Dear LTCC Family,

Last Sunday Bob reminded us in our kickoff of 1st Timothy that Lake Tapps Community Church is Jesus’ church not ours. Isn’t that refreshing to know? Our God who is sovereign, powerful, wise, and good is leading us and loves this body of believers more than any one of us!

Thank you for your diligence in reviewing the church Constitution and By-Laws and providing feedback, as well as getting to know the Elder candidates and walking through the process to affirm them for service. These are crucial steps in providing stability for a new lead Pastor.

Following affirmation on April 14th, our new Elder Team convened for its first meeting the next Sunday. As you can imagine, moving from a team of 3 Elders to 8 Elders provides a different meeting dynamic! It is something we are all enjoying, but we do treasure your prayers as we meet each Sunday night. To give you a window into an Elder team meeting, here is a brief overview of what we do:

· PRAYER – Rather than wait until the end of the meeting when time can feel rushed, we start our meeting by taking as much time as needed to pray for the needs of the body and for one another.

· STUDY – To be equipped in rightly handling God’s Word, we are going through a book titled, “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth” by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. It walks through the different genres of Scripture and provides great help in the areas of exegesis (examining the historical particularity for the audience to whom it was originally written) and hermeneutics (interpreting the eternal relevance for the “here and now”), specific to each genre. This resource will assist in guarding sound doctrine. 

· DIRECTION – Some of what we’re addressing currently includes:

o Assembling a Pastoral Search Team comprised of elders and members of the body.

o Preparing Elder Care Groups to pray for and to stay in touch with our body.

o Brainstorming Vision for the church to include the ministries which will be most effective in fulfilling our mission to “Love God by helping people follow Jesus.”

Working with this group of humble, self-sacrificing men is an honor. Thank you for praying “for more Elders”; it is miraculous to see how God has worked to bring us to this point. It shouldn’t surprise us, though, because Lake Tapps Community Church is His church!

For the Elders and Deacons,

~ Brian Peterson