Pastor's Notes

“The Holy is encased in the pragmatic.” -- Martha Grace Reese in Unbinding the Gospel

 

Our calling to “Gather, Grow and Go for God!” is holy.  So far, in our “Discovering our Path” process, we have affirmed what we value about the way we live out this sacred mission. We value being a welcoming place full of children, teens, college students, singles, families, and seniors — all glorifying God, growing in faith, caring for one another, and reaching out in service to the world.  This is holy work. 
  
The next step is to put together a staffing and organizational structure that will support our mission.   Of course, we can all think of a million things we would like staff to do, all of which would enhance our mission.  However, we don’t have the millions of dollars this would inevitably cost.  Our task is to build a staff and organizational structure that supports our mission and meets our    budget…and does one more thing: maintains our facility.

 

This holy work requires pragmatic support from a variety of places, a key one being our physical campus. The Facilities Team is charged with maintaining our campus in a way that enables us to continue to live out our mission.  Recently Council received a report from the chair of the team noting several urgent concerns, notably: the open sewer outside the High School House, the leaking roof on our 1739 Fredericks St. property, a sanctuary furnace with a failing panel, and a failing fire alarm system.  Beyond these urgent repairs is a long list of items which need to be done “soon.”  I suspect that if we had cost estimates on all the maintenance and improvements needed to this campus, it would come to about $250,000.

Your council is working on sets of solutions which will address all of our concerns: staffing, structure, budget, and maintenance.  In areas of staffing and structure, we need your input.  Council will continue to work with your ideas and create budget options to be presented to you at our annual meeting on June 10.   On March 11, Council will present options for maintenance of our facility.  A couple of these ideas will require a vote of the congregation.  We will need you to make a choice. Please make a commitment to be there.

 

Our holy mission thrives when we dedicate ourselves to the pragmatic work it requires.

 

Yours in Christ,

Pr Marj