Our Mission
To empower churches and their leaders to discover and achieve their God-given mission
Our Vision
A network of missional churches transforming lives with the grace and truth of Jesus.
We have just begun down this pathway, but we are encouraged by what we are beginning to see--especially in both our "regional" and in our "strategic" clusters. If you have not yet begun to participate in one of these, please contact us so that we can get you connected.
You will be receiving information this week about our upcoming annual conference, February 6-8, 2012, at Mt Hermon. Rick McKinley, from Imago Dei in Portland, OR. will be our special Speaker. Please make plans to attend!
We have taken a number of other strategic steps over the last two months that I'd like to update you on. We realize that in our current economy, it no longer makes sense to bear the costs of a separate office for our Association. We are currently relocating from our Stockton office to Morgan Hill, where we will share office space with Morgan Hill Bible Church--the church I pastor. This will provide substantial cost-savings and enable me to be more hands-on with our Administrative assistant. Our plans are to lease out the Stockton office, using the funds for income for our mission.
Due to the move from Stockton, Loretta Gregor is stepping down as our Administrative Assistant. We are grateful for the incredible way that she served our Association over these last seven years. I encourage you to send her a note of "thanks" for her service to all of us.
Rick Watson is continuing as our Director of Administration. He's currently busy working with John Myers (our Director at Silver Spur) and staff to up-grade our accounting system, as all of our finances and donations will now be managed by the Silver Spur office. This is another streamlining of our ministry efforts.
Jim Culp, pastor at Orchard Church in Chico, is now serving in a part-time role as our Director of Clusters. He will be leading our efforts to encourage regional relationships as well as providing "strategic" clusters for pastors in our Association.
Josh Wroten, pastor at Morning Star Church in Newark, has just come on, in a part-time role as Director of Programming and Church Planting. Josh is overseeing our special events, conferences and assisting churches who want to re-produce. He is also overseeing our church assessment process (where pastors come alongside of churches, to help them self-assess as they seek for greater ministry impact).
I'm grateful for these men and their heart to serve along with me--with us! We believe that this model of pastors coming alongside of pastors is critical for our joint mission for Northern California and Nevada. There are churches and pastors that need to be encouraged and there are communities that need to be reached. One person or even staff in an Association cannot accomplish that. We believe that through a thriving network of relationships--both individually and corporately, we can see missional churches transforming Northern California and Nevada with the grace and truth of Jesus.
Even though my father was a part of Next Gen and I've been here for seven years, I still feel like the new kid on the block. I am honored to be able to serve you in this way and look forward to getting to know you and your ministry in the days ahead. Please feel free to contact our office or email me (or any of the NG staff pastors) if we can answer questions or serve you.
It's my prayers, that we can establish this network of relationships--not only for our own sake, but for our mission sake--for the sake of the Gospel throughout our region. May the Lord richly bless you in the part of the harvest in which you serve!
Sincerely,
Dr. David Whitaker
Executive Director
