Aloha! Everyone enjoyed gathering for lunch on the lawn last Sunday. The Flyin Hawiian food truck was on location with delicious culinary options like Kalua Pork and Huli Huli Chicken.

—Staff-Parish Relations Committee

For as in one body, we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. Romans 12:4-5

A key part of being a faithful church is calling Christ followers into service to use their gifts, time, and skills to build-up God’s Kingdom here on Earth. There are many different roles and functions that work together to make our local congregation strong in programming, administration, service, and outreach. Essentially everyone needs to be involved in some sort of service, but today we want to pause and thank those who have recently completed longer terms on one of our Spiritual Leadership Teams.

At Baker Memorial UMC we have two Spiritual Leadership Teams. Their names are pretty self-explanatory. The Strategy and Administration Team is responsible for long term strategy and current administration. This team includes finance, staff parish (which does our Human Resources Functions), and trustees. The Spiritual Formation and Discipleship Team is in responsible for outreach and programming to help us grow spiritually and in size. Both teams meet every month as a team, and often sub-teams focusing on events or specific subjects meet monthly as well.

Being a leader in a church is challenging and prayerful work as decisions are made that impact the entire congregation, and new ideas are hatched to bring us into God’s future. Each person’s time and dedication are richly valued so we want to pause and thank the people who have completed their service and are rolling off at the end of June.

Thanks to following people for their dedication to the Strategy and Administration Team: Allan Scales (Facilitator), Pete Helland (Finance), Doug Ruth (Trustees), Steve Coon (SPRC), John Clarke (Lay Member at Large) and Beth Bayless (our Lay Leader serves on both teams as well as attending many other meetings).

Thanks to the following people for their dedication to the Spiritual Formation and Discipleship Team: Mandy Hale (Facilitator), Alan McCurdy (Adult Spiritual Formation) Mariah Cheyney (Outreach/Communications), and Curt Barrett (Youth).

Thank you all for your leadership, teamwork, and commitment as together we seek to fulfill the mission of “Inviting everyone to experience Christianity for Today’s World” by empowering and equipping others to serve Christ here, near, and far away.

Peace in Christ and Blessings,