December 15, 2023

Advice on Repeat

This past year’s Julfest was my third. The first was a rather abbreviated event from the norm, and was held shortly after worship, as I recall. Last year and this year we had what I understand to be a more typical Julfests by First Covenant standards. They are becoming more familiar to me now. And, it seems, I am becoming more familiar to some of our “regulars” who are not members. I say this because people were very generous in their offers of suggestions and advice about both Julfest and being a church in the current post-Christian context we find ourselves in.

The first was a person with whom I spoke with last year when he expressed his concern about the need for work on the Dome’s interior. He started this year with a cordial, “I still think you need to fix the Dome over there,” pointing to the peeling paint above the chancel. I informed him that we are just completing our repairs on the exterior of the Done and the interior is next. “Such a beautiful space, you need to take good care of it.” No offers of financial support were made in this exchange, however.

The rest of the conversations could be summarized, by “what I like/dislike about the way Julfest is now done,” and “what you need to do/not do to be an effective church in our world today.” And these comments were all over the map. They were drawn from memories of Julfests past and comparisons with their memories of First Covenant in the past or their church today. I will simply say that there was no consensus about either what the best future for Julfest or our church looks like, but each person was fairly certain they had the answer for us.

And I am sure they all meant well, however limited their perspective might be. But they were after all outsiders who do not know the day-to-day life of our church.

This Saturday I will attend our third Council-Staff retreat. It is something that I implemented when I arrived. It is the only time when our Church Staff and Church Council gather to consider our ministry together. It includes our entire Staff: Cinda Madonna, Allan Waite, Sandy Nelson, Chris Brown, Jurhee Hong, and myself. We will be joined by our current Council: Karl Nelson, Adam Johnson, Deeann Puffert, Elaine Johnson, Andrew Payne, Colin Quackenbush, James Haagenson, and Jo Portinga (who will be on maternity leave from this meeting with our blessing!). We are all people elected or hired by our church to resource and execute its work, as well as make decisions about its future. Unlike our well-intended visitors, these are people who know and love our church well and will be setting a course for our church for the immediate future.

Please do pray for our gathering tomorrow, the 16th, and for our ability to discern a way forward with God’s leading.

I look forward to reporting what was decided.

~ Pastor Todd