Reflections From Sunday Evening

Bishop Robert Schnase spent time Friday and Saturday with our leadership council and staff. He shared a number of great insights that will contribute to more fruitful ministry here at PWUMC. He offered some very practical suggestions about staffing, staff meetings and developing new ministries. As I listened I recognized many things we are doing well and other things we may improve. Perhaps the most significant learning was the need to continue learning. It is very obvious we do many things extremely well. We could sit back and relax in knowing we are a really good church. But as I look around the room at our leadership and staff it becomes clear that we are not the type of people/church to "settle" for pretty good. I sense a drive to honor God. I sense a drive to reach people for Christ. I sense a drive to step out and put faith to practice. It is a very encouraging feeling. Thanks to Bishop Schnase for sharing with us. I believe his contribution will result in greater fruitfulness for our church. On a practical note we announced today the beginning of a new singles initiative. Jessie Ehly has stepped forward to launch this new ministry. Singles are our focus. The group will probably evolve into single men and women from around 24-39 years of age. We envision a singles Sunday School class (begins next week), mission/service projects and fellowship opportunities. Mostly we envision a place where people may come together and meet Christ and grow in faith! If you are single or know singles get the word around. Now let me use this example to show how we govern at PWUMC. A couple of weeks ago Jessie came to Pastor Ginger with her vision. This week I met with them. Today we announced the launch. There has been a good bit of work behind the scenes and we have generated a nice list of names from our data base. Now Jessie will be making personal contact and we expect a new ministry to launch. Our church provides us the freedom to dream and act. In days gone by a ministry initiative like this would have required "board" approval and who knows what other groups would need to get involved. Our system provides freedom to act when we feel God is leading us. This has some great potential for our future. It's been a really good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve