6/21/23: Year End

Annual Meetings give us pause to look back and see ALL that we have done. We began the year without a minister, fractured, hurting, angry, discouraged. It was a dispiriting time. And we are ending the year inspired weekly by our Interim Minister, having pulled back some of the “layers of the onion” in doing the hard work of healing, and hopeful for our future.

This Sunday is Annual Meeting where we will elect the new slate of officers, accept the preliminary budget, and get updates of what has occurred AND look forward to what is going to happen next!

Some of our notable accomplishments include:

  • We filled the pulpit with our Wisdom Council for 4 months while we searched for our Interim.
  • We welcomed one of our own to be our Interim—weren’t we so very fortunate.
  • We hired Karen to be our consultant—she worked with a small group to create a space for hearing and listening and healing. While we know that not everyone feels ready to move on, most are. Karen will be bringing her consulting time to a close with us this fall with a Communications workshop in October.
  • We have enjoyed so many new and returning folks coming through our doors and joining us as we seek to make the invisible God more visible while together we follow Jesus on the way to Radical Love. During the first 4 months Fred was with us, we recorded 80 new people.
  • We have added 5 new members
  • While Stewardship is not complete, we have received 82 pledges for $235,041, 94% of goal. If you haven’t pledged, please do so. This is what determines our budget for the coming year—what can we cut?
  • While not all Ministry Teams and Committees are filled, we have more people stepping up to the plate in leadership, including a new Personnel Committee and a new Pastoral Support Committee and a Safe Church Committee is forming.

Tege has put together a wonderful Annual Report–mostly intended to be read online. There are so many people to thank for all that has been done–for all that has been accomplished. I hope you can join us on Sunday, as we celebrate this very successful year—and launch into a new fiscal year next week. For everyone who said “Yes!”, Thank YOU.

Blessings to you ALL!

PS Karen retrieved a hammer last Sunday to fix a few exposed nails on our pews–saying, “If only all church problems were so easy to fix!”