A Letter from Butch

Friends,

Thanks for serving with us on the Arts teams at GCC. I am continually inspired by your faithfulness to Christ, your Church, your fellow artists, and your craft. We have been running an amazing race together and our ministry has helped thousands know Christ. But as it is His way, God is calling us to something greater – to go further up and further in – to enhance our methodology – to shift gears – to reach more people for Christ – to change. How did we learn this? How do we know? Mark Beeson talked about this a few weeks ago.
First, we are beginning to see the changing face of the seeker … that is, the seeker of today is different than he was only a few years ago. Concepts that were considered outside his realm (religious icons, communion, hymns, and prayer) are now more familiar to him. He no longer fears these, but tends to lean in as he seeks Truth in the face of his current reality. What we can and must do in church to reach the pre-Christian is changing.
Second, we were enlightened by the results from the REVEAL study. Fifteen percent of those who responded at GCC said they were exploring Christianity. Forty two percent identified themselves as “Growing in Christ.” So, a full 57 % of our congregation describe themselves as spiritually immature. This is something for us to celebrate. Finding and embracing people far from Christ has always been our mission. But we cannot simply find pre-Christians, convert them, and be content with them remaining immature in their Faith; we need to help them grow by teaching them to feed themselves.
We are going to accomplish this two primary ways. The first is through teaching scripture, the spiritual disciplines, and life application. We’ll do this through our staff teachers and outside biblical scholars. There will be more biblical teaching at GCC than ever before. Wednesday nights at GCC will be filled with teaching three weeks of the month.
The second way we are going to help our people grow is to help them Experience God through amazing worship and compelling art. We will accomplish this by making more space for the Arts in all of our services. Our weekend services will be programmed about 15 minutes longer than today with the additional time being devoted to the creative arts. Our weekly New Community service will transition to a monthly First Wednesday service that will be about 75 minutes and be comprised almost entirely worship arts.
We are being given a sacred responsibility to take our people to higher place. It’s both exciting and frightening; an honor and privilege. But it’s going to require more of us … more from our leaders, our staff, our volunteers and it changes how and when we do things.
I believe the changes we are making will provide for a more rich serving experience for you. Attached is a document of that summarizes those changes to services and rehearsal and service times as well as a Frequently Asked Questions document.
As you process these changes, please know that you are valued as a team member and minister of Christ. Your Church is calling upon your talents and hearts more than ever and we hope and pray you continue to serve beside us. There are great days ahead.

In Christ,

Butch Whitmire
Pastor of Creative Arts