Rooted
Hi, COTC!
You can tell we're in the midst of summer with several of our staff on much-deserved vacations and an increase in visitors on Sundays. With so many people checking COTC out as they too travel, or in many cases as a potential church home, we encourage y'all to extend a warm welcome to new faces. If you've been at COTC for a while, you may have forgotten the often awkward experience of visiting a new church.
We know many of you are traveling as well and we are praying traveling mercies over you. Although those who call COTC home are scattered throughout the US and the world, this summer, the sense of rootedness found in being part of a church family remains. We are praying for a deep sense of the Lord's grace and presence to each of you this summer and a sense of rootedness in His Kingdom and as a part of the COTC Family.
Our gospel reading for Sunday is John 16:4b-15. As you read the text ahead of time, we encourage you to consider the following questions: How has the Lord been present to you in times of change or transition? What gifts have you received from the Lord in these times?
This week, Sean James, our new Facilities Director, wrote the e-news below. We're excited to have Sean on the team, and we're thankful for the ways in which he is helping us care better for the space God has provided.
Kimberly+
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Hello, COTC Family!
Over the past month, I have started in the new role of Facilities Director here at COTC, and it has been wonderful to experience how we as a church live embodied. While it may seem somewhat mundane to maintain and use a building, it's been a unique window into what it looks like for the church to be in a place and space. There are a lot of details in keeping the building running and maintained, but this allows me the unique position to see how it gets used more widely for the Kingdom.
Over the past month, multiple exciting things have happened in the building. We had a parish work day where about 25-30 of us gathered to clean and organize the building. The team power-washed the outside of the building, deep-cleaned the walls and floors, organized all of our storage areas, and decluttered the building as a whole. It was a fun time working together.
We also had Creation Care camp last month, where Briana and her amazing team transformed the building with some amazing decor made with recycled materials (if you haven't seen any photos of the Jellyfish or the giant caterpillar, you'll have to ask Briana to see them!) to teach our kids about God's love, care, and attention to His creation. The building was full of energy, laughter, and creativity every day that week.
During the whole month of July, we are hosting International Restoration Church and their Discipleship and Leadership Bible School, where students from all over the country come to receive education and discipleship training from Christian leaders from all over the world. IRC is a Bhutanese and Nepalese church, and it has been a joy partnering with them and seeing their young people worship and learn in our building.
It's already been a special gift to see our physical space cared for by our community, used for the sake of our community, and given as a gift to others in our city and the wider Kingdom as a whole in just a month. We are a gathered community that has a shared space, and it is a gift from God that we have this building. It is such an incredible opportunity to share it with others for the sake of the Kingdom!
In Christ,
Sean James