Beloved of God,

The life of our congregation is like a dance.  On Sundays that dance gathers us around God’s Word and Sacraments, and then sends us out to be Christ’s body in the world…doing God’s work, with our hands (and feet!).  Within this larger whole, each small group/task force/committee and ministry team has its own series of steps, and moves to the beat of its own rhythm.  Fitting the choreography of each smaller group’s ministry into the larger whole in such a way that the rhythms and actions compliment each other instead of detracting from each other (or step on one another’s toes!), is an ongoing task.

At times we need to get off the dance floor and up to the balcony for a more comprehensive view of what’s happening in the life of our congregation.  That, in part, is what our annual meetings are about—the Bulletin of Reports provides an overarching view of our mission over the past year.  But if we flip to the green pages (financial summary) or pink pages (proposed budget) without reading the yellow pages (vision/mission plan), or white ones (small group/task force/committee reports) we’ll be missing something crucial.

A couple of paragraphs on paper won’t begin to tell the whole story, of course.  Our ministry is about flesh and blood people and relationships—the slideshow at our meeting helps remind us of that.  But the reports and figures do tell part of the story of how we, collectively, have lived out our calling as God’s dancing people during the year past.

This month marks the 7^th anniversary of my Call to serve as your pastor.  These seven years have been a rich and growing time for me personally, as well as our congregation.  Each year has brought unique challenges, some anticipated and some unanticipated.  The dance continues now in 2012 with a new Vision for Mission Plan embraced by our congregation on January 29.   So…slip on your shoes— it’s time to head back to the dance floor!  (You can read about the specifics in the summary of actions from the meeting, below.)

Funding our collective mission in 2012 will require us to step up and out in new ways.  In 2011 we scaled back our goal for funding our mission and, for the first time in seven years, our aggregate level of giving fell to less than it was the year before.  This year you have endorsed a spending plan that looks forward more boldly.  There is no reason why we can’t turn things back around in 2012.  In addition to our regular spending plan (budget), a newly authorized Capital Campaign Working Group will be begin work soon to set forth a process for raising the capital necessary to achieve the facilities goals we’ve now established as part of our Vision for Mission Plan.  Coupled with our plans for bringing a new Music Director on board, all this points to 2012 being another year of transition for us at Peace.

As we begin incorporating these new dance steps to our repertoire, we’ll be utilizing our God-given gifts and talents for ministry.  And with the Lord of the Dance beside us, guiding our steps along the way, we are wonderfully poised to turn opportunities into tangible emblems of God’s presence and power.  I’m game for that…how about you?

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Erik