Hello
Emmanuel,
Are
you ready to get excited enough to jump out of your box? (confused?
Listen to the podcast that will be out this week on yesterday’s sermon).
I’m
excited and I want to share with you why I’m excited. As we look toward a new season, I am looking
toward a new year. For many Pastors,
Fall brings the question, ‘what can we do to make ministry better?’ Advent is only about 2 months away (for
Pastors, that is not very far off). So I
invite you into my head to hear my thoughts.
Scared? You should be. The following is indirectly a result of some
of my learnings while on sabbatical.
October
29th will be the re-start of Saturday Night Worship. People are in place. Pray for it.
I expect good things. In addition
to what we did last Fall, we are looking to provide a children’s worship time
upstairs during adult worship time downstairs….. 6:30 every Saturday.
I’m
looking to talk to the powers-that-be (which include God) to tweak the
structure of Sunday worship time. I want
to celebrate more. Worship should be a
party. We may experiment with ways to
celebrate in more specific ways.
We
are looking to change how we make decisions for ministry at the level of
leadership (i.e. Vision Team). Those
impacted will have already received an email.
I won’t go into detail here except to say we are adding a Resource Team
(made up of finance, SPRC and Trustees) to compliment the increasing load of
the Vision Team. Trust me. I’m excited.
More meeting time equals more time to dream, implement and evaluate
ministry. Otherwise I wouldn’t be
excited.
We
have people stepping forward, wanting to get involved. That always excites me, though we still have
a big hole to fill (Sunday School Teacher for DOC’s…. 4th-6th
graders). I am often impatient to see how
new people with new ideas will create effective ministry.
With
the (eventual) widening of Old 74, opportunity may (or may not) be coming to
obtain more parking. I’m excited to see
what is put before us.
Within
the next several weeks, you will see a monitor in the lobby. We will be able to better communicate with
the 200+ people that come through the building through the week in addition to
the 180 worshippers on the weekend. I am
very excited about that.
Emmanuel
is looking at new possible ways to tackle an ever-aging issue: how to keep a church relatively clean when it
is constantly so busy. Please pray for
us! I’m very excited.
A
new Small Group is in the works for people who want to experiment with Small
Group but not necessarily want to make a long-term commitment. Target start date is November 3rd. More details to come. I am excited.
Emmanuel
has slowly become a hub for the traveling Inter Parish Ministry food
pantry. In addition, the county has
decided to use Emmanuel to put on a Resource Fair for those who come needing
help. Emmanuel’s space will be used to
connect people who are in need to resources that will help them. Organizations from all over the county will
be present. How exciting is that!!
And
the best for last…… Free food will be at church on Sunday. Inter Parish Ministry will be providing food
in the lobby (like donuts… mmmmmm)… as a ‘thank you’ to Emmanuel for all the
time and energy we put in to help IPM reach out. I’m excited!
If
you haven’t already, it is time to invest in something bigger than
yourself. Synergy is all around us and
it is an exciting time.
God
is Good,
Pastor
Joe
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