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The church council met on Monday evening and the primary items for us to consider were related to bolstering our growing Children, Youth and Family Ministries. We have been thrilled to see so many children and youth engaging in worship and other activities and have taken note of the number of new families with children who have been getting more involved in our ministry recently.
With that in mind, the Council took up two important conversations:
updating the Education Building to create a dedicated youth space and adding a bathroom upstairs; adding a staff position to focus on ministry with Children, Youth and Families.
1) Over the past six months, we have been working on finding a place to create a true Youth Room to support the growing youth ministry activities in our congregation. Libby and the Choir were gracious to offer the choir space upstairs in the Education building. With the help of lots of wonderful volunteers, they recently completed a moved to the other end of the hallway, where they now have two rooms: an office for Libby and practice space which is primarily used by the children on Sunday mornings. The Handbell and Adult Choirs continue to practice in the Sanctuary as they have been doing for many years.
The new Youth Room will be an amazing 580 square feet! Additionally, we worked with a local contractor to develop a plan to put a bathroom upstairs in the current library. This has been a project that we have discussed for decades, but newer toilet technology has now made it much more affordable. A bathroom upstairs will be a great addition to support not just youth ministry, but also children’s ministry as well! The plan is to relocate the books from library to the Parlor, which will hopefully mean that more folks can take advantage of this resource in the future.
The total cost of the renovation project will be about $27,000, which will include, adding the bathroom, creating a kitchenette space in the new youth room, and refinishing the beautiful, oak hardwood floors that we discovered underneath the old carpet in the new youth room. About half of the project will be paid for out of restricted funds, special designated gifts, that we have received over the years to enhance our facility and support Youth and Family Ministries. Additionally, because of the ongoing generosity of our congregation this year, the Council is reallocating $14,000 from the unused Seminary Intern funding to use for this project. Again, the Council was only able to feel confident in this move, because of the amazing generous support of our congregation this year!
We have already contacted our contractor and are looking forward to getting the construction started in the next 4-6 weeks!
2) In addition, the Council wanted to add staffing to support our growing Children, Youth and Family Ministries. Currently, Deacon Stacey has allocated five hours per week, plus we have two college interns, each serving five hours per week. But, the Council and I felt we needed a person to sit at the center of all the programs and events, and who could be present on Sunday mornings to help our youth and families get more engaged with these programs and activities.
Therefore, we approved a part-time, 12-hour per week, Youth and Family Minister position. This is a temporary position that will run through July 2025, utilizing some of the funding for the Seminary Intern. Of course part of this decision had to do with the fact that we now know that we will not be getting a seminary intern for next. Plus, the seminary recently announced that it will be moving operations from Columbia, SC to Hickory, NC in January 2025. So, this very much could impact the possibility of getting an intern the next year too.
But, in the meantime, we are planning to utilize these resources to invest in ministries with youth and children and we believe that this position can make a very big impact! This position is now posted on our church website. If you know of someone who might be a good fit, please share this information. Most of the time, positions like this are filled by people who already have some kind of connection with the congregation. And again, the Council’s confidence in moving forward with this position has a great deal to do with the generosity of the congregation! So, thank you for your ongoing offerings which support this growing ministry we share!
In Grace,
Pastor Steve
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