Jan. 30, 2008
From the Senior Pastor . . .
Dr. Henry Schum served for many years as the associate pastor of CPC. Our fellowship hall is named in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Schum. Hank is now with his Lord, and Ruby lives with her daughter in south Georgia.
Before becoming our associate pastor, Hank served as a church planter for our Presbytery.
A week ago Saturday the Presbytery – a gathering of elder representatives from all the PCA churches in the Chattanooga/Knoxville corridor – met in a beautiful new sanctuary in Dayton. Westminster PC began with Hank gathering together a number of people from the Dayton community for Bible study. The Rev Carter Johnson was the organizing pastor for WPC and continues to serve as their pastor.
How I wish Hank could see how the Lord has blessed this work to which he gave his heart, soul, time and energy.
There are many good things taking place in our Presbytery, and I want to let you know how the Lord is using our denomination to impact our extended community for the cause of His Kingdom.
A week ago Sunday, Redeemer PC became an established church of the Tennessee Valley Presbytery. Located in downtown Knoxville next to the campus of UTK, it is a thriving church, eagerly seeking to minister to its
neighbors. Its congregation is made up of working people, students at the university, and many of the poor and homeless that live close by.
There’s another church plant in Knoxville, United Faith Church. It is a congregation striving to minister to the African-American population. CPC has supported them financially. They will soon be relocating from west Knoxville to east Knoxville. The leadership of the church is convinced this is what they need to do to more effectively carry out their mission.
In Dalton, Grace PC’s outreach to the Hispanic community has blessed the church with significant growth. Their ministry to Hispanics is flourishing, and many who are not Hispanic have been attracted to the church because of its zealous attempts to be faithful in reaching out to the "strangers" in their midst. It has been CPC’s privilege to support this effort both financially and by helping to "man" their outreach to the Hispanic community during the summer months
Here in Chattanooga, steps are being taken to begin a new church plant in the East Lake area of south Chattanooga. New City Fellowship has taken the lead in this endeavor, but by God’s grace, it will be a cooperative effort on the part of the PCA churches in our community.
And up in Cleveland, our daughter congregation is being led on an interim basis by Dr. Al Lutz, a PCA minister
who has wonderful experience in planting churches both here in the States as well as overseas. Al has retired several times, but the Lord always seems to have something new for him and his wife to do.
I don’t have the time to tell you about the work of RUF – Reformed University Fellowship. It is through this ministry of our General Assembly that the churches of the TVP are ministering to hundreds of college students on the campuses of UTK, UTC, CC, and elsewhere.
I believe God is at work in our Presbytery, and I ask you to pause and remember these various attempts to propagate the Gospel, build God’s church and expand the borders of His Kingdom.
Pastor Caines