David Kelley, evangelism and culture impact committee chair

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.

Psalm 67:3-4

In the spring of last year, the Evangelism Committee was combined with the Culture Impact Committee. During this past fiscal year, the Evangelism and Culture Impact Committee has been figuring out its new role with the combination of the two committees.

We’ve been encouraged by many things that have continued as part of the culture of College Church. The Sanctity of Human Life Task Force continues regular prayer events throughout the year, and we had good participation in March for Life Chicago. There was also good support for the Outreach Community Center Christmas Store, and we anticipate the same for the Coins for Caring Network collection drive that is ongoing.

Several new initiatives this year have been exciting. This past year, we kicked off what we’re calling the Faith and Culture Series that places more direct emphasis on specific areas of life that we, as Christians, can be speaking into, such as faith in the public schools. Separately, in response to a broadly felt desire to engage more in social justice issues from a biblical perspective, two book discussion groups were started on Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth by Thaddeus Williams. We also encouraged several smaller gatherings that went through the Christianity Explored curriculum and gave positive feedback on good conversations with at least one person coming to faith. We’re looking for ways to expand on this effort in the next year.

We recently named National School Project (now Decision Point) as a partner organization for its work in equipping students to share their faith to their classmates through both large rallies and conversations. It is exciting to see an organization that is so focused on proclaiming the gospel in a context with such great

opportunity, and we look forward to supporting them in prayer, finances and practical assistance.

We continue to prayerfully consider how we might bear the name of Christ in who we are to our families, friends and neighbors.