Our Ministries – update for Year End 2022 looking to 2023

Because we are a church with a strong desire to make an impact on the community, we are a church that emphasizes involvement in ministry and allows each individual to use their own unique "spiritual gifts."  CVP believes that each individual was meant to put his or her own set of God given talents, experiences, and background to use for the good of the whole church.

You may have been given many natural talents from God that help you get ahead in the business world — but spiritual gifts are those which are put to use for the spiritual benefit of others.

• I Peter 4:10 says: "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."

This verse emphasizes that every believer in Christ has both specific gifts and a distinct calling from God. But these individual gifts are all part of God's bigger plan to bring about his redemption of the world through the church — the Body of Christ.

• I Corinthians 12:4-7 says: "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

Spiritual gifts (which are listed in Romans 12, 1Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4), tend to fall into two categories: Word-based gifts and Deed-based gifts.

• Mathew 7:7 - “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
• Philipians 4: 6-7 - do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The prayer ministry is committed to providing a space for congregants to take time to share their prayer needs in a relaxed and relatively private setting, after the service.  Our team members typically serve once a month after our worship service and pray through out the week for prayer requests submitted each Sunday.  We are always looking to reach more and more people within our church.  If no one comes back after worship, the two who are present pray for each other or for needs of the church that come to mind. It feels like there is a positive and consistent attitude among those participating in the ministry: We are a necessary, important blessing to the church. It is a fruitful ministry.

Goal:  To disciple our Covenant children by coming alongside parents and bringing together the entire church to fulfill their covenant responsibility. We recognize each child as a unique image-bearer of God, and desire for them to grow in their knowledge and love of Jesus their Savior and King.

• Acts 2:42-47 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread- and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day to those who were being saved.

Approach: 

• Sunday School – Reformed and covenantal curriculum teaching a solid biblical foundation for our children
• Children’s Church – Children 3-6 years old attend Children’s Church for age-appropriate instruction during the sermon
• Participating in worship services - Children learn from watching the body of Christ worshiping, taking communion after publicly professing their faith in Jesus and taking their membership vows, praying and listening to the word of God
• Special events such as a children's Christmas pageant
• Catechism – provide materials for parents to teach Catechism at home while encouraging review each Sunday during announcements at Church
• Family enrichment – Parenting classes, Church Family Picnic, Community Events
• Formation and support of a Children’s Ministry Team – to assist with planning curriculum and events, praying for our ministry and recruiting/training volunteers

During 2022 we have seen tremendous growth in the number of children attending CVP. The numbers have almost doubled in the last 406 months. We are so excited about this and look forward to seeing it grow further. In nursery each week we normally have 3-6 infants. Children’s church has an average of 10 children each week.  We graduated 4 children from Children’s church in September.  The curriculum we are currently using is Show Me Jesus – Preschool age.  Ben Calvert and Belinda continue to work on developing policies and procedures for this ministry.  Looking forward we have a need to recruit more volunteers to this ministry for regular Sunday services, Special events and Sunday School.

Due to our growth, we are moving back to separate rooms for nursery and children’s church and will maintain 2 adults present at all times for the protection of our children.  For the future plans and growth of Children’s Ministry we are looking to form a Children’s Ministry Lead Team.

Purpose:  We are committed to preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, through word and deed, unto the world. This includes supporting individual missionaries, ministries or church plants that focus on the spoken Word of God and/or the active Word of God.

1. Church Planting/Evangelism: We are committed to spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ through evangelism.
2. Local and International Missions: We are committed to preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, through word and deed, unto the world. This includes supporting individual missionaries, ministries or church plants that focus on the spoken Word of God and/or the active Word of God.

In calendar year 2022, CVP saw the growth of our giving toward missions. Goals for 2022 were to increase our giving and to continue to seek God’s direction in where CVP’s investment in missions should be.

The ministries that CVP funded in 2022:

• In Newberg: Love, Inc.
• In the Pacific Northwest: Sacred Road Ministries (Chris Granberry, Tomo Ito, , RUF Boise State (Alex Bosgraf) and RUF Oregon State (Drew Burdette, who is now also at Boise State)
• In the wider U.S.: Mission to North America and Randy Nabor’s Urban & Mercy Ministries
• Internationally: Romanian Christian Enterprises.

Looking into 2023, the mission team hopes to continue to partner with our missionaries, sharing about their ministries with the rest of the church body throughout the year. We hope to continue to have some of our missionaries come to CVP to share about their ministries with us in person.

Summary:
“Safe Families for Children keeps children safe and families intact by offering family like stability to children while their parents deal with a crisis. From people opening their homes to provide shelter for children for weeks on end to people offering a simple ride across town or help with an errand, our volunteers say yes to vulnerable children and their families in both large and small ways. Anyone can help—anyone can join us in saying yes to generous hospitality, building relationships, and enabling transformation.” 1

What We Did in 2022:
- In 2021-2022 our CVP Safe Families team took part in 2 active hostings. One was an overnight hosting for several days each week for 6 weeks. This led to further hostings when additional needs arose for this family. The second hosting was a day hosting that lasted for several days each week for 6 weeks. The Family Coach and Ministry Lead continued to support this Mom after the hosting ended, up until the Mom moved to McMinnville earlier this year. During each of these hostings, the CVP team provided support to both the placing families and the host family.
- In 2022, one of our Family Coaches worked to build a relationship with a Mom new to Safe Families, even though the hosting piece didn’t come together.
- In addition, our team said “yes” to several other potential hostings. While these did not materialize into active hostings, our team was willing to open their homes and hearts to these families.
- Lutheran Community Services, the umbrella organization for Yamhill County’s Safe Families chapter, hired 3 new staff members. One of these staff members, Deana VandenHoek, is dedicated to serving Newberg and Yamhill as a Family Coach Supervisor. Already, we have felt supported and seen new referrals come in.
- Our CVP team members reevaluated their capacity to serve in existing roles.  While some members have/will be stepping out of their current roles this next year, God has also blessed our team with a new host family.

What We Want to See in 2023:
Additional volunteers. In particular, we would like:

• 1-2 new host families
• 1 new family coach
• 2 new family friends

1.https://lcsnw.org/program/safe-families-for-children/

Goal:  Our goal of worship has been to facilitate meaningful worship through music in the Sunday morning worship time. We attempt to worship in a variety of styles, encompassing both hymns and more contemporary praise songs, with an emphasis on musical excellence and variety. We also choose to have musicians from our local congregation offer their gifts of musical talent -- we are blessed to have a number of musicians who have had professional experience.

During 2022, we worked under the leadership of our interim pastor who was always encouraging and appreciative, and are now transitioning to our new senior pastor Mike Awtry. It has been a great year with supportive and excellent musicians and a constant appreciation from elders and congregation.

Looking ahead:  as we wrap up 2022 and move into 2023, we will be working with Mike to adjust to small liturgical changes and have the worship through music enhance the other elements of a given Sunday’s flow of worship service. Mike has provided a list of music he has enjoyed using at his previous church, and Anna will be listening to that list to consider any additions. One hope is that as new people come to attend CVP, we can incorporate more musicians and use their gifts and talents.

 

Our mission is to create a warm atmosphere where the Church family can be together to break bread and fellowship with one another. When we gather, we do so as a community – to celebrate, to give thanks, to praise, to worship, to rejoice. We take joy in the presence of one another. We love to gather in large and small groups to break bread together and to share our stories, our hopes and our love for one another.

This is a time for fellowship and connection and to welcome visitors to our church.  Coffee and snacks are provided by the Sunday Fellowship team.  Coffee is graciously provided by a family, and is picked up at Coffee Cottage Sunday mornings, separate from Sunday snacks.  First Sunday of the month is “Birthday Sunday” with cupcakes provided by the fellowship team, as a way to celebrate all the birthdays in the month.

Special Events

• Christmas Brunch Potluck
• Maundy Thursday Simple Supper - intimate event with session serving soup and communion.
• Easter Brunch Potluck - Easter Sunday
• Deck Nights - 4 informal gatherings in congregates back yards.
• Memorial service support - provided refreshments after the service
• Other events as the need arises

Women's Connect

Goal:  To offer a place where CVP women can get to know each other, encourage one another through reflection on the weekly sermon, and bear one another's burdens to God through prayer.

Over the past year or so, attendance has been just right for the rather laid-back structure of the meetings.  As we grow, we may need to get a little more structured, in order that all voices can be heard, and finish in time for the host family to have their house back. It may be that we should move our meeting time back to 6:30.  It will be interesting to see how the needs of the group changes as the church grows.

Men's Connect

Chehalem Valley Presbyterian Church Men’s Connect (CVPMC) meets at 7:30 pm on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays each month.  CVPMC attending members’ ages vary from mid-twenties to eighties. This diversity in age continues to build a safe (at times great mentoring) Christian fellowship as we each anecdotally share our life experiences with one another.

Goal:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:8-11 “ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  9  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  10  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.  11  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
• The purpose of the group is to encourage one another in our Christian walk as Friends, Brothers, Uncles, Fathers and Grandfathers by giving each member time to share how their week has gone. Organically, salient points from each conversation are often added to closing prayer (blessings and/or concerns) for them and loved ones.

Each meeting begins with snacks and refreshments, personal sharing, previous Sunday sermon review and closing prayer.  …And at times stay later and hang out.