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And What About Women’s Ministries?

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By Cindy Waple & Cheryl Weller

Transition continues at Elim. The Schlomers have departed, the McCoys have arrived, and the elders and staff are continuing the work of moving Elim into a new season. And what about Women’s Ministries, you may ask? Great question! We are excited to share the answer with you.

Kim Schlomer faithfully led Women’s Ministries for most of her tenure at Elim. However, over the past couple of years, Kim had been sensing it was time for changes to be made within this valuable ministry. Her heart’s desire was to see women growing as passionate disciples of Christ, to see women connecting with other women in meaningful and transforming ways, and to see women developed as leaders. God was giving Kim a vision for the future of women’s ministry. And like Moses, the vision involved her to a certain point, and then it was time for her to step down and for other leaders to continue this work.

Building on Kim’s vision, we desire to design and implement a ministry that invests in, equips, and empowers our women to minister to women within Elim as well as women in our communities. We deal with hard life issues and often feel alone or isolated. We long to be connected, to feel that we belong. We desire to be heard, to feel valued and supported, to have a place to turn when we need help. With our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, we envision our women continuing to grow as passionate disciples of Christ, bearing witness to His unfailing love for all, and living out the gospel as we companion with one another, loving and encouraging each other as we share life, with all its joys and sorrows. We have amazing and wonderful women in our Elim community, and we all have something to offer one another—regardless of one’s age or stage.

That is a big vision and big desire! But our God is able, and we are trusting Him to provide all that is needed for this to develop. Our first steps have been to begin praying and discerning not just good ideas, but God’s ideas, for how this ministry will take shape. We have

connected with a few women who served most recently on the Women’s Ministries team and/or expressed an interest to Kim to be involved. We are researching current trends within women’s ministry and are beginning to talk with women within Elim about their interest and desire to engage with this ministry.

So, what happens in the meantime? Will there be any events for women? Yes, there will be, but it will not be a full offering, partially because of the transition and rebuilding, but also because it is summer. Rebekah McKenzie hosts a time of connection for all women on Saturdays at 10:00 a.m. at Cool Bean Espresso. A few other plans are being worked on. Watch the newsletter for all upcoming opportunities for women.

Are you interested in joining us? If so, please reach out to one or both of us. We would love to talk with you and hear your heart and desire for ministering to women. And we would ask all—women and men—to pray for this ministry and its leaders. We trust God to bring to fruition His plans and His vision for this important ministry, and we are excited to join Him in His great work.

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Membership: It’s More than a Card in Your Wallet

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By Dan Amos

Membership—Costco, a gym, AARP. We have memberships in lots of places, but we don’t always give them a lot of thought. Yet when we are members, we do say “we belong.” It’s a way of identifying what is important to us, and it links us to others. Membership at Elim is vitally important to our future. The decisions we make over the course of selecting a new pastor will shape who we are and what we do, and members will make those decisions.

It’s been so long now that I don’t really remember the process Fran and I went through to become members. We would have read through and agreed to the statement of faith and received a copy of the constitution. Most importantly, we would have told our stories to an elder or two. How did we come to faith in Jesus? Where are we on our journey with Him?

Telling our story is about being known by others. It welcomes other believers into our lives. We become part of a community that is mutually supportive and accountable. Sometimes that means confronting sin, which is very uncomfortable, easy to avoid, but totally necessary.

We don’t require membership to attend or go to Bible study or community group or to take communion. Community and accountability are not dependent on membership. So, why bother?

Membership is a formal declaration, a covenant with a group of believers to support one another, build each other up, and worship Christ together. At Elim, our statement of faith is a declaration of what we believe God’s Word tells us. We will use the Bible as the measuring stick for all that we do, and if we deviate from that, the membership is responsible to hold the elders and pastors accountable.

With that agreement in mind, the membership entrusts the management of resources to the staff and elders to be used for building God’s kingdom. We have been focused on discipleship. As we go through the current transition, we will put a finer point on how we will accomplish this. We’ll restate our mission, the vision of where we believe God is taking Elim and what He wants us to do.

So, when it comes to picking a pastor, managing resources, and setting a course, the members not only need to be in agreement, but also need to have a common foundation. If we did not insist on members who are believers and agree to the statement of faith, we could go the way of many churches before us. We could deviate from the Word of God; we could compromise our faith and lose the saltiness God has given us.

Membership has a lot of work before it, but it is profitable work. Each meeting and vote we take sets us on a path. We need each member to actively participate. The elders are reviewing the membership roll to identify those who are no longer an active part of the body and encouraging them to return or relinquish their membership if they have moved away. If you are not a member and you call Elim your home, let us know if you want to become a member, and we’ll start the process. Your church family needs you.

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What Am I Pursuing?

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By Bill Naron

It’s that time of year again: time for graduation! From Sunday school to public school, from high school to college, it is the time for pivotal moments of transition. In his sermon on Sunday, Pastor Brian Sharpe spoke out of the book of Ecclesiastes. If you have not had the chance, you can check it out here.

                Ecclesiastes is a great book. It was written by King Solomon, who was not only the wealthiest king of his time, but also the wisest. Ecclesiastes was Solomon’s reflection on the whole of his life, somewhat of an evaluation and a warning. Solomon, in a broad and general sense, sets the stage for us in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, where he states, “I have seen the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

                Solomon sought after wisdom and pleasure but found all these pursuits to be meaningless. At this point, I began to think to myself, What made Solomon’s pursuits meaningless? Solomon sought these things instead of God; he hoped to find meaning and identity in these things.

Many of us today do the same thing. We search after knowledge, or we try to climb higher in position at work, thinking = these things we are pursuing will give us meaning, purpose, and identity. This is what is wrong with Solomon’s pursuits and what is wrong with our pursuits. Our purpose, meaning, and identity should be rooted in the person and work of Jesus, not in vain temporal pursuits.

                The book of Ecclesiastes is like advice from an old man with a lot of life experience. He tells us of the mistakes that he made and then, at the end of the book, tells us what we should do. In Ecclesiastes 12 Solomon writes, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Solomon brings it back to what matters the most; the things that we pursue are meaningless when we pursue them outside of relationship with God.

                I love this John Piper quote: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” When we are satisfied in God, when our identity is rooted in what our Father says of us, when we find our purpose in walking with the Lord, and when we find meaning in chasing after Jesus, it shapes the way we live life. The things that we pursue in life begin to have meaning, because we are not pursuing them in order that we would be made greater but in order that Jesus would be made known.

                In times of pivotal transition, it is important for us to take time to self-reflect, the way that Solomon does in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is important for us to analyze our purpose and what we are doing with it. We need to ask ourselves if we have fully surrendered and committed to living the life that Jesus calls us to. For the body of Elim Evangelical Free Church, I think that we should be asking ourselves how we are fulfilling our mission of being Jesus to our community. How are we helping create an oasis where people can renew relationship with Jesus and others?

I wish all of those who are graduating this year the best of luck in all their pursuits. I would encourage everyone, from the graduates to those of you in the congregation at Elim, to ask yourselves what you’re pursuing and why you are pursuing it. As I found myself asking upon reflection on the sermon from Sunday, am I looking for purpose, identity, and meaning in vain pursuits that are temporal, or is my relationship with Jesus what influences the things that I pursue?

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Desire Family

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By Isaac McKenzie

“And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.’”
(Luke 22:15 ESV)

We want many things. We should first know that it’s important to divide want and need. Just as important, we must define for ourselves the role that want plays in our lives. The want I refer to is this desire Jesus speaks of in this passage of Luke. In the Greek, it’s epithumia: “desire, passionate longing, lust.” In the verse, Christ earnestly desires to eat with His closest counterparts. He conveys a genuine and passionate tone. He is eager. His is more than merely sincere. He communicates a desire to experience His friends’ presence in a limited window of time. Can we relate to such a desire?

Do we desire such things as Christ did?

Our Christ desired a genuine relationship with those He loved, with those that loved Him. Jesus didn’t take for granted the small moments that are meals and the presence of good friends. He experienced life as He lived it. All the while Jesus maintained His mission.

Christ was to suffer. He was acutely aware that His time with the loved ones who followed Him was drawing to a close. He wasn’t motivated by legacy as we might be. His motivation was much greater. He was savoring moments such as the Passover meal.

We so often forget that we have such a great influence on the moments that we are given the opportunity to live. We have a chance to make moments to be something meaningful. We can see our fellow believers as our family, just as Christ did. Matthew says about Jesus, “Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Matthew 12:49-50).

I imagine Christ looking around the rooms He would enter with a great deal of intention, absorbing the view of people and ambient conversation and taking to heart every meaningful word exchanged. He knew what was to come and He genuinely loved them just as He loves us and wants us to love others as He does. I’d like to be like Christ in this way in particular. It’s my number one priority when being with others. Christ would walk into rooms and be present, as I would like to do. Do I desire to be present?

We only have such a short time. But the experiences on our bucket list of life, those desires—are they worthwhile? Am we intentional in having conversation? Are we engaging others? Do we find ourselves desiring to be present with our brothers and sisters, as he has made all of us to be? Do you desire for those you see at Elim to be family?

I would like to eat with you. I would love to do life with all of you, as Christ would want us to as well. Life has so many hurts and sufferings. We have such little time. We must strive to see each other as family. We must believe that this concept is possible—to find belonging, acceptance, trust, and family in others who follow the will of God. Your Father supports you in this goal. He remains with us, so we remain in Him as well as with each other (John 15:15). After all, don’t they say, “To never have loved others like Christ, is to have never loved at all” (or something like that)?

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