Dear First Pres,

It is my honor to serve as interim staff director while Pastor Jeremy is on a well-deserved sabbatical this summer. Our staff is an incredible group of talented and faithful men and women. Jeremy has trained and trusted them to be the leaders they are – the people who are serving you and always asking Jesus into all they are doing. My role is to help with any necessary problem solving, to encourage and assist staff wherever needed, to have the pulse of key church groups, and to simply be available.

As Jeremy begins his sabbatical, he is battling COVID (as are other staff and congregation members). Praise God, he is feeling better and hopes to join us this Sunday, June 5th, to participate in commissioning a family of our church preparing to join God’s work on the other side of the world. We hope to see him Sunday, but if not, staff is prepared to step in for this important moment. I know he would be the first to thank the staff and volunteers who stepped up to fill multiple absences at last Sunday’s worship services.

Just as we saw last Sunday, it takes all of us to make “church” happen. Staff, volunteers and congregation are working together not only on Sunday morning but Monday through Saturday as well. There seems to be a cycle at work here that truly does involve all of us – not only pastors and staff but Newcomers, Welcomers, and Becomers.

I remember the first day I visited First Pres in March,1983 as a church-hopping Newcomer. I don’t remember the sermon or the music (that would come later), but you know what I remember? A Welcomer. That was not her official job. It was something she just did. Her name was Adelaide Gabrielson. She walked down the center aisle from the front of the church and  greeted me as if she had been waiting for me. She was the reason I came back.

Hopefully, at some point that once-unsure Newcomer turns into a Welcomer. We all have different approaches. We are not all going to walk down the aisle and greet people, but we can take someone to coffee, invite them to join a Growth Group, invest time in a conversation, pray – whatever is your style. God will lead you to just the right Newcomer if you are open.

A loving and thriving congregation is invested in Becomers – each and every one of us wants to become more like Christ. Each and every one of us can help someone else get there. That is one of the things I see very clearly from my perspective this summer: we are the body of Christ called to watch over one another in love.

Newcomer. Welcomer. Becomer. We are called to support one another, and we each have a part in this process of “one-anothering.” It is not something that happens once, and then we check it off the list. It is an active, changing, never-ending cycle with 1Thessalonians 5:11 at its core: “Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you are also doing.”   

Building Together,

Gerre Brenneman