to hear the gospel at LIFE (a 4 week intro to Christianity at Club Forster, kicking off on Wed 15th Nov).
CHRISTMAS
Our Christmas gatherings are also great opportunities to bring your friends - Carols on 17th Dec and and Christmas Services (24th).
This year our theme is ‘the missing peace’ (in light of the war and chaos and anxiety we’re seeing all around us).
EXPLORE
Next year we're launching a new weekly small group for those investigating Christianity. Explore will run on Thurs nights, 7:00-8:30pm.
Each term it will include a 4 week course for new people to jump into (like Christianity Explored, Alpha, Taste & See, LIFE) and then between courses it will run like a Coast Group (working through Marks gospel).
Please pray for God to raise up a small team to help run this (including a female co-leader, and a host). Please also pray that many come along and meet Jesus for themselves.
One of the suggestions at Dream and Scheme was to also run this one morning of the week, with child-minding, so young families could attend. I love this idea, but we won’t have the resources to do it weekly next year. We might be able to run a 4 week course or two, depending on venues and hosts? When we have our own building (across the road from the school), I think a weekday morning option would be an excellent option.
EVANGELISM TRAINING
Another suggestion at Dream and Scheme was to run some Evangelism Training.
We have a mission team from Moore College coming up 7-14 April April, so we will ask them to run a session, and then in term 2 we'll be promoting a book about it and running some sessions – stay tuned.
WORKING TOGETHER
We’re working with other FIEC churches on the mid-north coast to start new churches in the largest regional centres between Forster and the QLD border. Please pray for God to raise up church planters for these towns.
We’re also partnering together to run a combined Youth conference (MCYC) and Seniors weekend away. In the coming years, we’re also looking at launching a mid-coast Men’s and Women’s conference.
WONDER WELCOMERS!
One of the things we want to do as a church is welcome people like God has welcomed us into His Family!
Praise God that we have had local Forster people come along to our Sunday gatherings every single week this year! To date, there have been just shy of 300 visitors. One of the recurring comments shared at Newish lunches about people's first time experience at Coast is how welcomed they feel - what an awesome quality to be known by!
We have another Newish scheduled for December - so we'd love you to keep up the mega welcoming, imitate one another's extensive hospitality, and pray that the Lord would amplify our hearts for welcoming people like God has welcomed us into His forever family!
TRIBE TIME!
We want to be a church that enjoys deep fellowship with one another.
As God continues to graciously grow His Church at Coast EC, there are 3 family events we'd love everyone to come along to: our AGM (25 Feb 2024); Holiday Away (20-22 Sept 2024) and Sunday Dream and Scheme (3 Nov 2024).
We'd also love you to get involved in demo socials too! Men, women, seniors, young adults… there are lots of exciting socials and events happening. As the demographic social teams work together to organise events, we'd love you to come along and invest in deeper friendships with brothers and sisters in our Church Family.
One of the suggestions at Dream and Scheme last year was to send out a 'save the date' with key calendar dates to lock into your diary for our Church-wide events, and this year we had a suggestion to do the same for demographic social events too... be on the lookout in the the upcoming Coast Card for those!
We've also integrated a church-wide calendar of upcoming events onto our website .
CARING LIKE CHRIST
We want to be a church that cares for one another well!
Coast Groups are the backbone of Coast EC, one reason being they are where our pastoral care flourishes! I'm constantly in awe of the Lord's generosity in providing for our every need in Jesus, and I love the way He has designed His Church body to 'carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ'. Thank you for caring for the needs of brothers/sisters in your Coast Groups and for allowing others to love you as needs arise!
In 2024, I'd love to continue to establish our ad-hoc Coast 'Care Team' to help meet any greater and ongoing needs of members of our Church Body that are outside of a coast group's capacity to meet. This will primarily be through the provision of ongoing meals, transport, finances (through our Love Bomb Fund) and house/home care.
If you're keen to serve on the team to help/care for any needs as they arise in our Church family, I'd love to know!
BUILD LEADERS, BUILD TEAMS
Over the years we have been super blessed with a great culture of serving one another. As we continue looking at 1 Corinthians, we see Paul exhorting the young church to have the attitude of love at the very centre of their community. I reckon - through God's graciousness - Coast is a church that exemplifies this! It's a privilege to serve alongside you for His glory!
It's been sweet gathering regularly with our 4PM Ministry Leaders throughout 2023; we've helped each other develop our ministries & teams, and have spent fruitful time in deepening our understanding of leadership. In 2024, our desire as a church is to keep supporting and developing our Sunday serving teams and their leaders. Two 4PM Teams we'd really love to strengthen in terms of servers are our AV Team (Sound & Mac), and our Music Team (singers, guitar, drums, bass, keys). So, if you're keen to serve (or be trained!) in those ministries, then please come and have a chat.
As we continue to grow as a community, I'll begin developing a 6PM Ministry Leader's team. We already have some faithful leaders looking after some teams but more are needed and I'm keen to grow our capacity and depth as we serve our people. We'll also begin recruiting team members for a 6PM AV Team, as we begin our transition from the Guide Hall into the School Hall.
We also have a range of opportunities to serve one another throughout the week - Meg has mentioned a few of those above - and I'm looking to continue developing teams to help with filming, editing, and graphic design in 2024.
If you are gifted in these areas, I'd love to have a chat!
GROW GROUPS
We'll end our year with 190 people meeting within our Coast Group community - that's golden! Please keep praying for our leaders and for new leaders in 2024. As we continue to grow, we want everyone who calls Coast home to be in a CG so they can love and be loved as best as possible. At the start of 2024, we'll be looking at planting a new Hallidays Mixed CG, a new Women's CG, and a new Young Adult's CG, with others to follow as we grow.
GROW PEOPLE
As we deepen our understanding of God's Word and life following Jesus, I'm keen to help us grow in some specific areas next year.
At our Dream & Scheme we had some fantastic suggestions of where people thought they needed to know more. In response to that, we'll have a Bible Overview session after Easter, and some 'one-shot' Diving Deepers looking at understanding Indigenous spirituality and how we navigate it as Jesus followers; then another session doing an overview of Eschatology (End Times) and what the Bible says mid-year.
We'll also be running Keith & Sarah Condie's 'Building a Safe + Strong Marriage' series across five Saturday mornings throughout the year. Married couples can commit to all of them - or just the ones they want to focus on.
Lastly, as we jump into God's Word together in 2024 we will be spending time in the books of Jonah, Ephesians, Ezra, and Revelation.
Our vision for our 4PM service is for it to be a multi-generational gathering, particularly accessible to young families and seniors but open to all.
MEET THE FAMILY
One of the most common comments at our Dream & Schemes is that people love the 'Meet the Family' spots. We'll endeavour to do plenty more in the new year - but, we need people to be willing! So, can I encourage you that if you are asked to be interviewed that you'd prayerfully consider it. I know most feel uncomfortable up the front, however, it's a great chance to encourage the saints at this service.
WHERE TO SIT?
Another comment was around making room for visitors coming in to check things out. We've had over 200 local ones this year so far! When you arrive, we'd love to encourage you to sit towards the front to allow access to the back seats. Often kids are there in the very front row but the ones behind them are very often free.
TIME TRIALS!
We also talked about the ideal time for the Sunday Gathering. The consensus was to keep it in the afternoon (as opposed to a morning service). This winter we are keen to experiment with the time of the service and shift it to 3pm. This may not be everyone's preference, but it may be a little easier for people who struggle with night driving (to finish while it's still light in winter); for those with small children and dinner/bed times; and for those who want to party on and head out for dinner together. We'd look to kick this on the first weekend of May and review how it's going in September (see also 'Time Trials' below in the 6pm section for more info about time change to 5pm)
Our vision for our 6PM service is for it to be a multi-generational gathering, particularly accessible to young adults and youth but open to all.
CHANGING VENUES!
It's been so good meeting at the Guides Hall! And Praise God that we've almost out-grown it! We started the year with about 30 people and now we've grown to about 55 people.
At Dream and Scheme we asked what other venues might work as a next step, and the consensus was to move the Sunday gathering to the School Hall. This will allow for some more crossover with people from the 4pm service (which the 6pm crew have missed); it also means the staff will have more time to linger at 4pm; and it's also the same venue where our Youth group now meet.
So from mid December we'll be moving to the School Hall!
The 10th Dec will be our final night at the Guides hall;
The 17th Dec will be a combined service at 4pm at the school for Carols; and
The 24th Dec will be our very first 6pm Christmas in the school hall! Party week! Time to celebrate the coming of the Saviour (and moving into our new bigger home so we can welcome more people into our fellowship)
TIME TRIALS!
Another suggestion from Dream and Scheme we are keen to give a go is to experiment with the time of the Sunday Service(s). The consensus was that 6pm is a bit late and that the optimal time for connecting with young adults would be 5pm (so there was still time to hang out after church and have dinner, without everything being shut); and it would be better for teens (so they can get home an hour earlier, the night before school starts back on Monday....and to do homework!).
So...we are keen to have a time trial in Winter where we shift to 5pm for a season - starting in May - and this will also mean shifting the 4pm service to 3pm. This will mean some sacrifice for that congregation, for whom we are grateful!.
A special shout out to Deb Laurie, Yvonne Gunning & Jackie France for their enthusiasm and passion for gathering the senior's of our church to deepen fellowship and broaden connections!
Some highlights from the year have been shared meal outings, and regular women's coffee mornings.
It was also exciting to partner with other FIEC Churches along the Mid North Coast for the inaugural Senior's Retreat run by The Point Community Church (TPCC) in Port Macquarie! Thelma and Carolyn both went along and had a wonderful time. Next year, TPCC are running the retreat on the 24-26th September just after our Church holiday away... so if you're a senior, we encourage you to go along and make a week-holiday out of them both!
We'd love to see our senior's at Coast EC continue to grow and flourish, and we'd love to to know if there are any specific social events you'd love to see happen.
Praise God this year Coast EC had their first ever young adults weekend away! In 2024 and beyond, we are keen to make it an annual weekend for young adults to gather, enjoy the fellowship we have through Christ, and be matured in the Word with Biblical talks specifically aimed at our young adult demographic.
We're so thankful that God has grown our young adult Coast Group over the past 12 months.... so much so that we are planning to split into 2 groups at the beginning of 2024.
Stay tuned for more details of our 2024 young adults weekend away!
Aimee, Amanda, Pam, Jill, Celeste & myself love coming together to pray, think-up and organise events for women of Coast to come along to! Our prayer is that women can gather together to build one another up in Christ's love, enjoy the sisterhood we have in Christ, and be eager to invite other women we know to come along to merge universes!
In 2024, we'll kick off with our annual Women's Weekend Away on the 16-18th Feb up at Scott's Head - lock it in! There'll be an overview of women's events & dates in one of the upcoming Coast Card's so stay tuned!
We are really keen to find out the best avenues for women's events for you to invite your friends to - we held a Christmas in July event this year which we'd love to do again, and would love to hear any particular suggestions about how to make this event or others accessible to your unbelieving friends. Feel free to talk to anyone in the women’s team if you have ideas!
LIFT OFF!
It's been a big year for the men having opportunities to gather with each other outside of Sundays & Coast Groups! Fishing, golfing, camping, pizza....ing! And in 2024, there's plenty more to come.
In fact, we are going to copy the chicks and begin developing a Men's Ministry Team. Looking at how we can grow, gather and serve the men of Coast better. We are also keen to pull off two bigger men's events throughout the year. One with more of a evangelism focus during the Moore College Mission week in April, and then the other will be for guys already at church to deepen their understanding of what the Bible says about being a godly man, husband or father. We've got Al Stewart (FIEC Director) joining us to run that one in June.
So gents, can I encourage you to get involved, and gather as we grow in our love for each other and our good God!
KIDS CHURCH
Our Kid's community continues to grow in our Kids Church program!
Praise God for the many leaders that serve and lead our kids each Sunday; they do such an incredible and faithful job as they are led by AJ Blair, Hazy, Amanda Pak, Sophie France, and Tiana Hazlewood. In 2024, some of our Team Leaders are transitioning to other ministry teams (Hazy & Amanda Pak) - we are super thankful for their leadership over the last few years in these roles. So, please join us in praying for people to step up into these roles as they lead and support our teams.
SALT
SALT is on Friday afternoons at 3:30-5pm. Over the next few years, we’ll be tweaking the ages that it’s open to. We started the year with Salt bering open to kids in years 3-6, but due to the small amount of kids attending, we opened it up to years 1-2 as well. Next year we’re aiming to push the minimum age back to year 2, and then in 2025 we’ll push it back to years 3-6 again (so it can most effectively minister to kids in the upper primary bracket, which then helps with the flow into our youth ministry).
This may be a disappointment for some, especially younger siblings who are keen to get there! Down the the track, we’re also hoping to launch Salt for K-2 (but that will probably happen when we have our own building, a kids pastor, and enough leaders to run it well).
Please keep praying for the Lord to raise up leaders for our kids ministries, and to draw many kids to himself through programs like Salt, Scripture in Schools and Kids Church.
RIPTIDE
Our Youth Community continues to grow and grow and grow! Praise God!
A month or two ago we had to transition from the Guide Hall into the School Hall - this has been a great move and we will continue meeting at the school in 2024. Please pray that the growth we have seen can continue. We would love for the day when even the School Hall is too small for us!
In 2024, we will also head back to KYCK in the Blue Mountains and then the 4th MidCoast Youth Conference (MCYC) will be up at Scott's Head again but this time in July so that HSC students aren't affected as much by the timing.
2023 – has been a tough year for many, with the rising cost of living.
We are about $35,000 behind budget on our expected income from local giving, and our Scripture Fund is almost empty (this fund is tax deductible and helps us pay for Primary School Scripture classes).
2024 – our staff expenses will increase slightly. Our Admin Team approved a 5% base wage increase for our pastors (from 90% to 95% FTE); and Meg will get a pay rise as a 3rd year apprentice as she takes on more responsibilities. If we employ a Kids pastor part time, this will also increase our staff expenses (and we’ll apply for a grant to subsidise about a third of the cost).
Estimated Giving? Each year we run an estimated giving campaign (which started as a suggestion at Dream and Scheme). This helps us get better clarity about our finances and helps our Admin Team make good decisions when they set the budget. If you consider CoastEC your church, please partner with us financially and fill out the Estimated Giving Form before the deadline (Mon 27 Nov)
Bequest? Would you consider making CoastEC a beneficiary in your will? Many of us are keen to be generous to the cause of the gospel, but most of our wealth is tied up in our assets. Leaving a portion of your estate to CoastEC or to our Building fund would be a fantastic way to leave behind a significant legacy for the gospel.
Treasurer? Thanks to Bryn (and Tazia) for serving as Treasurer this year! Carol Holm is now taking on the role! Thanks Carol!