Establishing Christ Community Church as a Sent Community: Initiating Spiritual Conversation with Confidence, Relevance, and Conviction

The problem is that Christ Community Church does not see itself as a ‘sent community.’ A ‘sent community’ is one where purpose and forward movement in Kingdom work is embraced. A church must seek to involve itself in the community, delve into the needs, and speak to the emptiness with the Gospel of Jesus. The purpose of this project is to establish Christ Community Church as a ‘sent community’ by offering a sustentative engagement program which will: 1) describe the mission of Jesus; 2) assess the culture in which the church is situated; 3) answer six frequently asked theological questions; 4) grasp the importance of faith, hope, and love; and 5) equip the people with a greater understanding of the Gospel. This twelve session engagement program will equip the congregation with the necessary tools so they can move forward in this task of being ‘sent.’ The research methods will employ a triangulation of survey, questionnaire, and interview. They will assist in gathering data about why the church, and even further, Christianity, has had less appeal and impact and why people in the church are hesitant to engage the culture. Christ Community Church, West Chester, PA is a contemporary, non-denominational Christian church situated in the Philadelphia suburbs which currently averages 1100 in attendance on a Sunday morning. It is the intent of this project to offer an engagement program in which churches might discover theological truths, cultural awareness, and practical methods to engage the culture with the Good News of Christ

Risk of COVID-19 after natural infection or vaccinationResearch in context

Summary: Background: While vaccines have established utility against COVID-19, phase 3 efficacy studies have generally not comprehensively evaluated protection provided by previous infection or hybrid immunity (previous infection plus vaccination). Individual patient data from US government-supported harmonized vaccine trials provide an unprecedented sample population to address this issue. We characterized the protective efficacy of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and hybrid immunity against COVID-19 early in the pandemic over three-to six-month follow-up and compared with vaccine-associated protection. Methods: In this post-hoc cross-protocol analysis of the Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Novavax COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, we allocated participants into four groups based on previous-infection status at enrolment and treatment: no previous infection/placebo; previous infection/placebo; no previous infection/vaccine; and previous infection/vaccine. The main outcome was RT-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 >7–15 days (per original protocols) after final study injection. We calculated crude and adjusted efficacy measures. Findings: Previous infection/placebo participants had a 92% decreased risk of future COVID-19 compared to no previous infection/placebo participants (overall hazard ratio [HR] ratio: 0.08; 95% CI: 0.05–0.13). Among single-dose Janssen participants, hybrid immunity conferred greater protection than vaccine alone (HR: 0.03; 95% CI: 0.01–0.10). Too few infections were observed to draw statistical inferences comparing hybrid immunity to vaccine alone for other trials. Vaccination, previous infection, and hybrid immunity all provided near-complete protection against severe disease. Interpretation: Previous infection, any hybrid immunity, and two-dose vaccination all provided substantial protection against symptomatic and severe COVID-19 through the early Delta period. Thus, as a surrogate for natural infection, vaccination remains the safest approach to protection. Funding: National Institutes of Health