Dear Church,
First, welcome aboard to Jen Hunsberger, our new communications assistant. It’s good to have this position filled by someone who knows the church well and knows how things work at Blooming Glen. I’m glad to have Jen’s fresh and experienced approach on the church staff to help us communicate how we’re doing. Thanks, Jen!
Second, it’s good to be back in Southeast Pennsylvania. Debbie and I enjoyed hanging out with our family, and we enjoyed hanging out with our MYF (aka, The Perpetual Order of Penguins), in Southern California. We had a great time. But now it’s time to get busy with launching the Church Together renewal process. For me, that will involve three major chunks of time:
1) Leading a reconfigured church staff to be focused on a coaching-based ministry that is relational and operational. We are now in the process of vetting draft-written job descriptions for program coordinators to assist in coaching core ministries of curating worship, community care, and common mission. Ministry belongs to the people of God as the church, not just the staff working for the church. We are refocusing staff assignments, post-pandemic, to do less gatekeeping, and more coming alongside the desires God is giving each of us to fulfill His call. Once elders (who guide the core ministry process) and staff have had a chance to review the initial ideas, then CLB (in their governance role) will be asked to approve job descriptions. Then, a local search will be undertaken to fill up to four part-time roles in children’s ministry, assisting in Sunday worship, community outreach, and small group development.
2) Building core ministry teams for preaching, adult formation, and church-to-church connections. Part of my direct work in core ministry team building will include continuing to develop a preaching ensemble of individuals ready and willing to declare God’s Word to and through the church. We are launching the first preaching ensemble on Sunday, August 4. We will be centered in August-November on themes related to the unity of God’s people. I will be teaming up with our current preaching associates, Josh Meyer, Amanda Yoder Youk, and Rachelle Kratz (and others) to present the call of scripture for God’s people to come together in the Name of Jesus. I’ll also be working with adult formation groups and Sunday School Shepherds to strengthen our second hour formation groups on Sunday mornings. And I am planning on working with our Mosaic Conference delegates to prepare for the November 2 delegate assembly and begin to ask the questions of how we will participate in conference and denominational structure that may be restructuring in significant ways.
3) Continuing to keep governance, administration, and ministry focused on their distinctive and essential priorities. The elders, our foundations, and the CLB, all have different roles to play at Blooming Glen. Our elders guide and encourage our core ministries of curating worship (in preaching, singing, and liturgy), community care (through family engagement, adult formation, and pastoral visitation), and common mission (through neighborhood service, small group attraction, and church-to-church connections). Our foundations provide for important administrative support to the congregation in volunteer recruitment (gift discernment), financial management (stewardship), and campus upkeep and maintenance (stewardship). Our congregational leadership board sets overall policy, oversees pastoral performance, and plans for a preferred future. My job, through the Church Together process, is to assist the elders, foundations, and CLB to stay focused on their distinctive roles, and ensure each constituent part of our leadership is operating well and communicating thoroughly with one another and the congregation.
If all of this sounds different from most pastoral assignments – it is because it is. You called me to an initial two-year process of launching a generational process in a new way of being church. You called me to accelerate a new way of being the church, a way reimagined to make a difference in a strange new world. You invited me to lead a process where you are being recruited, equipped, deployed, and supported to fulfill God’s call on your life. Regardless of age, gender, economic status, or education, God is calling YOU to be His ministers of good news and reconciliation. You’ve asked me to reposition our congregational life to welcome and answer that call. That’s exactly what I intend to do.
Come August 1, there’s no more business as usual. The challenge for all of us will be, “How is God calling you to fulfill his purposes through Blooming Glen Mennonite Church?” The only two promises I can make with integrity over the next two years is: 1) what we do together will almost certainly be imperfect, and 2) what we do will be done with the desire to fulfill God’s mission of reconciliation across the street and around the world.
Let’s Go, Church
Pastor Jeff
P.S. | Friday afternoons remain an opportunity for coffee and conversation at the Broad Street Grind. I’m usually there by 3:30pm and stay until the Grind closes and they politely kick us out. Monday mornings remain an opportunity for oatmeal, omelets, opinions, and observations at the A&N Diner, from 7:30am-8:45am. Come join me and share whatever is on your mind, especially as we enter the Church Together transformation process.