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Pastoral Pondering: Old containers
may hold what
is most holy in life
Religion Briefs Church Directory-soon
| New
year brings new goals for congregations |
Local pastors will spend January readying for 2003 plans |
By Christie Scotty, Newberg Graphic
Reporter
Email Christie at cscotty@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Break a New Year’s resolution and you usually let down only one person
— yourself. But for local spiritual leaders, goals for 2003 can’t be taken so
lightly.
That’s why many churches will set up formal goal-setting sessions
beginning in January. They will put down on paper the ways they want to support missions
and charities, come up with plans of action for evangelism and figure out how to better
serve their own congregation over the next 12 months.
City Church of Promise in Dundee is one of those congregations. After a week
of fasting and prayer to bring in the new year, church leaders will take an all-day
retreat together to launch the next year of spiritual leadership. Pastor Rick Dutton will
then summon department heads for a formal meeting Jan. 27.
“I want them to have one goal toward the church’s mission,”
Dutton said.
Although City Church of Promise is only a few years old and despite the fact
that its members meet in the Dundee Women’s Hall while they await the building of
their own church structure, the church is looking outward for 2003.
“We are wanting to be more community-oriented,” Dutton said.
That means the church’s top priority is doing “compassion ministry
outreach.” So when one church member said he owns 400 gallons of paint that is
sitting around as surplus, church leaders began discussing how they could make the paint
available to the needy.
Other pastoral staffs do not tie their goals as tightly to the calendar.
North Valley Friends Church Pastor Colin Saxton said while committees will
discuss a variety of goals, the church does “nothing horribly elaborate” in
planning when the calendar flips to the new year.
“We are mostly just asking, ’what is God asking us to do this
year?’” Saxton said.
And where many are looking forward to 2003, others find equal value in the
past year.
“I do a special New Year’s service the first Sunday of the year
that is like a rededication,” said Pastor Margaret Golden of Dundee United Methodist
Church.
The hope, she explained, is to set out spiritual goals while forgiving the
shortcomings and mistakes of the past year.
“If it’s possible, it’s for a person to put (troubles) out,
put them away and look ahead to the new year,” Golden said. |
|
From Dec. 28,
2002, Newberg Graphic
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