News from Vilanova!

This is from an email that Alvaro sent us yesterday, to update us on the progress at their church in Vilanova/Sitges...PRAISE GOD!
(FYI, Alvaro and his family will be in Atlanta September 5-8, and there will be a cookout at the Walton's house on Sat. the 6th. An evite will go out soon, but join us if you can!)

Hi my friends,
I know you are such committed with the church in Vilanova as we are, so I wanted you to know the most important achievements of the first half of the year :
*Name : we changed the name of the church from "Iglesia Protestante de Vilanova" to "Iglesia Cristiana del Garraf" ( ICG ). This is not a non-relevant change because of (a) we are, right now, in Sitges and we are not sure if this situation we'll be long( hope not ) and because (b) we don't want to limit our influence to the people of Vilanova but to the complete Garraf community ( Garraf is the area where Vilanova and Sitges is and is about 100.000 people )
* Legal : December 2007 we approved our new Constitution and in the last months we've been working in developing some aspects of it. The main : the Elders Council, which for the next year is formed by Eugenio, Loles, Carmelo and Sarah Andrews. Again : an important issue if we want to have a well balanced church and a really vision focus strategy.
* Construction : We've been redefining some aspects of the building and right now we have a high vision of what the building means in terms of money and the next steps we need to work on it. Next 2 steps are covered but not the others. We can give you more information and details during our visit to USA next 3 weeks.
* Sunday Service : is one of our strong points right now. Our sunday service is really outsiders focused and "northpointmusic resources" has made the difference in our worship time. We want to go deeper on it and I wonder if we could get additional tracks during my visit in september to Atlanta.
* Web: you can visit our new one at www.iglesiadelgarraf.com .
* Programing : today we have the complete programing series for the next 12 months closed.
* Marketing Plan : we've been working with Miquel Torres important areas regarding which is our difference respect other churches and which is our key benefit and claim. We've organized "outsiders" focus groups to know what our target thinks about church. This is a non closed step but, just for your information, a friends of Raquel and me( outsiders target ) are been in this process and their comments were : "we would really like to go to this kind of church" or "it seems like church is a really important thing for all of you: you are doing things well".
* 5/14 : We have start our volunteer program call 5/14( based in Galatians 5:14 ) in terms of defining our mission statement and starting conversations with the community just to say : "which way can we help you ?". We want 5/14 to be the honest way we show outsiders Christ's love in insiders. Sarah Andrews is leading and we'll have our public first activity in october.
* Conectados ( small groups) :without any kind of doubt, the best decision we took 1 year ago. It has change our "insider's fellowship" and people that has visited us in the last sundays have said : " you all are really close to each other", or "this is not a "cold church", we can feel like in our home". Next september we'll have an additional small group were we'll integrate the new members of the ICG.
* Pastor : as you all know, this was our main deal and my "main headache". We do know that this was our weak point and it's been the center of the all discussions during the last 6 months Executive Team meetings. I can confirm you that we have progress a lot: we've been working in defining the Pastor profile, putting names and surnames to several candidates and finally giving an offer to someone that feel is very qualified (though his family is praying about it so he will go unnamed until he accepts). Just for your information, a little miracle that we lived during that process and a resource we used for approaching :
(1) a few days before offering to be the Pastor of the ICG, a special donation for this purpose arrived, so, right now, we have covered the next 12 months part time Pastor salary...God really rules....
(2) For the ICG was non negotiable a perfect understanding of our vision, so what we did in our first meeting was to give this person (who we hope will be our pastor) a "From the Foyer to the Kitchen " DVD ( an spanish translation made by us) .
The situation now is : the process is not finished ( we don't have the " agreement's picture") but it has gone really ahead. We ask that you continue to pray about this person that we hope will be our new leader.
Concluding : This person fits with our Pastor profile : he's been graduated in a Seminary, he is a really good communicator ( talks simple things in a simple, outsiders minding and engaging way ), he "is like our target is", he has the ability of leading a team of talented people and he understands and beliefs that our vision is a great way of communicating Gospel to the outsiders. God's been with us during the process and sure He will at the end of it
All the guys at the Executive team have made an excellent job, balancing their works, family and God's service through the ICG. Julian has been leading the Construction issue, Isma has been with the Communication area, Danny with Economics and Legals aspects and David with Programing and Production. All of them are passionate about what ICG means and what ICG will be in the future.
Any doubt or more information you need, just say.
Just remembering,
(1) our vision is "to be a relevant community that approach Jesus to the culture of today"
(2) our mission is "to make possible that people know Jesus and follow Him in fidelity".
This is our passion, and that is the only reason because a little Christian Community in a Catholic country called Spain believes that God is rocking with ICG.

We really appreciate your prayers : we know and we feel that we are in your hearts.

Please, send a copy of this mail to everyone who knows our project and is supporting us in praying, specially to everyone who has been involved in mission trips.

See you in a few days,
Alvaro
Iglesia Cristina del Garraf
"Growing Together"