2023 Annual Ministry Report
Lead Pastor’s Report
Dr. Jim Bradford
As we began 2022, I felt a sense from the Lord that the year may not be an easy one. And that seemed to be the case as we moved into the year and saw war unfold in Europe and continued outbreaks of COVID as well as continued political unrest in our country and the inflation we all have felt.
Yet I also had a strong sense that the Lord would be faithful to us. Praise God He was! In spite of difficult conditions in the world around us, we saw many examples of God’s favor and faithfulness in our church life throughout the year. Time and space do not permit me to mention everything, but here are just a few highlights from key areas in our church life:
Services and Group Life
Our first core value is to have hearts that are hungry for the Lord. I deeply believe that if we live this out well, God will be faithful to meet us, and to work through us. We definitely experienced that in our services and spiritual life in 2022.
At the beginning of the year, we launched our Night of Worship & Prayer once a month on Sunday nights. These nights are an opportunity to come together as a church family for an extended worship time and to pray corporately for needs in our world and to pray for each other. They grew consistently throughout the year as we encountered the presence of God in each one of them. In the fall, we added water baptisms as an element, and it has been so wonderful to celebrate these together as a church family. I have especially enjoyed seeing students from our kids and youth ministries take this step of obedience in baptism on these Sunday nights.
Group life continued to emerge as a focal point for relational connections and spiritual development in 2022. In the spring, we welcomed Liz Wright to our staff in a new position for us called Groups Director to work within our Connections team to coordinate growing options for groups.
We saw growth in both the number of groups and the participation in them during the year. We launched new options for women, men, and moms in addition to some new general life/home groups options. We also saw growth in our Sunday Morning Group options as more people returned for in-person Sunday services through the year. I appreciate each of our group leaders for the incredible work they do and the partnership I feel with them for the discipleship of our church family.
We continued to provide numerous online resources for our congregation and beyond in 2022. All of our Sunday services are available live through our online campus–in fact, we often see about a third of our attendance on Sundays join us live online. Full service videos are also available on YouTube.
The Central Moment is a daily devotional that I, or occasionally one of our staff pastors, present each weekday available on Facebook, YouTube, and podcast platforms.
In the fall, we launched a new Wednesday night Bible Study option for adults called Scriptures with Pastor Jim. These nights offer a deeper dive into a passage of scripture, and we use a video based teaching format that provides some technical tools not available in a live presentation. On Wednesday nights, people watch the video together around tables and have opportunities to discuss the text and pray together. Each of these teachings is also available on our website and our YouTube channel.
Special Services and Events
An important part of 2022 was the resumption of several special services and events. These special days give us a chance to all connect together as a church family and are a great opportunity to invite friends to experience the life of our church.
The Easter season featured a Palm Sunday worship night, Good Friday service, and Easter Sunday services with over 2000 people in attendance in-person and online. I deeply appreciate Pastor Josh Shaffer and the Central Worship Community for their ongoing work to lead us into the presence of the Lord each week.
Easter at Central also saw the return of our Walk the Last Week with Jesus event for the first time since 2019. This interactive exhibit traces Jesus’ movements and activities each day of the week leading up to His crucifixion. It features real artifacts from ancient Israel and other displays that allow us to see more clearly Jesus’ experiences that last week of His earthly life. The self-guided tour ends with an opportunity for prayer and communion with a pastor. Over 800 people attended across two nights.
2022 also brought us some special combined services in the summer. We welcomed recording artist Sarah Groves for Mothers’ Day and local pastor and author Chase Replogle for Fathers’ Day. Our Let it Rain service on July 3 was a wonderful morning of worship and prayer for our nation.
We also enjoyed some special Wednesday events away from our church building. Summer at the Ballpark engaged over 500 people in the summer, and Fall at the Farm welcomed over 650 people in the fall.
Finally, the Christmas season is always a highlight of any year at Central, and 2022 was no exception. Central Worship kicked off the Christmas season in a big way with a music event called God with Us that featured our own musicians and kids as well as guest musicians from the area. We also enjoyed a Family Christmas Party and our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.
Family Ministries
Our Family Ministries Team at Central works together, under the leadership of Pastor Josh Seaman, to coordinate discipleship for kids from birth to high school. We were excited to expand this team in 2022.
In June, we welcomed Pastor Chris Noble, his wife Kiara, and their kids to Central as our High School Pastor. Later in the summer, we removed the ‘interim’ from Pastor Jill McDaniel’s title as she accepted the role of Elementary School Pastor. Amelia Umbenhower also stepped into a part time role of Associate Elementary Pastor to assist with our growing kids programs. In the fall, we restructured to include Pastor Daniel Guy with college and young adult ministries as part of the Family Ministries Team.
These staffing and structural changes give us a wonderful team of pastors and staff to look strategically, practically, and prayerfully at how we can best help our young people grow and develop spiritually at every age from birth up to young adulthood!
This team had a busy year in 2022 as we saw growth in attendance and participation across every age group in family ministries. This includes Sunday morning classes for all ages preschool through college, kids’ service on Sundays, and youth services and kids activities on Wednesdays. As well, we had special events like kids’ day camp, overnight camps for kids and youth, and other special hangout nights for age-specific groups.
That growth in participation necessitated an increase in volunteer activity in our family programs. I want to say thank you to each of you who gave of your time to minister to our kids, youth, and young adults. Your investment in these young people will pay eternal dividends!
Debt Retirement and Church Finance
We reached a major financial milestone at the end of 2022 by paying off our long term mortgage indebtedness in full! We have carried mortgage indebtedness related to construction and building renovations since 2004. In recent years, we have worked to accelerate the retirement of this debt through debt retirement initiatives – Twenty20 (2016-2020) and The Finish Line Project (2021-2022).
Through these programs, we retired over $3.2 million of mortgage debt over seven years, with over $1.2 million being paid off in 2021-22 alone! We made the final payment on this note in December 2022!
We celebrated by burning the promissory note in a special service earlier this year. I want to thank each person who participated in these debt retirement programs and gave with open hands to secure a bright financial future for our church family. And we are excited about where we go from here!
While retiring the debt is by far the biggest financial milestone of the year, there are several other great things to report about our finances. Here are just a few:
Tithe and general fund giving remained strong in 2022. Although our tithe income dropped slightly from last year, it was still a strong year relative to previous years, and we finished within $10,000 of our projected tithe budget amount.
Our Footprint Fund is where we give over and above the tithe to make a God-sized footprint in our world. In 2022, undesignated Footprint Fund giving saw a 14% increase over 2021, surpassing $300,000 for the first time.
Each year, the Assemblies of God National Office gives us a report on total giving attributed to Central; this includes funds donated by individuals in our congregation directly to AG ministries and missions work. Central’s Total AG Giving is again well over $1 million in 2022. This made us the number 20 ranked church in the entire Assemblies of God for world missions giving.
Early in the year, we were able to acquire another piece of property along Lyon St. west of the Activity Center. This purchase would not have happened without the bylaw amendment we passed in 2021 that increased the board’s ability to negotiate on property purchases. This means we now own 8 contiguous lots in the block west of the activity center.
There are specific details about Central’s finances in the Financial Reports section of this booklet. I want to thank our Treasurer Kenton DeVries, Executive Pastor Carter McDaniel, and Business and Finance Director Keith Morgan for their great work helping us steward and manage the financial work here. I also want to thank each of you who give faithfully with open hands to support the ministries of Central. We could not do what we do without you! Thank you!
Global Footprint
One of our core values is to leave a God-sized Footprint in the world around us, and one of the ways we do that is through our Global Footprint missions work. The increase in Footprint Fund giving in 2022 meant we could take on some new and exciting projects during the year.
The conflict in Ukraine struck early in the year causing a refugee crisis in surrounding nations. Central’s Footprint Fund was ready to respond with an immediate gift to The Pentecostal Union of Moldova as well as Convoy of Hope in the very first days of the crisis. We continued supporting the refugee work in Moldova throughout the year, and in May we welcomed our friend Bishop Viktor Pavlovski to share in a Sunday service about the ongoing efforts there.
A key project for the Footprint Fund in 2022 was helping launch a church plant in Saint-Malo, France. Working with local church planters through missionaries George and Debbie Flattery, we helped cover costs related to equipment, rent, and pastoral income for a young but vibrant congregation on France’s north coast.
Our first Signature Footprint Event happened in the summer with a ministry trip to Naples, Italy. Working with Missionaries Joe and Mary Benecasa, we assembled a team of our own experienced and talented kids ministry volunteers to work with an outreach VBS event in the inner city of Naples. The trip was an amazing success, with several kids accepting Jesus for the first time. We express our thanks to each member of the team who gave up their time to travel and serve.
In addition to these great projects, we continued our monthly missionary support for around 200 different missionary units throughout the year who are making an impact on the entire world, from across the street to across the globe!
Lastly, our fall Footprint Celebration this past year was a special one. We featured two young missionary couples who grew up in our church. It was wonderful to hear them share about not only the work that they do now in the field, but also the impact that the people of Central have made on their lives during their years here.
I would like to express my gratitude to Pastor Don Tucker for the leadership he brings to our Footprint programs as Missions Pastor and to the members of our Global Footprint Advisory Team that assist him in this important work. I believe we have only begun to see what God will do through our Footprint Fund, and I appreciate the investment each of us make in seeing God’s mission fulfilled in our world.
These items represent just a few of the many examples of God’s faithfulness and favor we experienced together in 2022. We thank God for the blessings we experienced as a church last year, and we look ahead with excitement about how God will use our church moving forward.
I am deeply grateful to our amazing staff team here at Central. Each one of our pastors and staff serve selflessly to support the work we do at Central, and I value their partnership.
I am also grateful to the Lord for such a wonderful congregation who seeks the Lord with hungry hearts, who lives with attentive eyes and linked arms, and who gives with open hands. Together, we continue to make a God-sized footprint in our world. I believe truly great days are ahead for our church! It is a joy to be your pastor as we journey together into the bright future that God has for Central Assembly!
