LETTER FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dear Christ Central family,

I want to let you know how grateful I am for the privilege of working alongside you and your fellow leaders these last several months.

If my interim role is news to you, allow me to briefly catch you up: I’m Dr. Will Gray, a consultant who often works with growing churches. Last summer, I led a six-weeks-long consulting project designed to identify what Christ Central needed to put in place in order to continue its growth in as healthy a way as possible.

I identified six key projects, as well as a new role (Executive for Church Leadership), an administrative leader of the church that is appropriate for a church of this size. The Session greenlit all six projects, and also hired me to establish the Executive role, in an interim role. I began all of these in September 2022.

Although my time as your interim Executive is coming to an end soon, a great deal has been accomplished over the last several months, and I’d like to share some highlights:

• Your staff, Session, Women’s Leadership Council, and diaconate all took a Growth Checkup to identify which aspects of the church are strong, healthy, and ready for growth, and which aspects need strengthening or attention.

• Pastor Daniel Mason completed a six-week Vocationality pathway, to identify how God has designed him to do his best work.

• I’m nearly finished with an HR upgrade called The Good Fit Team Member Journey. It’s a set of 20 playbooks and 30 tools that enables anyone in the church’s leadership to take the lead in any stage of a staff team member’s relationship with Christ Central, from the creation of a new role, through interviewing and onboarding, and into proactive leadership and responding well to challenges as they arise.

• The pastors and I have made major progress in clarifying the church’s Identity, listening for a more specific sense of God’s calling on Christ Central in particular.

•I’ll work with the Session to create the church’s first active Plan in February.

• By the end of February, I’ll have led four Executive Coaching sessions for Daniel, Timothy, Evan, and Emilio on how to take healthy leadership in advanced relationship situations.

• We’ll have improved Role & Lane clarity for each staff team role and each leadership group, which will also make it clearer in advance what becoming a leader at Christ Central means.

• I’m leading each staff team member to create a Playbook of an important process, to capture the way we do things around here.

I’m grateful for Christ Central, for the passionate ways you all are seeking to live in Durham, for Durham. I’m grateful for your leaders, who have become dear friends. It’s been an honor to work alongside you, and I’ll continue to remember and pray for you the rest of my life.

With love and best wishes to you,

Will Gray Interim Executive Director