May Session Report
On May 21 the Session and Deaconate gathered for our monthly meeting where we began in prayer for Church members and various needs in our church. From there we moved into some regular business, reviewing minutes, and budget/attendance reviews.
From that exciting work, we moved into our discussion items. We started with a book discussion on the book “Gilead”. Every other book we read together is a novel, helping us understand story well, with the hope that this will help us shepherd the church members in their own stories. Gilead is a book we would highly recommend to you! Our next book is “The Air We Breathe”.
We also had ministry updates from the men’s ministry and Missions strategy committee. The men’s ministry shared about their plans for upcoming events, including a winter retreat this year. They also asked for input on the potential of us starting Trail Life. We are just in the fact finding stage about this potential ministry.
Jesse gave an update on how the fundraising was going for his role as our missions and outreach coordinator. He also gave an update on how his committee is going. They are in the early stages of developing an outreach and missions strategy document that we are very excited about as it will help us fulfill part of our mission statement to “serve Yakima” and “multiply the church”.
The last long discussion we had was on our plans for Sunday School and Nursery in the Fall. In talking to our future children’s ministry coordinator, and thinking about how large of a thing that will be to add on Sundays, we have decided to start the Fall with a nursery only. We believe Sunday School is an important ministry to add, but we want to be able to add it well with lots of volunteers. So we are going to start this Fall with a Nursery, building that team out first, and once that team is solid we will plan adding Sunday School in the near future.
To that end, there are many Sunday morning volunteer opportunities. If you aren’t currently on a team, I’d encourage you to consider joining one. As the saying goes, many hands make light work.
We ended in an executive session and prayer.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to reach out. As our session is growing into its role it is always our desire to shepherd Saint Andrew’s well. It is a privilege to serve this body.
In Christ,
Pastor Craig