A Month in the Life

This week has been quite busy for Dan and I.

I am so thankful that my Renaissance Society event went so wonderfully! (God really blessed us that evening with great success!)

We will begin teaching "Cross-Training" on Sunday for those who have attended Heavenview and are interested in taking their relationship with God a few steps further - we teach on the importance of Baptism this Sunday, and next Sunday we will teach on the infilling of the Spirit.

Thanks to "anonymous" who posted on Dan's thoughts as a Community Pastor - that was very encouraging to me as I read it a few moments ago.

Tonight, I want to DASH... it is an outreach effort by The Arts Council to bring young professionals to Winston (dash) Salem on a Friday evening - tonight is coffee night - we will hit three coffee shops between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. - Sounds like a great time for networking to me! (and I could never turn down a cup of coffee!)

We hope your weekend is set for excitement! We'll see you here on Monday!

All the best,
Christie

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

Labels: christie ponjican, Community Pastor, dan ponjican, Heavenview

Last night I attended a large fundraising event in Winston-Salem. My wife organized this reception for the Winston Salem Arts Council at a very large, beautiful home. I volunteered along with my brother, Sam, to help valet all the vehicles on the property (no small task with over 150 attendees).

What an amazing opportunity this was! Along with my wife, we were able to "rub elbows" with the "who's who" of the region including several elected officials. I was even able to have brief conversations with some notable persons about church and what my involvement is at Heavenview as a Community Pastor.

Overall the event was a success and we had a great time. Hopefully we can get some of these great resources plugged into our vision of a Community Center in Winston-Salem connected with our work at Heavenview.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

Labels: christie ponjican, dan ponjican, fundraising

I have organized huge reception this evening for our Renaissance Society Members - (individuals giving at $1,000 and above to our Annual Campaign) by the way, we met our goal of $2.5 million!

Tonight is our thank-you event!

We have close to 150 that will be in attendance - it should be a great time. Our guests this evening are the "movers and shakers" of Winston-Salem.

Dan and Sam are the valet service - we are non-profit, after all!

I have got to run, I will write more on Friday.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

If you've been reading this blog for the past week or so, you've read about my new job. I thought I would take today's blogging opportunity to address the question that just about everyone asks after they hear "Community Pastor"... "What is a Community Pastor?"

When Pastor Linder and I were brainstorming about this plan months ago we asked ourselves if we had heard of this title/term before. We both agreed that we couldn't remember ever hearing of a Community Pastor before, at least not in this context. The thing is, it fits so well to what both God has burdened Pastor Linder to accomplish through the church in Winston Salem as well as where I felt God was leading me in my ministry.

Over a year ago (sometime in the summer of 2006) Christie and I were thinking of how to better our current ministry efforts. At the time we were the Youth Pastors in a local rural church in North Carolina. Through the 3 or so years that we had been working in this ministry we couldn't seem to get away from the needs of just average people in the community. High school drop outs, underprivileged kids that didn't have a safe place to study, students without mentors, parents that had no help in their homes. Even the elderly and the dying seem to have no one that cares enough to do the simple things.

The world calls it humane acts, but it is nothing like human nature. Things like spending time with an elderly woman who simply had no one to visit her in her last days as she battled terminal cancer. Christie ended up being that someone, she was the only one at her side as she breathed her last breath in a hospice room.

Where does an 18 year old boy who has the mental capacity of a 10 year old (because of years of abusive and neglected surroundings) fall into our ministries...we could also ask questions from the other side of the spectrum... where does a widowed woman who's worth is far beyond what I could imagine, turning to alcohol in the face of loneliness... where does she fall into our ministries?

All these lives were ever before our eyes. But it was more than just these people... it was their needs that seemed to be consuming us. I found myself asking, what are we (the Church) doing about all of this? How are we helping people not to suffer? How are we meeting the needs of our communities?

I go to the Word for answers. Jesus stated clearly His mission for coming to earth, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10) It is very clear to most Christians that Jesus' primary goal was to bring the message of salvation to mankind. That is the common theme of His life. It is why he was born into flesh. It's why He lived.

Yet I find an undeniable theme in His ministry. It seems to me that He practiced meeting people's needs before ever presenting a word of doctrine. Before parables were given, miracles were performed. Before instruction was offered, hungry bellies were fed. Prior to any message of the coming salvation was presented, all manners of sicknesses were cured.

I can't help to think that God was trying to tell us something. I know for sure He was trying to tell me something. It's more than an edict to fulfill a need because God just wants us to. I think it is an opportunity! There is no better way to get your community's attention than to start meeting the needs that no one else is paying attention to. I think this is more powerful that the largest newspaper ad, the brightest billboard or the catchiest commercial running in the best prime-time slot. People pay attention to REAL solutions!

So what is a Community Pastor? It is simply a very focused and directed office in a local church to fill this vacancy that seems to have been overlooked in many congregations. People want to help the hurting, they want to feed the hungry... they just need good quality avenues to get plugged into, someone to give them a way to make this happen. I go one step further, the unchurched in our communities want to be a part of a solution... they just need to be introduced and plugged in. We need programs and ministry opportunities for the "first time guest" in our churches. Things they can get involved with right away so that they feel a part of The Solution.

We all know that Jesus Christ is the answer. We know that the Church is the solution to our world's problems. The problem is, the world doesn't know it... that's what a Community Pastor's job is.

Dan Ponjican
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

Labels: church, Community Pastor, dan ponjican, Heavenview, hungry, hurting, Serving our generation

We went to Grace House on Saturday, to show the love of Christ in a practical way by raking leaves, washing lawn furniture, pruning trees, mowing the lawn, washing the van, etc.

It really IS better to give than to receive... we had a great time!



Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

Labels: christie ponjican, dan ponjican, Heavenview