Interim Grace Notes for December 8, 2023

Interim Grace Notes for December 8, 2023

LIFT Notes

Be sure to check out this week's LIFT Notes for information on LIFT sponsored events including

• LIFT Advent Wednesdays - our Advent worship series this year at 6:30 at Grace for the next two Wednesdays, December 13 and 20. We are singing Holden Evening Prayer again for these services.
• Breakfast in Bethlehem at St. John's. Heather spearheaded this program last year, and it was a great success, so we're doing it again. 9-11 am. Breakfast included. A Shepherd will be wandering around talking about the night the angels sang. Hmmm.... wonder who that might be??
• Blue Christmas, this Sunday at 4:00 pm at St John's, designed to bring hope and comfort to those experiencing grief, and for whom the holiday season is additional reminder of their loss.

LIFT Budget Meeting on Sunday

There was not a quorum to pass the LIFT 2024 budget at the November 19 Board Meeting, so a budget meeting via Zoom has been scheduled for this Sunday, December 10 at 12:30 pm.

Update on Blessed to Be a Blessing Appeal

Here are some results from the Stewardship Appeal. 76 intents received, and a total of $390,000 of expected giving in 2024. This is roughly equal to last year. So while we're not moving backwards, we're not making leaps forward either. The Stewardship Team gathered on Wednesday for our monthly meeting and signed thank-you letters for those who had returned Intent Cards. We also reviewed the several options for Winter Learning Tracks. We choose one Track and then register individually for the track which is attended via Zoom. Tracks are recorded so can be watched later. These tracks are included in the fee that we pay to participate in Stewardship for All Seasons. The track and directions for subscribing are in the next paragraph.

Our Learning Track for Stewardship for All Seasons: Please Read and Respond!

Our participation in Stewardship for All Seasons gives us access to a learning track which can increase our effectiveness as a congregation. Registration open to anyone in the congregation. The Stewardship Team has chosen

Option 2: Volunteer Recruitment and Retention - How To - With Paul Marsh

Congregations have long battled the 80/20 rule: that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. Now it is even harder, as many congregations report that 80/20 rule is becoming a 90/10 rule.

In this volunteer track for SAS, we will focus on the recruitment, retention and stewardship of church volunteers, as well as growing leaders in your congregation and identifying successful stewardship team members.

All tracks will be at 9am pacific, 10am mountain, 11am central and noon eastern time. The session dates and content are as follows:

• Jan 25: Overview--how do we recruit volunteers? We will consider the process of determining our volunteer needs, preparing recruitment materials, identifying prospective volunteers and how ministry team leaders go about inviting their service.
• Feb 22: Writing job or service descriptions. You will bring a list of volunteer opportunities at your ministry to this meeting and we will walk through how we write a job or service description together.
• March 28: How to retain volunteers. In this meeting we will talk about how to make your volunteers’ experiences worthwhile and fulfilling. We will review check ins, conflict resolution, continuing education and gratitude gatherings.
• April 25: How to grow volunteer leadership in your congregation. One of our goals in refining our volunteer program is to raise up new leaders and maintain a leadership pipeline. We will discuss how to identify potential leaders, give them varied experiences throughout your ministry, and invite them into leadership roles.

To register for this track, click HERE and scroll down to Option 2, and enter your name and email address.

SOS Growing Pains

We have used our Substitute Organist Service (SOS) for two weekends, and so far it's been effective - we've had a few glitches - for example, the volume was too low this last Sunday, and when picking up and moving the iPad which controls the digital organ tracks at the end of the service, I accidentally touched the "stop" button in the app, but the congregation continued singing acapella. I'm hoping for a more flawless use this weekend, and yes, we will turn up the volume so it sounds more like a real organ. We continue to follow up leads for resources to inquire of availability/interest.

Links for You

• ELCA Disability Ministries
• Hopewood Outdoors Fireside News
• ELCA Hunger Program Go and Do News
• Just Three Things

Grace and Truth Pastor's Message

I turned in my January Pastor's message to Tricia for publication in the January issue of Grace and Truth. Deadlines are earlier this month because of the holidays. It's a New Year's message, but if you want to preview it, you can do so HERE.

Don't forget Annual Report Deadline

Deadline for Annual Reports is Friday, December 22 at 8:00 am.