July Adventures...
Happy
New Appointment Year!!
July
1 begins a new year in the life of clergy in The United Methodist Church, as
our appointment year begins anew. It
gives me great joy that Bishop Minerva Carcaño has appointed me to serve
another year in Quincy, as I begin my third year with you. This is an amazing place to live and serve
and I can’t be thankful enough to be here!!
As
we begin our third year together, I always like to take some time to look at
where we have been and where we hope to go this next appointment year. I know this will be a longer article, but I
hope you will have the chance to read and think about where we have been and
where God calls us to go, and where we can engage in conversation in this next
appointment year.
Since
I began serving here in 2016, we have welcomed new people into the life of our
church, while saying see-ya-later to some who have moved away, and have
commended some into God’s eternal care these last couple years. Some other highlights include:
· * Adding a second Sunday School class for
intermediate grades AND having children in church and actively involved every
Sunday!! We are also in the process of
planning a youth group for kids entering grades 6 through 12.
· *Building improvements including the lift to
improve accessibility to the sanctuary, replacing dry-rotted facia board along
the outer wall of the sanctuary, converting to LED lighting in the sanctuary
and fellowship hall, and in progress, restoration of our steeple.
· * An increase in our average worship attendance
from 58 at the end of 2016 to 72 where we stand right now (this will fluctuate
in the summer).
· * Continued involvement in our community through
Rotary International, Soroptimist, PEO, Dress-a-Girl/Dude, Lions Club, Plumas
District Hospital Volunteers, Quincy Chamber, and other service organizations.
· * Increased use of our building with the Quincy
Crazy Quilters holding events in our Fellowship Hall and a youth
Tae-Kwon-Do/adult jujitsu group interested in using our space which will be an
important relationship building opportunity.
· *Continued growth in our music ministries with
growth in the choir and bell choir, along with the development of the
children’s choir. The new choir robes
and stoles and stoles for the bell choir have added a nice touch, thanks to the
bequest by the estate of John Ellison.
There
are many other things that I can list and celebrate here. As we go into another year together and as
our church continues growing, I hope to continue looking forward and listening
to the Holy Spirit for guidance, seeing where God is calling us to go together.
What
are some things we can envision in this coming appointment year together? Here are a few things from my perspective,
although please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and ideas with me as well:
Discipleship:
Discipleship
is an area to strongly focus on this coming year. While we have seen growth in worship
attendance and have felt a new energy, are we growing as disciples, or as I
like to say, growing in Spirit? What
spiritual growth opportunities interest you and in general, what are your
spiritual needs? I would like to
consider engaging in A Blueprint for
Discipleship this Fall and invite as many people to engage in this
study. Or, would a focused, covenant
Bible study (i.e. “Disciple”) be something that interests anyone? One of the items on the strategic plan for
churches in the California-Nevada conference is to develop a plan of
discipleship and my hope is that we can work towards this in this coming
appointment year.
What
is discipleship exactly? According to
the glossary in UMC.org, discipleship is defined as the following:
The active living of the individual
Christian in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ, that is, being as
effective a disciple of Christ as possible. Discipleship involves a ministry of
outreaching love and witness to others concerning Christ and God's grace.
Discipleship also calls the Christian to ministries of servanthood and service
to the world to the glory of God and for human fulfillment.[1]
The church calls our response to God Christian discipleship.
Discipleship focuses on actively following in the footsteps of Jesus. As
Christian disciples, we are not passive spectators but energetic participants
in God’s activity in the world. Because of what God has done for us, we offer
our lives back to God. We order our lives in ways that embody Christ’s ministry
in our families, workplaces, communities, and the world.[2]
I
highly encourage all of us to go deeper into a life of active discipleship and
find creative ways to encourage each other in living like Christ and regularly checking
in with each other.
Gifts
and Service:
I want
to commend and affirm us in our financial giving and want to encourage us to continue
giving generously of financial gifts, talents, and time, or other gifts we can
offer when we put our faith into action. Our membership vows include giving of our
gifts, presence, prayers, and service, which we can offer to God and to our
church. While financial gifts help us to
keep our building operating and help our connectional giving, not everyone can always give
financially, in which there are other ways to give.
We
have opportunities for helping around the campus and even if someone is signed
up to host coffee hour, usher, greet, mow/shovel snow, you can still
volunteer!! You can also give the gift
of time by helping prepare the sanctuary in cleaning out pew racks, making sure
there are hymnals and offering envelopes, or if you have a creative mind, help
decorate the altar in between the liturgical seasons. There are periodically workdays around the
church which is where the gift of time is given and shared too. Or, if you are gifted with caring ministries,
I would like to continue working on getting a group of lay people to do regular
visitations with our homebound, supplementing my monthly visits. Plus, lay people in caring ministries can
help keep me informed about any pastoral care needs in the congregation that I
might not be aware of.
Lay
Leadership
Is God
calling you into a leadership position in our church? Our lay leadership development team,
including myself and lay leaders Marty Byrne and Leslie Mikesell would love to
talk more, as we get started on filling out the leadership positions for 2019 that
will be approved at our annual church conference (aka charge conference) this
Fall. Committee work can feel like it
could be cumbersome, yet I feel that it is an honor and blessing to be involved
in the leadership of the church. We have
many backgrounds, theologies, ideologies and we need all sorts of perspectives
at the table in the leadership of the church.
While some committees do require being a professing member of the church
(where you have taken the vow of membership), there are other ways to be a
leader, such as leading a small group or fellowship group.
Membership
and Presence:
The
vow of presence in our membership vows is highly important and I want to
encourage ALL of us to live into our vows of membership in the life of the
church (see above and paragraphs 217-221 in The
Book of Discipline). Your presence
means attending worship and engaging in a spiritual growth activity as
regularly as possible. I do understand
that there are factors that might prevent everyone from being here, such as
mobility, moving away, illness, travel, work, being hurt by something or
someone, or other factors. Barring factors
that prevent full presence, if everyone who is a member of the church that
lives in town and our constituents (those who are active, attend regularly, but
have not taken the vows of membership) attend worship here each Sunday
altogether, our worship attendance would be close to 100 or more. Why do I emphasize being in worship so
much? Worship is a time of recharging our
spiritual batteries and I hope that our time of worship inspires us and blesses
us to go out to serve and live like Christ. Simultaneously, I am aware that not everyone
will always like how we do things or how I lead, which is part of the
inspiration.
These are a few things I hope we can work
together towards this year and beyond, through good times, challenges, and all. As we move into this new appointment year
together on July 1, I look forward to all opportunities that await as we listen
to God’s voice and let the Holy Spirit guide us as we continue to live and
serve like Christ!!
Peace
& Blessings,
Rev.
Andrew
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