Hey Family!
What a time to be alive!
A TOUGH SEASON
I think the last 18 months has been the toughest ministry season I've ever had.
There have been so many hard things to navigate and juggle, pastoral issues to grapple with, and decisions to make. On top of that I was feeling pretty tired, and increasingly aware of own inadequacies. I even wondered if I was still the right person to be serving in this role.
I've taken some time to reflect on this, and to think about the season ahead. What sustains me to keep me going is not confidence in my own abilities or experience, but confidence in the sovereignty of God, and his delight to use weak and foolish people to serve His purposes. God’s promises are like gold to me! The realities of heaven and hell still compel me to treasure and preach the gospel. The prayers of others sustain me. The goodness of Jesus to me comforts me. And I’m thirsting hard after God.
I'm also deeply thankful for good friends who've spoken some timely words of encouragement to me.
I love you brothers and sisters, and as always, I covet your prayers for wisdom and perseverance.
I still consider pastoring CoastEC one of the greatest privileges of my life, and I’m looking forward to seeing what God does in our midst in the years to come.
So join me in praise to our Heavenly Father, who is always in control, working out his own purposes, according to his own timetable, for His glory, and our good.
Let’s keep striving together to advance the gospel as we seek to make more and better disciples of the 25,000 souls living in our region.
Your brother,
Chris.
Staff
What a great team we had in 2021!
It was such a great joy to work with Codan, Dev, Heather and Marty!
Thanks so much team for working your tails off and rolling with the punches so well!
I’m genuinely thankful for the opportunity to serve alongside you.
We’ll miss Marty and Codan on the team, but we’re super thankful they’re both sticking around!
And welcome aboard Meg and Jason for 2022!
These legends will be doing our Ministry Apprenticeship Program (MAP). Meg will be focussing on our Membership/Connecting and Women's ministries, and Jason will be focussing on Kids and Youth ministries. Please pray that God would shape them as servant-leaders over the next few years; and that they'd do a good job of equipping the saints for service.
Dev will also be taking Long Service Leave this year, so we pray that’s a really good refreshing break for him and his family.
Dev when he started at Coast and Dev now.
Admin Team
Administering Forster Evangelical Church, Inc is challenging at times, and it’s not always easy wrestling with finances, legals & compliance, insurances, facility constraints, equipment needs, policies and decision making.
Thanks Tom Brittle, Brent Pakalniskis and John Gunning (super sub for Mark Robinson!) for the way you’ve engaged in the tasks and decisions along the way, out of a genuine desire to serve God’s people and grow God’s Kingdom.
Heather has done a wonderful job as Secretary, helping us mange all the legals and compliance issues.
Megan Couper has done a stellar job as treasurer once again! Legends.
Land and Building
VENUE CHALLENGES
The last few years have been incredibly hard in terms of finding venues for our ministries.
We’ve had to constantly juggle unavailabilities, capacity limits, restrictions (like no access for the unvaccinated); and double bookings (which meant our Christmas service had to go online). This stuff makes everything that much harder!
We’re also committed to obeying the government, respecting consciences, respecting landlords, loving our neighbours, maintaining unity, caring for the vulnerable, ministering to the anxious, and gathering in person as far as possible, practical and sustainable. These are significant issues that require wisdom, sacrifice and perseverance.
We may have to juggle things again this year, and there may not be any ideal solutions in the short term.
God willing, we’ll have ongoing access to the School (we’ll need to re-sign our lease soon); our office, and the Guides hall for Kids and Youth. So please pray for God to provide suitable venues!
Speaking of which...it would be really nice to have our own building!
BUILDING PROJECT
We made some good progress in 2021, with the design almost finished.
We are still waiting on a few specialist reports (Bushfire, Ecology, Water) and God willing we’ll have them soon so we can submit a DA
Please pray for Council to approve our DA!
Once we have permission to build, we will refine the design and get cracking on fundraising.
Please ask that the Lord to provide all the resources we'll need to build, and that the site would become a real hub for gospel ministry in our region for generations to come.
If you have any ideas about fundraising, or professional skills you're prepared to donate to CoastEC in regards to the building project, please let Chris know.
BAPTISMS
We got to celebrate a bunch of baptisms!
Noah, Judah, Summer, Toby, Daisy, Blossom, Imogen & Josie were all raised in believing households and wanted to say for themselves that they have their own faith in the Lord Jesus.
Jo attended Christianity Explored after seeing the difference Jesus had made to her daughter Juliette. Its been great seeing the Lord grab hold of her!
So good to see the Lord at work in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.
So much to celebrate here!
Please pray for them to all keep maturing in their faith.
MBC
2 years ago, we planted Manning Bible Church in Taree
Since then God has grown His church!
Pray for wisdom for Joel as he leads this fledgling community through the early phases of church life.
Keep praying for the Lord to gather his lost sheep as the mighty hope of the gospel is proclaimed in the Manning Valley.
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
On the Sunday before Christmas, we had a crack at hosting our first ever community Carols service!
It was a great time of reflecting on Scripture and rejoicing in Song.
We'll be giving it another go this year.
FAMILY NEWS
We welcomed Ezekiel Lofberg to the family!
We celebrated the weddings of Mick & Amy and Marcus & Darci
NEWISH
We still had a steady trickle of new people plugging into church.
Regular newcomer meals are great way for them to connect and work out the next step for them.
Please pray for many more souls to come and meet Jesus and grow to maturity in this family of believer
Let’s keep welcoming well! We have visitors almost every week at church. We also have a wonderful group of people serving on our Connect Team! But welcoming is the privilege and responsibility of the whole church.
Can you please arrive at least 5 minutes before the service starts so you can welcome new people and help them connect with other regulars? And for the first 5 minutes after the service, can you please look out for someone new? These 5 minutes can make all the difference for a visitor.
NEW FORMAL MEMBERS
This year we've welcomed the following people as formal members: Eden Flower, Petra Flower, Lachie France, Meg Graham, Pam Kingston, Carolyn Kinsela, Amy McArthur, Marcus & Darci Stephens, Rob Storrie, Veronica Watt and Daniel Whitaker
We love it when more people choose to partner with us in the gospel and to get on board with our specific mission.
CARING COMMUNITY!
2021 was a tough year for many. But in the midst of all the craziness, one of the things that has struck me once again is how loving and generous our church community is.
Our Coast Groups have done a great job looking out for their members (helping with shopping, transport, meals, paying bills).
Our Staff team have been calling and visiting various members of the church to see how we can best pray for and support them. And we have been really encouraged by the desire of others to help out where needed.
So great job church! Keep loving one another well.
And thanks for giving so generously to the LOVE BOMB FUND. You donated almost $3000 to help those in need, and we were able to help members of our church with counselling fees, food & fuel vouchers, medical bills and council rates.
If you're in need of financial assistance, please let your Coast Croup leader or a staff member know!
If you'd like to make a donation, head here for details.
BIG SHOES TO FILL
Super big shoes to fill!
Over four years Marty built up our ministry teams to serve at 3 seperate services (2pm, 4pm & 6pm), helped create a launch team to plant a brand new church in Taree, took us through multiple lockdowns, and smoothly transitioned our gatherings into the digital format of Online Church. He's upped our graphic design and series artwork game, led a Coast Group, written Teaching Series songs, produced a couple of kids...and 4 years in a row he won the Best Looking Staff Member Award. Crazy! #standingovation
Thank you Marty; for leading and serving us so well. For doing it with humility, love and godliness. Praise God that the Lofbergs are staying put in Forster. And whilst we will miss you on the staff team we are very thankful to continue serving alongside you and Aimee as we reach our region!
2022
As a new year begins, so too does a new ministry season. The stop-start nature of the last couple of years have taken their toll and over the next few months - God willing - we will be able to settle into more of a rhythm in terms of gathering together.
To pull off all of us gathering together each Sunday arvo it takes a lot of people serving each other well. We are keen to do this sustainably as we look after one another. So, please be praying that people are keen to jump back into (or even for the first time!) our Ministry Teams. If you are keen then would you please come and chat with me over the next few weeks. That would be golden!
We've also made the tough decision to hold off rebooting our 6pm Night Church service until later this year (probably November). Whilst this will be pretty hard for some (Kids Church leaders, those who work till 5pm, etc), we feel it's best to focus on re-gathering at Arvo Church to then relaunch Night Church with Ministry Teams that are sustainable and strong!
Looking forward to serving alongside you this year!
Dev
COAST GROUPS
Once again throughout the end of 2021, we have seen the strength of our Coast Group system! God has blessed Coast with an unreal group of men and women who put huge amounts of effort and energy into leading their groups. Through another lockdown, navigating restrictions, Zoom sessions, and vaccine questions - on top of all the normal care they give - it's been a tough ending to a tough year. So, I just wanted to say a special thank you to Pete Flower, Marty & Aimee Lofberg, Celeste Suters, Michael & Naomi Dasey, Ann Roberts, Hazy Hazlewood, Chris & Sharon Ekins, Brent & Rebecca Pakalniskis, Dave & Lou Warner, John Gunning, and Dave Hayes! You guys are golden!
ROMANS Q&A
One of the highlights in terms of helping our people think through some of the issues of 2021 was our Romans 13/14 Zoom Session. There were heaps of us on there and we were incredibly privileged to have The Honourable Rob Stokes (NSW MP), Rowena Bennett (Microbiologist/molecular biologist), and Al Stewart (Director of FIEC) to help us with answering questions and helping us think some of the issues through. A very informative and helpful evening!
GAP
As the year ended we had a bunch of legends wrapping up their Gospel Apprenticeship Program. Eden Flower, Lachie France, Meg Graham & Petra Flower went hard serving the Coast family through tricky times. The landing was pretty rough with Zoom sessions and lots of their ministries and opportunities not happening but they adapted super well. Personally, I'm very grateful for their questions, Scriptural observations, laughs and encouragement throughout the year. It was a great joy working alongside them throughout it all.
MTS
We've also formally farewelled Codan Pakalniskis from our staff team, as he finished his two-year full time MTS Apprenticeship. One of the most godly, genuine and humble young guys around. It would have had to of been two of the trickiest years to complete a ministry apprenticeship but he did it with grace and patience. Lots of the ministries he oversaw went digital - multiple times -and for a church that likes to plan well, lots of kids, youth and Sunday gatherings were all week to week scrambling. Throughout it all Codan was cool, calm and collected.
I'm very thankful that he will still be at Coast and helping with our Youth ministries in 2022.
Codan's first days of GAP in 2017 and his last day of MTS in 2021!
2022
As the year kicked off the focus is firmly on doing our core maturity elements well. We've planted new Coast Groups with a few more looking to start at the end of the term, beginning of next.
Throughout the year we'll run two Roundtables (both of which have been pushed from last year); our aim is to help parents, carers and grandparents to disciple those under their care well. One session will focus on Tech & Boundaries in the Household and the other will be on Mental Health in Teens.
We also have the wonderful Lesley Ramsey joining us in the middle of the year to help our retirees go hard for the Gospel in the season God has them in.
One of the big changes for the year is, after much thought and prayer, we have decided to internalise what was formerly the MTS Apprenticeship. We needed a program that was more sustainable, regionally appropriate and would allow us to have more than one apprentice at a time. So, we have kicked of CoastEC's first ever Ministry Apprenticeship Program (MAP) with Meg Graham and Jason Little!
They have come on full time for two-years, and will be studying an Advanced Diploma of Theology, whilst being equipped for pastoral ministry. The intent of the apprenticeship is to give them an experience of what full time pastoral ministry is like as we, as a church family, help them build their character, competency, and capacity throughout their time. Please be praying for them as they begin - that God would do an amazing work in them and through them.
It's been a rough ride for many of us but possibly more so for the kids of Coast.
Having Kids Church on and off again, having SALT lined up only to be cancelled last minute due to restrictions or weather, leaders mildly sick or close contacts so having to quarantine, school changes and lockdowns, and lots of other things. What a crazy end to a crazy year.
Having witnessed my kid's hopes dashed and disappointment set in for another week - I can only imagine the same for many others. It's been hard to watch.
But praise God that our kids are a resilient bunch! And when the opportunity was there they certainly made the most of it. Having fun, learning about Jesus, bringing mates along. Golden.
A big thanks to the Kids Church Team and the SALT team. For their adaptability, patience and great communication. Also for the craft and care packages left at doormats throughout Term 4.
Codan did a great job scrambling each week to get SALT happening either at Lake Street Oval or on Zoom. He is handing over the reigns to Juliette Schubert for 2022. Please be praying for her as she leads the team and helps Coast reach more and more kids in primary school.
AJ Blair has been amazing in her effort, energy, love and care, as she has lead our Kids Church Team each Sunday. Often with lots of late changes due to leaders isolating & never knowing how many kids will turn up (sometimes 7 or 8, sometimes 30+!). So a BIG thank you to her and the team!
She is handing over to Jason Little in 2022. He will be co-ordinating all things Kids Church and supporting our Team Leaders as they run their Kids Coast Groups each Sunday.
Likewise, our Youth community has been resilient throughout a super tough season.
Jumping onto Zoom for Coast Groups & Riptide one week, then meeting on the oval the next. Chopping and changing with restrictions even hours before their evening activities kick off.
Once again, a big thank you to our Youth Leaders for 2021. They really have gone above and beyond.
In 2022, Jason will take over from Codan in overseeing Coast Youth and all that happens under that banner. Please be praying for him, as he leads the team and God-willing grows the ministry as we build up the teenagers we have and reach more with the good news of Jesus.
Pandemic pending, we will be doing our annual road trip south to the Blue Mountains for KYCK in April and then north in November for our very own MidCoast Youth Conference (MYC) up at Scott's Head. The latter being a huge highlight for all who went.
Finance Report
All financial reports provided for this AGM will cover the period of Coast EC’s 2021 financial year which is 1 Jan 2021 – 31 Dec 2021.
The Admin Team were responsible for setting the annual budget.
All financial reports labelled as “CoastEC Treasury Reports” have been compiled using Xero accounting Software and have been managed by Exdia Bookkeeping Services. These reports are to be considered as pre-audit management reports only.
The 2021 End of Financial Year Audits were conducted by Farmilo & Co Charted Accountants and are in accordance with the Australian Auditing Standards to provide an accurate overview of the financial position of Coast EC at the end of 2021. See HERE for Audited Accounts
CoastEC has an open-book policy so if you have any questions that remain after the AGM you are welcome to make an appointment to discuss further.
Megan Couper was the treasurer for 2021.
Partner with us!
1. Pray
Praise God for His provision through the generosity of His people and through government assistance. Please ask God to keep providing for us, and growing us in our generosity, so our treasure is where our heart is.
2. Grow in Generosity
Consider increasing your giving in one of these 3 ways: a) Increase your regular giving by 5% or $10/wk b) Set up direct/online giving instead of giving cash via the collection on Sundays c) Make a one off donation to either meet some of last year's shortfall or to invest in a specific ministry. See HERE