2023 was a successful year for our Resurrection family. I purposely didn’t list people to thank in my annual report last month for fear I would leave somebody out. The truth is I really need to thank everybody. This feeling was brought home to me when I reviewed everything we accomplished last year. So if you contributed your financial resources and/or time and talents to our ministry in 2023 by; serving on council, helping make Pastor Mary’s Retirement a special occasion, leading bible study, helping with scheduling and welcoming supply pastors, contributing to our community picnics (even if it was just brining a dish to pass), helping with outdoor worship services, contributing to our Cereal/Soup and Holiday Bake Goods Drives for the New Berlin Food Pantry or our School Supply Drive for Journeys School, Gathering data to get our MET off to a good start, welcoming Pastor Steve, serving on the MET, participating in our Faithful Innovation activity at the New Berlin Christmas Tree Lighting, performing in our Intergenerational Christmas Pageant, completing the many tasks that usually get done around here, or helping in any other way – THANK YOU. This ministry is so richly blessed by all of you!
Going forward into 2024 we will continue to need that same level of participation to successfully complete the transition process and call a new pastor as well as to continue to move our ministry forward. As I have said many times, if asked to help with a task, by myself or any other congregational leader, please give the request careful consideration and say yes if you can. With respect to the pastoral transition the MET is completing their writing of the Ministry Site Profile (MSP - a document that describes our ministry and our search for a pastor) with a goal of council approval during our March Council Meeting. Following that the MSP is submitted to Synod and we will provide copies to the congregation. The MSP will be formally presented to Congregation a final time for last questions and input at a Town Hall Meeting scheduled for April 21. The Bishop and his assistant will be at that meeting and may provide input or ask questions as well. Simultaneously as we are completing the MET process, we are forming a Call Team (Call Committee), with the hope of getting them direction and training from synod in early April. The principal job of the Call Team will be to interview pastoral candidates and make a recommendation as to who we should call as our new pastor. Another thing that will take some of our effort and attention this year is our Campus Plan. For years we have talked about using our vast outdoor space for greater benefit. Our primary goals are to utilize the land to enhance our ministry, unify spaces, and update our current landscaping. To reach these goals requires professional expertise. Ron Reichert has formed a committee; they have completed group brainstorming to generate ideas, researched companies to do a land audit and develop a design plan and are in the process of reviewing references and obtaining bids. We have not budgeted for this process. We will need to do fundraising and likely will develop a phased plan for implementing the design. Ideas being considered to be a part of the plan are: Gazebo/Pavilion, Perimeter Walking/Exercise Trail, Youth area for all generations, Meditation Garden, and updates to the Community Garden. In the near term we would also like to update our Congregation Constitution. This update is recommended as part of the pastoral transition process. The intent is to update our congregation constitution to bring it into conformity with the Model Constitution for Congregations of the ELCA. There have been two major updates to the model constitution (in 2005 and 2020) since we last updated our congregation constitution in 1990. We have been working with Pastor Sarah Stobie from the synod office to draft the necessary revisions. They will be published once complete, and we will have a special congregational meeting to ratify the changes. Watch your emails for notifications and the draft constitution. Finally, in the year ahead we plan to continue our Faithful Innovation experiments of listening to God, one another, and our neighbors and being present in the spaces of our wider communities. Ideas being developed include sharing stories of faith at a local pub and finding ways to help the local school district address the mental health concerns of teens. Looking forward to another year of successful ministry. Blessing, Tom
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