Hello Church!
This Sunday is our Annual Program meeting!  We get to reflect on the last year, thank our leaders and vote new leaders into important positions.  Last year our Discernment and Visioning Team honed in on the vision statement:  Energizing downtown Rockford and beyond with God’s grace.
In the annual report, I made this list of all that we did to energize our city and world with God’s grace in the last year:
  • Received 8 youth confirmands and 9 new members (we are a growing church!)
  • Crafted the community prayer vigil after the shooting in the Orlando nite club
  • Sent a group of youth to Osage Nation in Oklahoma
  • Began a worship journey with the Narrative Lectionary focusing on the stories of our faith
  • Challenged ourselves with an Adult Ed Series:  Treading Carefully:  An Entry Point into Race in America
  • Brought Pastor Tito Cevallos on staff to increase our ministry to our Hispanic neighbors
  • Threw two parties in our parking lot to draw folks from around the city into conversation
  • Became more visitor friendly with new interior directional signs
  • Re-imagined our Christmas bell concert to be Vibrations Against Violence
  • Changed out the 38 year old carpet in the nursery because the room is full of children
  • Hosted the Unity in Diversity Rally on the increase in hate crimes
  • Focused on Nonviolent Communication with educational worship in Lent
  • Expressed our journey to the cross with artist Sarah Hallberg in worship
  • Were blessed by music ministry particularly at Christmas Eve and Easter
  • Participated in Jeremiah Development with the highlight of Love Rockford Day
Those are only the brief highlights and they do not even begin to touch on the day to day, week to week ministry.  Good work, Church!
Many thanks to all the members who served on teams, in leadership or supported our work together in other ways.  The biggest thank-you goes to Carolyn Greenlaw, who faithful and ably served as our moderator this year.  She listened well, ran a great meeting and did not miss one church event.  She set the bar high, and Sarah Reinhold, our next moderator, is up for the challenge.  I hope to see you at our meeting on Sunday.
Peace,
Rebecca
P.S. If you would like a copy of the annual report and will not be in church on Sunday, please call Debbie in the office and she will gladly mail you one.