Introducing Lori Upham

Hello Emmanuel,

I golfed in the church yesterday.  It was a first.  It was fun.  I didn't win.  On the bright side, I got free food.  So I did win.

It was the first of our FamilyFest series.  We will be trying to implement some fun events designed for entire families.  If they are all as creative as the first, it should be interesting.  

As our ministry expands, so does our leadership.  Not only did we hire Pastor Shawn in January to lead our media and Small Group ministry, but we are introducing our new Administrative Assistant to Emmanuel today.  Her name is Lori Upham.  With an exception of a couple of weeks in the Summer, she will be in the church office Monday through Friday, 9:00-12:00.   She is an active member at Clough United Methodist Church and has been very involved in the Emmaus Community.  We will also be introducing her on a Sunday morning, hopefully as soon as this week.

I encourage you to send an email or make a phone call or stop by and meet her.  Her email is lori.upham@emmanuel-umc.com.  Or you can call her at the church at 732-1400.  You will not see her much on Sundays, but she is going to be a vital part of how the church communicates with you and how you communcate with the church.  She is super friendly and thinks I'm funny.  Clearly I'm optimistic about such a great hire.

Lori will be in charge of the 'guts' of how Emmanuel communicates.   She will manage the church's official google calendar, manage website articles, Sunday announcements, edit/print the bulletin and newsletter, keep church statistics/membership records, and do many miscellaneous tasks that are needed week to week (which can be many).  In addition, she will do so light cleaning of the church, especially the lobby, sanctuary and classroom areas.  Indeed, she will have a full 15 hours of work a week.  

But most of all, she wants to get to know you.  She understands the significance of connecting with people, not just with tasks.  This is a ministry to her.  She will be attending our Vision meetings and wanting to know  who is who.  Again, especially if you are leader, I encourage you to find a way to say 'hi'.  

Finally, I want to thank everyone who stepped in to fill the gaps until we got Lori hired.  There is a lot ot do at Emmanuel during the week, much of it administrative.  And while 'administrative' sounds boring and 'red-tapish', I assure you that everything that is done is pertinent to sustaining the health of Emmanuel long-term.  God has given us a church that is becoming more complicated.  But that is what we get when we follow His Call and make more disciples of Christ.  People always complicates things.  Lori will help keep things straight.

So welcome Lori to Emmanuel and encourage her.  She likely doesn't know what she has got herself into, but that's okay.  Most of us didn't know what we were getting into either.

God is Good,
Pastor Joe