February is essentially the start of a new council year at Holy Trinity due to the idiosyncrasies of our annual meeting date and usual council meeting dates. On Tuesday, the 15th the council that was elected to office in January met for the first time. And due to the idiosyncrasies of term limits, 4 of the seven council members were new to their roles, 3 of them being new to council. Steve Bauer is now the Vice President, Pam Shaw is the council member for “coming together” which includes fellowship and worship, and Tom Bernth is the council member for “growing in faith” which includes faith formation, the library and stewardship. Paul Karl, council member for caring and social ministries is continuing on for another year, and Erlinde Beliveau is continuing as secretary, Kristin Crawford is continuing as financial secretary, and I have assumed the role of president. Pastor Luther, who joined us in January, continues to provide leadership and guidance as we move forward.
As we began this new year, it was fairly clear that there were a few areas that needed our attention. Perhaps the one foremost on our minds is how we can facilitate and support the process to bring a new full time pastor to lead our congregation. The Transition Team has made great strides as they began with the introduction of the Congregation Assessment Tool (known as the CAT). Soon we’ll be progressing to the interpretation of those data. With the help of the NE Synod, the team will be learning how the results of the CAT and insight learned from other exploratory events will help us understand and describe the “personality” of our congregation.
This information will be the foundation for the next step which is preparation of the Ministry Site Profile. The MSP is the document that is sent to the Synod to help identify appropriate candidates for our church. The council will soon be identifying people who can help prepare our Ministry Site Profile. And of course, council will be identifying individuals who are willing to serve on the Call Committee which is similar to a search committee in the academic or business world. There’s a lot to be done, and we ask each of you to prayerfully consider how you might be able to help during this journey, and to pray for all those who are volunteering during this challenging time.
The council’s second focus for the start of this year is trying to gradually and safely introduce some less restrictive practices in our worship experience as we see the threat from Covid receding. Certainly, the virus remains a threat to those who have yet been vaccinated, but as we see the virus seemingly becoming less prevalent, we want to enrich our current worship practices. During the next few months we will be introducing some changes that we believe you will welcome. We will of course remain vigilant about the “numbers” and be ready to make changes if necessary. We welcome your feedback as we move forward.
We ask you to pray about how you might be called to participate in the work of Holy Trinity, and to pray for the council and our pastor, and all the team leaders and members who are donating their time and talents during this time.
Judy Evans, Council President