To be and develop Disciples of Christ
It is my privilege to bring to you my 26th report, coming up on completing 27 years as your pastor. You are a wonderful, alive, healthy congregation and I brag about you any chance that I get. Ministry Interns
I have very much enjoyed working with our three ministry interns, Connie Young with her District Minister’s License and Tonya Hockenberry and Robert Swedenhjelm with their Local Minister’s Licenses. Connie is almost finished with her preparation for ordination and has been approved for ordination at this year’s District Assembly on Friday evening, June 29th. She is currently serving as Supply Pastor at Meadville Nazarene doing their preaching and making hospital calls and other special visits. Tonya has served as our Children’s Ministry director and recently led another successful women’s retreat. Robert works with Worship and Technology and has developed our new webpage and been instrumental in getting our morning services broadcast live on the internet and available to watch anytime on YouTube. I enjoy working with all three of these ministers who have had their ministerial call recognized by our Church Board. It is an honor to work with these three fine ministers and I look forward to seeing where God is going to take them in their service for Him. Discipleship I especially want to thank Pastor Connie for her work this year as our Associate of Discipleship Ministries. She has led the Church Board through “Passages”, a small group discipleship Bible study and now many from the Board are leading their own groups. It is our prayer that many from these groups will then begin to lead new groups, both with people from the church and from outside of the church. We are seeing individuals growing closer to God and maturing in their faith as they study the Bible together and support each other in their faith journeys. Prayer Ministry We are also privileged to have Pastor Phil Gilmore and Deb as part of our congregation. Phil did his internship with us, then went to pastor our Corry Church of the Nazarene, and then moved back when he took early retirement due to his health. Phil has kept us updated on how to be in prayer for the needs of the church and community. We are stronger today because we have prayed. One example this year of answered prayer is with Jackson Ransom, who was born quite prematurely and has is now growing and gaining in strength. Every time we see Jackson we are reminded that we have a prayer answering God. There are many other examples of prayers answered this year. Continue to pray for Phil and Deb that he might receive the right kidney donation at the right time. Also, pray for them as they seek God’s guidance related to their future plans. Changes It looks like this is going to be a year of change in our congregation in several areas.
One of the clearest signs of the level of health and spiritual growth I am seeing in the church is in the willingness of people to step forward to volunteer. The response to nominations this year has been by far the best I have ever seen. We have just about twice the number we are electing agreeing to be on the ballot, including in the area of Church Board. We are electing 4 board members and have 8 names on the ballot, including 4 who have never been on our Church Board before! That is really exciting! As the makeup of the Board changes, we have new spiritual gifts, talents, and ideas brought to the table. There are other areas where people are stepping up to minister within the church and outside the walls of the church. God is growing His church! 50 Years!Niles Copeland chose not to be on the ballot this year, having completed 50 years on the Board of this local church! WOW! Thank you, Niles, for your faithful service. He continues to be committed to our church and will continue to serve with us in many areas. Thank you, Shirley! Thank you to Shirley Copeland for all of your work as Custodian. Shirley serves faithfully and certainly works “as unto the Lord.” It is great to know that when we walk into the church on Sunday morning it is clean and presentable to all. Be sure to thank Shirley for what she does. Moving Forward I am looking forward to our 2018/19 church year being one of our best!
Thank you for loving Carol and I so much and for being our church family. You are very important to us and we do love you! I say it again, it is my privilege to be your pastor! We are a very fortunate pastor and spouse to have a people like you to join with on our spiritual journey. Let’s keep fulfilling our Mission and living by our Core Values. Respectfully submitted, Pastor Wayne Hennen
2 Comments
5/16/2018 05:53:51 pm
It's good to list down all our achievements every year. I guess that's what an annual report should be about. We don't want to be dwelling on sad incidences and things we totally have no control over. Sure we can mention a little something about it, but we shouldn't dwell on that all the time and make the theme of the report anything but positive. It's not going to help. I guess we should try to give each other a little pat on the back and say "Good job!". It will encourage us to keep up the good work, even do better in the next year to run.
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5/30/2018 06:59:57 pm
People should allot time discussing annual reports. They can learn a lot from the movement of organisations for the past five years. They would have easily predicted the challenges that will come along the way if they have been aware of each movement. They also need to acknowledge the efforts of whoever is compiling all these data. The best researches are those who do not just collect data but rather discover ways how to constantly improve results.
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