During our 175th anniversary year, we took time to remember and to celebrate the faithfulness of God to Central. For generations, by his grace, God faithfully provided for his church in so many ways. Today in 2021, we stand on the foundation of those generations. We look to the future with great anticipation of how God will continue to faithfully lead us forward. If we have eyes to see, the signs of his faithfulness are everywhere.

As we begin the month of March, one such sign of that faithful provision can be found in the beginning of a new chapter in our Women’s Ministry at Central. On Monday, March 22nd, we will officially welcome long-time member Julie Geisz as our new Director of Women’s Ministry! Julie and her family have been active members of Central for many years. She loves our church. She loves the women of our church. And she is eager and excited to begin serving her church family in this new way.

This new chapter in our Women’s Ministry comes as a result of a prayerful and thoughtful search process, a process that began in the early part of 2020. Our search committee included a wise and wonderful group of Central leaders: Katie Boggs, Jeanne Kuhlman, Missy Morgan, Ellen Schmidt, Julie Schloss, and Charles Godwin. Through much prayer, this team sought the Lord’s will for this new position over an extensive search process. Several highly qualified candidates applied for the position and participated in a carefully designed process of engagement through which the committee had the opportunity to better understand each candidate and how they might fit into this important role for our church. The work required a significant amount of time, energy and prayer from our search committee. We could not be more thankful for the result of their work as we prepare for Julie Geisz to begin.

New Chapter, New Focus
Before our search process began, we spent time reviewing and updating the job description for this important position. We discovered a need (and an opportunity) to have this position focus more intentionally on congregational care – in particular, the care of our many women at Central. While the position would still require gifts in the area of teaching and discipleship, it would require a highly relational leader with a servant’s heart – a leader who would naturally and joyfully seek to care for the women of Central.

If you know Julie Geisz, you know that God has provided us with a wonderful match in this regard. Julie’s warm personality and relational gifts make caring for people a natural part of life for her. She is warm, wise and a wonderful listener. As our Director of Women’s Ministry, Julie will report to our Pastor of Congregational Care, Charles Godwin. Charles and Julie will work closely together and with our shepherds in caring for our flock. Our prayer is that the women of our church will experience even greater connection with our church family and ministry as Julie comes on board.

Excellence in Teaching
Our Women’s Ministry is one of our largest ministry groups in the church, and for generations they have faithfully and fervently sought to grow in their faith. While this position has a new focus on care, it will also continue to include a focus on teaching and discipleship. In addition to Julie’s strengths in the area of care, she also comes to us with a wealth of teaching experience. Since 2005, Julie has served as a “Teaching Leader” at Bible Study Fellowship. In that role, Julie conducted expository teaching of the scriptures every week. During her extensive time with Bible Study Fellowship, Julie taught through the scriptures of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, Romans, and nearly all of the letters from Paul, John and Peter. Her robust experience as a teacher will be a tremendous gift to our ministry.

Visionary Leader
In her time at Bible Study Fellowship, Julie also had numerous leadership responsibilities. As a “Teaching Leader”, Julie had responsibility to recruit, coach and shepherd a team of more than 50 leaders, equipping them with vision and creating a culture of grace, excellence and integrity across the team. Her leadership style is one of servant-leadership, seeking to come alongside of fellow women to follow the Lord in ministry together. As a long-time member of Central, she knows many of our Central women already and will be able to quickly integrate with them as their new ministry partner.

Last but not least, as a member of Central Julie was one of eight Central members who participated on our recent “Vision and Strategy Task Force” with Pastor Clay. This team spent a number of months together with Clay after he arrived at Central to seek the Lord’s guidance for our future vision and mission as a church. It is from this group that our new vision statement came: “Central Presbyterian Church seeks the transformation of our lives, our communities and the world through the renewing work of Jesus Christ.” As a key member of this task force, Julie has a keen sense of where we are going as a church and is extremely excited about becoming a more direct part of it in her role as our new Director of Women’s Ministry.

In the coming week, please pray with us for Julie. Pray that the Lord would bless and equip her with all the wisdom necessary to serve faithfully in this new role. Pray for the protection and flourishing of her and her whole family. Pray for her health and wellness. And pray that the Lord would use her in this new chapter to be yet another sign of his amazing faithfulness at Central.