Staff changes and program restructure

Over the next week or two, a program and staffing restructure will occur in the way that we organise our church. It won't affect operations, we hope, and it certainly won't affect our purpose, vision, mission or values - except that it will hopefully help us be more effective in the way we pursue these.

With the arrival of Jenny into the officer team this week, the breakdown of officer responsibility will move. Each of us will take on new or ammended roles according to our skills and gifts - and what needs to be done. We met with our CSM, Wendy, to speak through some of these last week, and will announce specifics to our leadership team on Thursday at their first 2012 meeting.

In summary, however, I (Brad) will lead the leadership, administration and community services teams. Angela will look after discipleship, generational programs and volunteers. Nathan will look after worship and outreach activities. Jenny will look after pastoral care and prayer activites. Within each of these groups are the different sections and teams and we will speak to each individual leader about where we think they fit after Thursday.

Some budget restraints and staff decisions have led to further restructures beyond the officer team.

We are creating a new "Community Services" team that includes all of our CSS programs (including counselling, financial counselling, emergency relief, doorways program etc) and our thrift shops. At this stage, that excludes our food van outreach, Munchiez, which will sit with Nathan as an outreach becuase of the nature of the partnership we have with the other two churches involved. Greg Varidel has accepted the new position of Community Services Manager and will oversight these teams. Kerryn, to date our community support services manager, has asked if she can step away from that position. She will join our doorways team as a caseworker concentrating on longer term engagment with clients that enter our programs.  Please pray for Kerryn and Greg during the time of transition and change, and pray for each of their teams, especially Helen as she continues to develop the new ministry at Ascot Park.

Finally, on January 3 this year, Lynn Wann's employment with The Salvation Army came to a conclusion. The nature of her departure needs to remain a confidential matter between Lynn and The Salvation Army and we ask that everyone respect that. Lynn chose to finish up early and her last day in the centre was just before Christmas. This leaves us with some decisions to make about how we proceed with our families and childrens programmes from this point forward. Please pray for Angela as she has taken responsibility, with support from Wendy, to propose a way forward in this crticial area of our church life. Please also pray for the children. I know as a parent that the kids are still asking when they will see Paul again; having a second children's leader leave within a year is going to have some impact.