“New Beginnings”
On June 28th we finally reopened the church with our first in-person service since March. So many volunteers, too many to list here, spent the week before the service setting up The Grove to ensure that we did everything possible to keep our congregation virus safe. The service went very well and we thank all those who attended for following the signs and guidelines.
We also said our goodbyes to Pastor Beverly during her last service with us and presented her with a ‘Love Offering” to help offset some of her expenses for moving to her new church assignment. Again, a great group of volunteers from our congregation assisted Beverly in the loading and the moving itself.
Then this week we welcomed Pastor John Tomlin to our church with a flurry of activities to transfer computers, accounts, keys – you name it – to him as he begins his service with us. We will be setting up a series of events outside of the Sunday services to allow our congregation to get to know Pastor John, most likely via the Zoom video service to keep everyone virus-safe. Also, Pastor John will be continuing video sermons for those who can’t be with us in person. In all things we want to ensure your physical health while we feed your spiritual health.
At the Board meeting on June 29th we approved the revised 2020 budget to reflect the change in pastor and the cessation of financial assistance from the conference. The finances are still a challenge, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic derailed our plans to employ our facilities to generate additional revenue, but your ongoing strong support gives us time to address the issues through our upcoming visioning process.
We will be scheduling the beginning of our church visioning process with Rev. Blair Zant – one of our guest video sermons in June – to chart a new course for our church. We invite everyone to take an active role in reshaping our ministries and programs which I firmly believe will reinvigorate our church both spiritually and financially.
So, this month started a series of new beginnings that will reshape our church to better serve as disciples of Jesus Christ to the world.
Yours in service,
Steve Justice – 2020 NFUMC Board Chair
