One Year & Counting
“In commitment and renewal to my covenant as a clergy person in The United Methodist Church, I now reverently and with joy, accept my appointment with a glad mind and will, and pray that I shall be worthy of my call to the ministry, my conference relationship, and the place of labor to which I have been appointed.”
This is the vow each clergy person takes at Annual Conference during the Celebration of Ministry service after the Bishop announces the appointments for the year have been “fixed.” It’s a reminder that clergy are appointed on a year-to-year basis, even though the Cabinet tries to keep us in our appointments for lengthier periods than used to be the case.
As I write this, we just completed Annual Conference 2023, the appointments were fixed, and both Pastor Mackenzie and I have been reappointed to High Street UMC for 2023-24. By the time this comes out, we’ll have hit the 1-year anniversary of my time here. It’s hard to believe how fast this year has gone.
I went back to my notes of our August 2022 small group meetings after I first arrived to see what we’d learned from those, and where we are today. As I stated after those meetings, the most frequently mentioned wishes and dreams for the first 6-12 months “were more people joining us (especially younger families), small group studies, greater financial stability for the church, and the return of Update Learning. Things were a little fuzzier around what we were willing to do to make those dreams a reality, but hopefully you’ve all been thinking about that since our meetings. Because dreams don’t come true without the combined efforts of all of us.”
With much prayer and discernment from the Update Learning leadership team, that ministry was brought to a close. We’ve had some small group studies, but it would be great to have more. And we’ve seen more people – and more younger families – joining (and re-joining) our faith community. But as we know, there’s always room for more. As was the case last year, it takes all of us to make dreams come true.
Financial stability continues to be a concern for our congregation. You are a generous group of people, and I give thanks daily for it. But it takes a lot of time, talent, and resources to keep our church and building running, as we all know. A few members of our Church Council asked the staff to put together a “wish list” of things they would like to have for the church and their ministry areas, if money were no object. You may hear more about a “Christmas in July” opportunity for special projects and items you might be able to sponsor at a variety of price points – low and high. Whether you choose to participate is entirely up to you, and between you and God.
We’ve had a good year of ministry together. I look forward with joy to another fruitful year together.