celebrate 2023

Renée Antrosio – January 9, 2024 3 Comments

Entering 2024, we take time to reflect on what God has done among us this past year. Where have we seen God’s goodness? How have we experienced God’s faithfulness? As individuals and as a fellowship, we are called to remember and celebrate. Personally, I am preparing for sabbatical January 15-April 15, looking forward to rest and time alone with God, while looking back at the fullness of 2023. 

Celebrate Giving! We increased our Missions, Mercy, and Justice disbursements to $49,000 to support housing, healthcare, after-school programs, prayer, outreach, and ministries to women, children, and refugees. Our Family Fund provided emergency assistance to pay rent, utility, and hospital bills. Through the Thanksgiving offering, we gave over $4000 each to the Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center, support for Black college students (SubCulture), and the CU New American Welcome Center. We rejoiced with the Champaign County Christian Health Center in purchasing their own building!

Celebrate Repair! Our NCF Reparations Fund gave honorariums to three local recipients of Martin Luther King awards, two black pastors, and supported Black Earth Gardens in its founding year. Our journey of racial justice was featured in local news outlets, sparking the birth of the CU Reparations Coalition, bringing together people of faith and good works. We were honored to host their first community event, Reparations in Action: Uniting for Change, which filled the sanctuary, inspiring conversation and action. The NCF Reparations Committee is giving birth to a pilot project to begin in 2024- details coming soon!

Celebrate Stewardship! Our sanctuary was painted and recarpeted, railings installed on the stage, and a new plaque commemorates solar panels on our roof. We hosted stewardship advisors from Everence to assist us in aligning our giving with our values. We moved our resources away from corporate banking into faith-based financial services, and utilized grants from Everence to assist the Family Fund’s work. 

Celebrate Life! We rejoice in baptism and birth, honoring the lives of long-time members of our fellowship as they have gone on to be with the Lord. We played games and cards, read poems and special writings, enjoyed an outdoor concert, a chili cookoff, and the annual LarBQ to support Spring Initiative. We are grateful for times of fun and fellowship as we share life together. 

Celebrate Ministry! Our online worship and pastor’s notes continue to serve hundreds beyond our in-person services. After 7 years as solo pastor, over 275 blog posts, uncounted teachings, and community events, I am in awe at what God has done in and through us. I am especially grateful that God brought Melissa Logsdon to serve as associate pastor. Her partnership enabled us to complete many projects, sustain me these last months, and prepare for my sabbatical retreat to the desert. 

Celebrate Gratitude! Thank you to everyone for your prayers, giving, and acts of service as you shared your gifts and resources. I am so grateful for all God has accomplished through this fellowship to meet physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. May we continue to give thanks and celebrate all that God has done in 2023 and look forward with hope to what God will do in 2024. Until I return mid-April,

May Yahweh bless you and keep you!
May Yahweh’s face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!
May Yahweh look kindly upon you, and give you peace!

Numbers 6:24-26

–Renée