This past week our Elders met for the final time this year to celebrate what God has done in our church family and look forward to what he is going to do in the future. Justin led our devotional time looking at where true wisdom from the book of Proverbs. While we often assume that elders must be the cleverest people, God defines wisdom as a knowledge and fear of Him. As we seek to lead the church, we want to lead in the knowledge of God as we grow to be more like Him.
We heard updates on what God is doing in various ministries including our Hope Filled Hampers and the families in our community we are able to support. We took in more this year than ever before! Thank you for your generous donations! We also celebrated all of the new members who are joining our church alongside those who are transferring from Central. We are looking forward to having baptisms early in the New Year. Praise God for his work in our church!
We also spent time finalizing the 2026 budget and setting a date for a March AGM where we will outline updates on what our budget looks like. As part of our transition over the coming months, we are going to be working with The Great Commission Foundation who will handle our giving in 2026. All those who have recurring giving will need to transfer it from Central to GCF by the end of the year. The online giving portal is now available and we encourage people to transfer their giving so that we can begin 2026 well. Thank you for your consistent and generous giving that has allowed us to make this transition!
The new giving portal is available here: https://www.promontorychurch.ca/give/
Finally, we discussed a new pastoral position, and we are excited to welcome Rich Kopanke as our new Community Life Pastor. Rich has served as an elder for the past two years and has been doing many of the roles already in welcoming people, hospitality and visitation, and will now be looking after our Small Group ministry as well. Rich comes with a wealth of pastoral experience and his heart to see people find a home in the church has been abundantly demonstrated. We are excited to see him take on this role officially and be able to celebrate his incredible work in our church.
We look forward to worshipping together this Christmas Eve and as we look at the New Year, we are excited to see what God will do in our church. While the future is always unknown to us, we remember that the God we serve has been faithful in the past, and he will be faithful again.
Let me leave you with the words of Psalm 100:
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Pastor Jonathan Neufeld
On behalf of the Elders