Foreword of Senior Pastor

My beloved brothers and sisters of Christ Living Church,

Give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ because only by His Grace that we’re able to successfully and safely accomplished the first 5 years of CLC’s journey. Similar to the allegorical expression of a wedding, we have passed the critical moments in establishing a unity of husband and wife relationship, as relationship of Christ and His church. The relationship among congregation as Body of Christ has to be fertilised so that there is openness across the families with support and love to one another. As the Senior Pastor, I am very proud for receiving the honour from God to become part of CLC’s family. With His Grace, we’ll be able to complete the next 5 years in extraordinarily spiritual atmosphere and more blessed.

In the year of 2011, the theme of our 5th Church Anniversary is “The Year of Excellence”. This is not only a slogan, but an “Excellent Spirit”. This excellent spirit need to be inflamed so it inspired our ministries for God. We would be able to do the best and be responsible of our individual function as various parts but one body of Christ. Our spirit needs to be conveniently applied in our personal life as well as through our ministry according to the leadership system that has been chosen by God, whether it’d be within the family or at the church. As a result, our excellent spirit needs to be applied in the discipleship system that Jesus Christ has taught us through the bible to achieve the vision and mission of the church which is to win souls for Christ.

First of all, we will be internally consolidating while evaluating and managing our ministries again. The purpose is to improve the balance of quality and quantity of CLC congregation according to the 3 levels of congregation, such as: Christ is personal saviour, Love the church and Compassion to the world. Activities such as daily Quiet Time, discipleships, teaching and prayers will be carried out. Multimedia and electronic facilities will continue to be enhanced. The leadership trainings and ministry skill trainings will be improved. Annual CLC’s Camp on early October 2011 will be prepared to refresh the spirit of the congregation and develop their views further. Personal’s building character and improvement of congregational relationship are also emphasised. With this, the spiritual life of congregation will grow so they’ll be able to function and actively be involved in ministries with excellent spirit. CLC congregation will be equipped and be supported so that they’re able to fulfil God’s highest callings.

Secondly, the pillars of ministries in CLC will be sharpened. The front line ministries for reaching out the lost souls such as the Main Service and Super Kids will be improved in its quality. Praise & Worship team is targeted to do some breakthroughs. They will participate in the Indonesian Festival at Darling Harbour on August 2011 by singing Indonesian folk songs. They will also have recordings of Christian songs that they’ve written. Sunday school teachers will be added in quantity and their teaching quality will be improved. The Brigades service will be focused to reach out students in Macquarie Uni.

The youth’s Life Groups will be multiplied into the City. The Life Group for the women which is called “Narwastu”, will be more socialised so that there will be more ladies being involved in. The Life Group for the men, the young professional and young couples will also be developed.

An English service will be prepared to serve the youths who are not fluent in speaking Indonesian so that they will have their specific community in CLC. Reaching outs the souls through internet need to be more “published” so the existing global CLC congregation may be more spreading world widely. “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” (Mat 9:37). The solution would be more involving CLC congregation for being part of the ministries.

Thirdly, for the next 5 years, CLC is targeting to have own church building. That’s why some various strategies have been prepared to make this becomes a reality. CLC is preparing a “DGR System” which would be beneficial to the congregation for their each donation to fund the church building can be considered as “charity” and they would be able to negative gear their tax. The process of DGR (Deductible Gift Recipient) would be done by Public Accountant who is chosen by CLC. The financial management at the church will also be planned to start “savings” and open a specific Bank Account for church building funds purposes. With God’s Grace, the dream of having own church building is not impossible and will come true.

An illustration, one day a pig told a cow: “I am jealous to see you. I give my flesh and my whole body to the humans, whilst you only give them your milk, but why do they like you more and not care of me instead?” Then the cow smile and said: “It’s because you give your treasures after you died, but I give mine while I’m still alive”. For those of you who’s not yet become part of the ministries, this is the time for you to serve the Lord, while you still have a chance. As the Senior Pastor, I would like to invite all of CLC congregation to hand-in-hand and serve the Lord with excellent spirit. And for those of you who are already in ministries, I would like to say thank you so much for your ministries and contributions. All the efforts, hard works and sacrifices you made for God will never be futile. Let us increase our quality in our ministries so that God can be more glorified.

Finally, I am so thankful to all CLC congregations who are so faithful and supporting every single ministry in CLC. I would like to say “HAPPY 5th ANNIVERSARY” to all of us. May God bless you and your family with longevity, perfect health, joy and peace including His overflowing and unlimited love and grace. May you enjoy the delight in the love of Jesus Christ and serve Him with excellent spirit.

On behalf of the big family of CLC,

Ir. Agus Rahardja DS, MA Mis.
Senior Pastor of Christ Living Church