02 Nov Change is in the Air!
Dear Friends,
It is November and all around us there are signs that change is happening. The leaves which were so gloriously vibrant just a week or two ago are now fading and quickly falling. Baseball is approaching its final weekend, and in its place, football, basketball, and hockey will reign supreme for the next several months. Halloween parties and costume-clad trick-or-treaters have come and gone, and now our attention is turning to Thanksgiving menus, holiday travel plans, and Christmas shopping lists. The times, they are a-changin’, as Bob Dylan sang.
As we talked about Sunday, change is also happening in the church. The Nominating Committee will soon be ready to announce the Class of 2025 Elder nominations—stay tuned for details about a called congregational meeting to vote on this outstanding group of people. And we have changes in Personnel brewing with Barbara’s retirement and Hannah’s service with our Children’s Ministry drawing to a close. We have been blessed by their faithfulness and the many ways in which they have shared their gifts and love with us. We also trust that God is preparing the way forward. I ask you to please make the process of hiring a new Office Manager and someone to work with our children a matter of urgent prayer. These are two critical areas in the life of our church, and we want to find the right people to join our staff.
November is also stewardship season. Already the elders are busy thinking about their areas of responsibility and projecting the budget that will be needed for our ministries to flourish in the coming year. Stewardship letters and pledge cards were mailed this week, and I ask you to prayerfully consider your financial commitment to Calvary for 2023. Year-in, year-out we are witnesses to God’s faithfulness and generosity to us. More often than I can count it seems that the “fives loaves and two fish” of Calvary’s budget somehow miraculously multiply to meet the numerous needs that come with being a community of faith—needs in our neighborhood, needs in our world, and needs within our church family. Part of how that miracle occurs is that we respond to God’s faithfulness and generosity with faithfulness and generosity of our own, in loving gratitude for all the ways God so richly blesses us. As you know, I love stewardship season because it is such a joyful celebration of God’s goodness to us. I hope you will make it a priority to be part of our service on November 13 to celebrate together that God is with us, working in and through us to be a blessing to others.
Ever grateful for you, Calvary,
Michelle
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