Night of Joy

Praying for new council members

Once a year, the Lighthouse has an evening set aside where the church leadership discusses the finances for the previous year, the budget for the following year, updates on various church ministries, and outgoing council members are honored and new council members are voted in.

This evening is called the Night of Joy, and I had the opportunity to attend this year.  I was able to support my wife, who was to be voted in as a new council member.

The Lighthouse Church is a pastor-driven church, meaning many of the decisions for the direction of the church are discussed among the pastors on staff. At the same time, the Lighthouse has a constitution which they are bound to uphold. The church council is made up of around 10 people who have monthly meetings with the pastors to discuss various issues and to give reports on specific areas of the church that council members are assigned to.

New and old council members

The evening went quite well. After a time of singing and worship, the finances were discussed from the previous and upcoming year, including a plan to have more money available in the future for emergencies or for generosity towards those who need it. The budget for the 2014 year was ratified at the meeting and approved.

Additionally, the evening recognized that there is a full pastoral staff once again, with the addition of pastor Dan and Pastor KR.  Along with Pastor Mark, these three will be the core pastors, who oversee most of the services at the Lightouse. Pastors Ken and Steve will be specialty pastors to help with certain aspects of ministry, and Pastor Warren will be leading the team with the vision of the church. 

The core pastors at the church

Old council members were honored and new council members were approved, including two from the TLC-Jabriya service, which was really exciting!  It will be good to have representation from our off-campus location. Pastor Warren announced that a new villa has been found for the TLC service at the Jabriya Life Center to shift to, and also that negotiations were in process. However, it was mentioned that this new building is much larger and can easily accommodate about 30% more people than our current worship hall, which is reaching capacity. I'm really excited to see how this unfolds.

Pastor Warren talking about the Lighthouse

The meeting also honored the staff and pastors and concluded with our Senior Pastor Warren encouraging us in this time of building at the Lighthouse, and to make it a launching pad for future church plants all around the world.