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Message from the Pastor
I am grateful to those of you who were in attendance at our congregational
meeting on Sunday. Though the agenda was straight-forward and by the book (the
Book of Order, that is), the tone and content of the meeting was striking to
me. I came away thinking, “The Session members are a cohesive leadership team,
and the congregation members are more engaged than
ever.”
Here is what I observed
as we made our way through the agenda:
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The election of the
Nominating Committee, whose main task between now and our May congregational
meeting will be to discern prayerfully the men and women God is calling to serve
on the church board, the Session. Following the Book of Order formula, we
elected Elder Ann Hedreen as seated elder and chair; Elder Howard Strickler as non-seated elder; Deacon Linda Westbrook; and members Kathleen Booher and Karen Pederson.
This committee, I believe, has a good knowledge of the congregation members of
various ages, tenures, and areas of interest. They will serve us
well.
- The election of
Elder Ben Saboonchian to fill the
seat vacated by Elder Barbara Williams. Ben has served on Session before, and brings a
strong faith, fair-mindedness, and creativity to our shared
work.
- The presentation of
the 2012 Operating Budget approved by Session at its January 10 meeting. This
budget is balanced, albeit by difficult decisions to eliminate the Youth
Assistant and Music Ministry Assistant positions, a significant amount of local
mission funding, and the balance of the Worship/Music Assistance line item.
This presentation brought the greatest number of questions and comments, most
of these centered around how we will sustain the ministries in which staff was
cut, and how we will be faithful to Christ’s call to aid the poor and
vulnerable. There was also concern about how much of our budget supports
salaries and building expenses. The elders and I did not make these decisions
lightly. We hope the overall economy will improve enough, and the congregation
will grow enough, that we can have both a balanced budget and fully funded
ministries. For this year, in spite of the cuts, we believe we can find
creative new ways to accomplish these priorities. For example, though we do not
have funding for the traditional concerts at Easter and Christmas, the
Discipleship-Evangelism Team has begun plans for a Christmas caroling evening
including members of the congregation, friends, and the wider community. And,
as I pointed out, MBPPC’s congregation has grown significantly in people who see
their lives and work as local mission: a public health dentist; a number of
mental health counselors; 4 full-time hospital/nursing home/college chaplains;
public school teachers; ESL instructors; nurses; foster parents; and seminary
students.
As we go forward, I am
confident that we can grow in two areas the Session has sensed God calling us to
grow this year. The first of these is in discerning and implementing ministries
to infants, children, youth, and adults that are better integrated across those
stages of life. The elders and staff will be on retreat this Saturday, February
4, to focus on this growth area.
The second is a
congregation-wide emphasis on, as our Vision Statement puts it, “going into the
world as disciples of Jesus Christ.” Specifically, this is a shift in
approach. Much of our starting point for outreach has been on trying to get
people to come to the church building, either to see its architectural beauty or
to take part in a special program (e.g. Bible study, concerts, dinners,
auctions, open houses) or a worship service. The shift is not to do away with
these things, but to emphasize equipping members of the congregation to go out
into their neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, homes – the world – ready to
share our faith by listening well to other people’s lives, inviting them to
discover what Christian faith provides us.
This is not as hard, or
as “phony” a thing to do as one might think. On Sunday, February 19, the
Discipleship-Evangelism Team will provide a workshop on how to be comfortable
sharing your faith with others. You can read about this event elsewhere in the
newsletter.
Let’s go forward,
full-steam, and discover how God is faithful during years of robust operating
budgets and years of Spartan operating budgets!
In Christ,
Lee
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