We had our local Church Conference this past Sunday to discuss what’s happening in the church and get some feedback on how we are doing. Keep reading for a summary of our goals for the new year as well as some updates on things we are working on in the church.
At church conference we talked about five goals in this next year. Three of them are primary goals for us, while the other two are side projects we’d like to see happen. The three goals are:
Support the contemporary service so it grows from about 30 people to 50
Sustain our Financial Commitments to Staff and the facility, while growing our missions budget
Revitalize existing ministries by integrating new people into the church
We are hopeful that the new contemporary service can be an engine of growth for our church. As new folks try it out and become part of the church, we want them to plug into the great ministries we already have, like the UMW, family promise, the food pantry and more.
The other goals we have are to explore an opportunity to host Middle School students across the street and to do a better job of connecting nursery school families to our church. We’ll share more on those additional goals as the year progresses.
The local Church Conference also gave folks a chance to offer some feedback on our simplified board model. People suggested better communication between the board and teams as well as meeting more often. Those are good suggestions! I have some similar ideas I’ll review with the board including:
Increasing the number of board meetings from 4 to 6, making our meetings bi-monthly instead of quarterly.
Inviting members of the board to share with the congregation on Sunday some things that are happening, or projects being worked on (along with the annual introduction at the start of the new year)
Inviting the congregation to join the church board to share their thoughts and ideas at one of our meetings
Inviting the staff of the church to join the church board to share their thoughts and ideas at one of our meetings
Ensuring clear communication is happening between the board and teams
Giving public updates from the pastor of some of the administrative work happening in the church
Some also suggested having liaisons between the staff and the Church Board. We used liaisons previously as part of the Staff Parish Relations Committee. Interestingly, this is not part of the previous model; it was just something our church did on its own. We can add that back in easily enough, so we’ll look at adding that back in for the new year.
Here are a few updates of things happening in the church beyond church conference:
Kitchen renovations are still under way. The church was delayed in its progress by several weeks because of the town withholding permits. We expect the rest of the sinks to be completed and the permits obtained this week. After that it won’t be long before the kitchen is completed!
The church continues to look for a finance chairperson to lead us in the new year. If you or someone you know may be interested, let us know!
The food pantry has issued grocery gift cards to Pastor Brian. If you know someone who is in need let us know; we want to make sure everyone has enough food and healthy food to eat!
There continue to be concerns about building and grounds tasks being completed in a timely way. Part of the issue is knowing who is responsible and what’s the deadline. We are trying out a google drive spreadsheet that all parties involved have access to, so everyone’s on the same page. So far, so good!
The 11am service has a playlist so you can learn the songs that are sung there. Here’s the link. Enjoy!
If you’d like a copy of the Conference booklet to see the reports we have copies at the church and in the office. God bless and thanks for caring about the church!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW_dCKGM8EJ7aYcFV4WMiuw_IE8wYUoD2
