Rich’s first series of the year, which will take us up to Easter, will be Feasting With Jesus. This week’s topic is Living Water – Read John 4:4-26 to prepare for this week’s message.
Remember, our services are now at 8am, 9:30am, and 11am.
Our Connect Groups are all going through a 4 week study series on fasting. This week is week 3, To Amplify Our Prayers.
Worship songs for this week are: Awake My Soul, Look To The Lamb, How Great Thou Art, Promises.
Our Theme for 2026 is Fully Devoted. It syncs with Central’s Vision of People transformed into fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.
By the way, if you are an Android phone user, the Central App is now back on the Google Play store. Search for CentralStPete. Download it to better stay in touch.
Speaking of Volunteers! C’mon, we need your help. With 3 services, there are many more opportunities to serve. On Sunday morning, On Wed Eve, where can you serve? Children’s, Student, Worship, Greeters ?? Get more involved – Central is YOUR church – Be the church.
Our Parking & Shuttle Ministries are looking for more volunteers to assist in making coming to Central a pleasant experience for our partners and visitors. Contact Martin Mickey martin_mickey@hotmail.com for Parking Ministry or Bill Phillips 1969firebird1@gmail.com for our Shuttle Ministry. Your help is needed in both ministries - it’s a great way to get connected and an excellent way to serve fellow partners here at Central.
Our Safety Team could also use some additional members. Do you have any law enforcement or medical experience that you’d like to put to use serving the Kingdom here at Central? If so, contact Rob Breese pewter55@msn.com .
Of course, as our attendance continues to grow, our Children’s Ministry grows with it. If you want to volunteer to pour into our children’s spiritual foundation, contact Laura@centralstpete.com .
Please continue to park at Northwest Park on Sunday morning. It will be a great help with parking for our many Visitors every Sunday if you can use one of our beautiful Shuttle Vans. Our service times (8, 9:30, & 11am) still allow for plenty of time to shuttle.
Church Picnic reminder ! ! January 25th right after 3rd service. Food will be served in Connect Center: no one needs to bring anything. Central Kids will have Crafts available. The Playground will be available. There will be Cornhole and other games. Hamburgers, Hotdogs, Sides, Drinks and desserts are all provided. Come and celebrate the end of the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.
Saturday, February 7 is the Becoming a Woman of Prayer Workshop. You can sign up here.
We need to make you aware that our No Open Carry Policy will go into effect later this month. Florida Law allows Open Carry of firearms on private property UNLESS you have a policy prohibiting it and signage declaring NO OPEN CARRY. We have implemented such a policy and signage will go up in the coming weeks. Should you see someone carrying a firearm in the open (not concealed) please inform a member of the Safety Team or a member of the Staff. We’ve never had an issue with this but it is necessary to have a policy in place for future prevention.
Work continues on the bathrooms in the Connect Center (getting so close). We are progressing. You have seen some of the impacts of our construction (safety tape on our main entry walkway). We await city inspections to proceed and appreciate your patience. At this time there are no bathrooms available in the Connect Center but soon we will have new larger men’s and women’s bathrooms there. For now, we will have to use the bathrooms in the NextGen House or Main Building. Thank you for bearing with us as the work is being completed.
We are also in the process of obtaining the quotes to redo the bathrooms in the main building. Main building bathrooms are a high priority on our Pass The Baton campaign. We need to have the permits in place so that we can proceed when the funds are available.
The new 40-ton AC Unit has arrived. Work will begin in the coming weeks to install and configure the new unit. It should give some much needed relief to our other 40-ton AC Unit for our main building and allow us to better balance the AC load.
Our Capital Campaign called Pass the Baton had its big kick-off on Christmas Eve and Central partners came through. The main items that we are targeting are: - Bathroom Renovation Our main building bathrooms are in dire need of updating and expanding. - Main Worship Space Renovation Updating seating, floors, walls and upgrading sound to accommodate growth and enhance our worship space. - A/C Unit Replacement Replacing our two main building 40-ton A/C units (each costing $270,000) to ensure reliable comfort for everyone who worships and serves at Central. - Mortgage Payoff Paying off our $305,000+ mortgage balance to free up our resources for ministry, missions, and outreach.
All of our giving methods have been updated to accommodate the new campaign. You can give directly or If you want to make a pledge for the campaign, you can also do that on the website - https://centralstpete.com/pass-the-baton. So far, our people have donated about $345,000 and have already pledged another $120,000. Between those 2 numbers we are more than 30% to target. This is great start toward our $1.5 million goal but we need to keep this campaign at the forefront. These projects are needed to serve our current partners and will also help us prepare for future growth.
Please continue to submit prayer requests on our Connection Cards, Linktree, or through our Central App. You can also stop by our Prayer Room at any time on Sunday morning to submit a prayer or meet with a prayer warrior. We are a church that believes in the power of prayer and we see it working every day in our lives.
There are always visitors, some new, some repeat, showing up every Sunday morning. What a blessing!! God brings them to us; it’s our job to make them feel welcome and share the good news. Don’t forget to invite our visitors back to worship with us again. Also invite them to your class or small group. Let’s help them get connected.
Be bold and share your Jesus story with someone who doesn’t yet know Him. Your first testimony to anyone is the joy that they see on your face and in your heart. Let them see Jesus’ love through you.
Feel free to reach out to your Elder or any Elder with any questions or concerns you may have. The Elders are listed at the end of this email with the partners in their group, by last name. The Elder groups have shifted, as we do every year, so all our Elders have an opportunity to get to know all our partners.
YOU are a blessing to Central in so many ways. The Lord has brought you here to be a part of His kingdom work.
We appreciate your heart for worship, giving, caring, and serving and are grateful to God for you.
