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Next Sunday at CORE

AM Service: “Those walking in darkness have seen a great light” Isaiah 9
PM Service: No service

We look forward to welcoming John Truscott, church consultant, this Sunday as he comes to help us evaluate where we are at as a church, where we want to go and how we are going to get there. This is especially significant at this time of transition we are now facing.

Open Letter from the Kissell’s to all our friends

Dear Friends,

Many of you will know that I have decided to step down as the leader of CORE church. As you can imagine this has been a very difficult decision for Kathryn and I as we feel incredibly privileged to have been leading CORE church and living in this wonderful country of Ireland.

Over the last few months Kathryn and I have been through the hardest time in our lives both as a couple and individually as we have had to transition again through a time of great change in CORE. During this time we have accessed support from different people to encourage and help us through this challenging time. I have spoken to fellow church leaders, trusted friends both in Ireland and the UK and I have spent time on a retreat to prayerfully consider our future.

Kathryn and I finally came to the decision to leave CORE a few weeks ago. We will be leaving CORE at the end of January and moving back to the UK. We will then take four months off to get our energy back as we are both exhausted. We are currently exploring what future plans the Lord has for us and these will become clearer over the next few weeks and months.

Kathryn and I want to say from the bottom of our hearts a big thank you to all those we have come to know and love in Ireland. We feel honored that we could join you on your journey with the Lord and look forward to seeing the church being blessed with a new leader who has fresh vision and energy and who can lead this wonderful church into it’s future.

With all our love and our blessing,

Jonathan, Kathryn, Zach and Sofia

Response to Jon’s Announcement

It is with great regret that we learnt of the resignation of Jon Kissell as pastor of the CORE congregation. I know that you will share the shock felt by those who attended our Sunday morning service (Nov 28th) and will join in prayer for Jon, his wife Kathryn and their two children Sofia and Zach.
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Jon has been pastor for 6 years and Kathryn was responsible for the organisation and major success of the many children’s ministry for most of this time. Their inspiration and vision will be missed by all who attended services and became involved in the many ministries which they developed and nurtured in that time. Jon’s prophetic vision of “those on the outside becoming those in the inside reaching out” has brought many new faces in CORE and seen the opening up of our church and vision to the inner-city community of Dublin 8 and beyond.

CORE will start a process on February 1st guided by the Archbishop to seek a new pastor for our church. We propose to hold a general meeting early January where all members can voice their opinions on how we can grow from here. Some of you have already asked if this was the end of CORE. This question comes from the financial insecurity we are currently experiencing coupled with Jon’s decision. Let us be clear that CORE will not only continue but will grow to new strengths as we all pull together at this time.

Many of you will recall the last time we had a vacancy in CORE (seven years ago) and how we all worked together to maintain and develop the spirit, mission, fabric, ministries, services and finances of the church. There is no reason why it should not be even better this time. Already new transition leadership arrangements are being put in place and we will keep you informed of progress through this newsletter in the coming weeks.

Naturally we will have a special evening for all church family and friends to mark the occasion and to bless the Kissell family as they seek God’s blessing for the future (date to be announced).
Jon is available to discuss any questions you may have at this stage and he has appointed me to be the transitional chairperson of our management committee (Nehemiah) which will be coordinating activity until a new pastor is appointed. Nehemiah will need to be strengthened by the co-opting of new members who will serve until the April AGM.

So let’s all pull together for the Kingdom.

Philip

Fundraising Opportunity for CORE

We have been given a golden opportunity as a church to raise some much needed funds and we need YOUR help! Lifeline Recovery have given us an opportunity to bag pack on Christmas week and fundraise for CORE through them. Basically we would organise teams to bagpack and collect the money for Lifeline and they will then make a donation to us. Sounds complicated I know but if we can mobilise lots of people to bag pack on Christmas week then we could possibly raise up to €10,000 for CORE!!!

We are asking people to commit to a half day during Christmas week and to ask all there friends to consider helping out as well. The dates are from Monday 20th December through to the 24th December. Each day would have two shifts. From 10am till 1.30pm and then 1.30 till 6pm. The shopping centre is Dunnes at the “Mill” in Clondalkin village. Below is a link to an online spreadsheet and we are asking people to fill in sections as they find friends who are available.

God Bless you all, Paddy.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tUsXo—LxE0SIqzgOKqFAhQ#gid=0

SWICN Youth Achievement Awards

Hi Folks,

The annual South West Inner City Network Youth Achievement Awards was hosted in CORE last Tuesday evening. 100 children and youth from the Dublin 8 community received awards for excelling in the areas of Sport, Education, Volunteering and Personal achievement. Lots of the Kidz Klub Junior leaders received awards on the night for a variety of reasons. We even have a published author on our team Rebecca Nolan who won an award for being picked to have a chapter in the well publicised book “With Love from Me to Me-A letter to my sixteen year old self”. The event is always so positive and last Tuesday was no different. There were about 300 people in the building and I invited then all to this years Carol service, so here’s hoping!

Paddy

Prayerworks – CORE’s monthly prayer newsletter

PrayerWorks is a monthly prayer sheet to help us to pray for the ministries, events and people of CORE Church. It’s intended to be a tool to aid your prayers. We believe that ‘prayer works’ and God can accomplish much through the prayers of his people. We’d like to see the church grow and mature with each part doing its work. PrayerWorks can help you do your part by setting aside a time to pray in the privacy of your own home. If you would like to sign up to receive Prayerworks by email and commit to praying for CORE please contact Amy in the office.

Prayer Requests and Thanksgivings

• Pray for our country at this time of turmoil, for wisdom for our leaders and unity among the political parties as big decisions are being made.
• Pray for CORE at this time of transition for the church and for John Truscott’s visit next week that it would be helpful as we face into the unknown.
• Pray for Jon and Kathryn as they prepare to leave CORE and Dublin in the coming months, pray for rest and for wisdom as they plan their next steps.
• Pray for the preparations that need to be made as we enter into the Christmas season.
• Pray for those you are thinking of inviting to the Carol Service on the 19th.
• Pray for the prisoners we visit that they would know God’s peace and comfort over the Christmas period.
• Pray for Patricia and Mickey (a local family) as they deal with their ongoing health issues.
• Pray for Jenny as she recovers in St. James hospital.
• Continue to pray for Ruaírí and Kate.
• Please pray for Paddy that God would give him wisdom in working with the Junior leaders at Kidz Klub.

Dates for your Diaries

Wednesday 8th December Smallgroups decorating the church for Christmas

Saturday 11th December Kids Klub Christmas Party

Sunday 12th December CORE Kids Christmas Play 11am

Saturday 18th December Arbour Hill Christmas Carol Service

Sunday 19th December CORE Christmas Carol Service 7pm