SEPTEMBER MINISTER’S REPORT

Under ordinary circumstances I will attempt to e-mail my report to the members of the Governing Board prior to the meeting. In this instance I hope you will forgive me for handing it to you at the meeting itself.

General Observations: it’s great to be here, I’m gradually settling in, keeping plenty busy, slowly unpacking. I appreciate all of the excitement and enthusiasm about my arrival and the start of a new church year, and share it.

Committee on Ministry met last Sunday, and has trimmed itself down to five members as stipulated in the By-Laws: Betty B (acting chair), David B, Alex L, Leigh M and Sally W. On the strength of my assurances that a minister is not a piece of equipment whose warranty becomes void if not properly installed, the COM accepted my recommendation to plan for an Installation service in the spring rather than this fall. The main work of the Committee will be to learn and implement the “Assessing Our Leadership” evaluation and review process, as stipulated by our Letter of Agreement.

Worship. Our Ingathering Intergenerational Water Ceremony seemed to come off relatively smoothly, with only a few predictable glitches and 144 souls in attendance. Following Bill D’s inspiration, my hope/goal now is to work to routinely double that number, so please start thinking about inviting your friends. I’m still in the process of figuring out how best to “manage” recruiting worship leaders, children’s storytellers, chalice lighters, guest speakers, etc. but trust that this will all work itself out in relatively short order.

Membership has been hard at work preparing for our Ingathering Sunday – we have a new nametag stand, and are in the process revising many of the materials which we make available to newcomers. Samples are available.

Stewardship has pretty much been operating independently without the need for much participation from me, and is planning to covenant with our Visiting Stewards and kick-off the annual budget drive and stewardship campaign on September 30th.

Religious Education has developed a draft job description for the open DRE position. Sunday School classes will begin this coming week.

I look forward to seeing many (if not all) of you again this weekend at our Leadership Retreat!