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Love INC
will get new digs thanks to house donation
Northwest
Yearly Meeting will gather for 113th session
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New additions to impact NCC |
Church names a new worship minister and brings on a
mission intern |
By Schellene
Clendenin, Newberg Graphic reporter
E-mail Schellene at
sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com |
Don Gunderson and Pam
McKerring are on a mission. And while the path toward their goals
may be different, the end will be the same — building relationships
within the community and at Newberg Christian Church.
Neither of the
pair, an associate worship minister and a mission intern, are from
Newberg. Gunderson hails from West Linn, McKerring from
Indianapolis. But both agree that community and church are positive
places in which to live and grow.
“We’re not just here to let the community come to us,” said pastor
David Case. “We want to be servants to the community. We are in this
community and we want everyone else to be involved.”
Case said he is excited about the additions to the church staff.
“They bring a lot to the table,” he said. “(Gunderson) has a lot of
experience and I am looking forward to tapping into that.”
Gunderson had been an interim worship, or music, minister at the
church since February before the church hired him permanently July
1.
Gunderson has been in ministry full-time since 1982. He grew up in
Portland and went to school at Mount Hood Community College and
Puget Sound Christian College, where he was also on staff.
A father of seven children, he served as a worship minister for 20
years before moving into the position in Newberg.
“Here we sing contemporary and church hymns and we have a strong
talent pool,” he said. “It will be exciting to mobilize that talent
to glorify God in ministry and create an opportunity for community
outreach.”
As part of his job Gunderson will coordinate seasonal programs —
Christmas, Easter and patriotic — and he hopes to establish
concerts. “I’m also involved with the prayer ministry,” he said. “We
believe prayer changes everything.”
Gunderson wants to expand music in the church to include strings,
horns and instrumental pieces, as well as a choir ministry. He wants
to establish an afterschool music and arts program for kids in
grades kindergarten through sixth.
McKerring’s stay will be shorter than Gunderson’s. While she’s
here, Case said NCC will take advantage of McKerring’s gifts. “She’s
a good fit,” he said. “We hope to continue to have a relationship
with her.”
McKerring heard about the internship through Christian Missionary
Fellowship. In December the fellowship will send McKerring on a
four-year mission to Tanzania to lend aid to the poor.
“We are looking forward to having her as a part of our ministry,
even when she’s in Tanzania,” Case said. The church sends members of
its congregation to countries around the world, including Haiti,
Australia, Honduras and Mexico and closer to home at the McKinley
Indian Reservation near Toppenish, Wash. Case said the church plans
to take advantage of McKerring’s work in Africa by sending
missionaries there in January 2007.
McKerring’s job requirements are vague, she said, but involve
working with the youth and children, helping with Vacation Bible
School and anything else the church needs.
But her most important job is to build relationships between
herself, the church and the community, she concluded. |
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From
July 9, 2005, Newberg Graphic
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