Dear Church Family, 

God’s word encourages us in so many ways! In Colossians 3:12-15, God says, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in our hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.”

The passage strikes a chord in our hearts as we face these ever-changing days we find ourselves in.  We are to live as a representative of the Lord Jesus clothing ourselves with His love and grace and we are to always be thankful! 

With that note, I want to update you on some exciting news we are thankful for!  First, we have filled both of our open staff positions with two quality individuals that we believe will fit in well with our staff and church family and enhance our ministry.  We have called Mallory Arnold, currently living in Alexandria MN., to the fulltime position of Director of Communication and Technology and we have called Cheri Carey, from within our church family, to our part-time position of Office Manager.   

They both will be starting around the middle of July and we look forward to introducing them to you.  I want to express my thanks to Denae Alamano, Terry Fisher and Pastor Doug who did a wonderful job in serving with me on the Search Committee.  Please join us in celebrating this exciting news and also to be in prayer for Mallory and Cheri as they transition into our staff and church ministry.

Secondly, we are moving closer to regathering for worship.  Thank you for all who submitted a survey.  As you can imagine we received strong views on both sides of the scale about how soon to regather and what the regathering would look like with the majority falling somewhere in the middle.  Your feedback helps us get a pulse of what to expect.  

In addition to the survey, we also have a great Regathering Preparedness Team in place working to help make the guidelines and prepare the necessary steps we need to take to regather.  They are Steve Quamme, Gale Struthers, Kari Kantack Miller, Bill Palm, Orlando Alamano, Sarah Holt, Darla Hazeltine and John Kovatch.  

We have a desire to move as quickly as possible in this step to regather, but we have important logistics we need to address and have in place.  One, is installing permanent live streaming equipment in the sanctuary, so we can continue and enhance our online worship experience in the future.  Currently, we are not live streaming butrecording and editing our services.  When that time comes, it is important to understand that both going to live stream and our initial regathering services will look different than we are currently used to, but I am confident they will be done well and God will bless them.  

When we do move to that place of regathering, we desire that it will be a positive experience for everyone whether some choose to continue to worship online for a while or others join in person.  

 

Please pray for God to guide us each step of the way.  Pray for our staff, Leadership Team and Regathering Preparedness Team as we serve Jesus and His Church together.  Pray for unity in our church, community, and world.  And, pray for each step we take to honor, glorify and represent Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

 

Sincerely in Christ,

Pastor Todd