Last year went by so fast it is almost a blur. In the beginning of the year I felt I was wandering. I wondered if I had lost my sense of direction for us as a community. I felt at a loss. In my ministry as your priest, there were two defining moments.

The building where the little church with the BIG heart meets
We did everything I knew of to live into God’s calling. We grew stronger in ministry and mission, spirituality, and stewardship but we continued to stagnate in others. We gained new families only to lose people to old age. How dare, especially our younger members, move on? We had a small piece of the Kingdom of God here on earth, why weren’t people breaking down our doors?
With my marketing background, I feel personally responsible for the lack of membership growth. We had direct mail campaigns, movie nights, concert series, teacher appreciation programs, and special liturgies for the Boy Scouts, Masons and Election Eve. We opened our facility to anyone that was in need. According to the experts our membership should have been increasing, instead, it stayed the same.
Then came the first of the defining moments for me in 2009.
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