From the February Newsletter
We recently started our new church year, a new year (Welcome 2018), a new congregational year after the annual meeting and a new council. That is a lot over the last couple of months! Can you feel the energy? Can you feel the Spirit moving about? I sure can. Take a look at the narrative budget again and get energized by all that we do, in the name of God, with your support.
We had a great end of the year. What’s that you say? Sure, we came in very strong and that should energize us all. We did not come in as far in debt as we had anticipated. There was a lot of people stepping up near the end. Now to help each of us to keep up this energy so we can be in the black by the end of the year.
We have such great opportunities here at First. Now that we are in our congregation’s new year, we can continue to grow our congregation, grow is mission opportunities, grow in service to each other, grow our leadership, grow our giving of time and talents.
We have a new members class this month. As part of this class, I invite everyone to partake in the Spiritual Gifts portion of the class. Join in fellowship with the new members and find out what God is calling you to be involved in. We have already had one baptism, but others have started the conversation about baptism. I have been in conversation about weddings and vows renewals. All of this is exciting because it shows us the excitement and activity of this congregation.
This year’s Lent promises to be part of that excitement. We again will be sharing our services with St. Paul United Methodist. The services will be more contemplative and will grow each week. Not only do I anticipate attendance to grow, but each week we will grow what is offered in the service. Each service will have a drama to open us up. These will be directed by our Choir directory, Joey Hartshorn. Last year we showed a DVD of a “Living Last Supper” I was involved in. This year, we will have a live “Living Last Supper”, directed by Joey Hartshorn. With word of mouth, press releases and some advertising, I expect that we will have many visitors and first-time worshipers. Are you energized now? Come experience the Spirit in our midst!
Peace and blessings
Pastor Doug