The end of September marked my first 90 days as the pastor here. 90 days marks 3 months. It is a strange milestone but one that is frequently assessed in transitioning to positions of leadership. This gives me a moment to reflect on my short but important time here. I came here with the intention of acclimating myself within the church and community. I sought to get to know you all individually and collectively. I became a student to learn the history of the church and its culture. This is an ongoing goal of mine. I established 5 points that would focus on. 

Prayer and discernment
This can seem so basic and yet we can overlook the basics and when we do so we get into trouble. Prayer is vital to the life of the church. I have been encouraged by the church's response to the call for prayer. When I scheduled a prayer walk there was a solid group of folks that showed up with curiosity and ambition. When I called for a last minute prayer vigil, I was encouraged by the handful of folks that showed up with a fervent desire to pray. It can be challenging to pray like scriptures call for us to pray for our enemies and political leaders. Discernment is an even more challenging thing to do. It requires collaboration with others. For us to discern where God is leading our church it cannot fall on any one person to discern this. It requires a church that collectively listens to the voice of God. May we grow in our discernment together.

Community Engagement
I left my hometown and I moved into the community of Blissfield. The more time I spend in he community the better I can understand the needs that exist in our community. I am grateful for how hospitable this church and community has been to me and my family. I am always looking for more ways I can engage with the community. It is also important that we individually and collectively engage with our neighbors in the community. How can we be the church this community needs. There are ways we are already engaging with the community. May we discern together how to improve our engagement. Let us pray for our community.

Administration
This is not my strong suit but it is important for the church to have a good solid administrative foundation and structure. This boils down to how we make decisions together. This starts with who we nominate to leadership. I was encouraged by the recent nominations committee meeting. These meetings are often full of groaning and despair. There always seems to be more committee slots than people willing to fill them. Our meeting was much more positive and hopeful. I set an ambitious goal of getting more men in leadership and to bring the average age of committees by getting younger people more involved. We were able to accomplish both of these goals. Our committees are much more reflective of the diversity of our congregation. As a committee we discussed how to develop more teamwork on the committees. Often the bulk of the work is laid upon the chairs. We want to encourage more teamwork and better communication on every committee. We also recognized we have too many committees. We decided to recommend that the church disband two committees (Endowments and Welcoming). The endowment committee can be merged in with the finance committee. We feel that the welcoming committee that is responsible for hospitality can be distributed to every other committee. Every committee can make decisions that make us a more hospitable church. Nominations also discussed how we can have more productive meetings. It is important to develop leaders that can facilitate meetings that are fruitful in their work. We need leaders that are creative, collaborative, and capture the vision and mission of the church.

Intentional Discipleship System
The mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The way we know how to make disciples is based on our intentional discipleship system. The system I like best can be simplified to three words: Belonging, Believing, and Becoming. The first part is directed at those that are not connected to a church and may not have a relationship with God. These are people that would be highly hesitant to come on a Sunday for worship. In order to reach these people we need to create safe spaces in which they can develop a sense of belonging. The belonging part of discipleship is where people are encountering Christ by engaging with other followers of Jesus. This can be thought of as fellowship style discipleship. After someone feels like the belong within the church they will start to become more curious about what we believe. The believing part of discipleship is when a person begins to know Christ as their savior. This is when the gospel message begins to sink into one’s heart. Believing is the step of starting to follow Jesus. The becoming part of discipleship is when we, followers of Jesus, are being transformed into being more like Christ. Discipleship looks differently within these three parts. Often churches only do well on one or two of these. Healthy churches work on all three with intentionality.\
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Communication strategy
We live in the age of miscommunication. There are numerous ways we can communicate with one another and yet we still fail to communicate well. It is hard enough to communicate well with individuals you are close to. It is even harder to communicate throughout  the church. We are made up of multiple generations and personalities that communicate differently. This is not just about text based versus talk based communication. This is not just about technology. Communication is about conveying a message that is understood. The words I am typing can be open to interpretation. A good communicator chooses his words carefully so that his audience best can understand what is being communicated. 

Since being here I have worked on improving our communication internally and externally. Restarting this newsletter is a part of that strategy. Some will read this and others will not. Some will listen to the Sunday announcements others will not. Some will respond to an email others will not. These are the internal components of our communication. It is equally important how we communicate to the community. There are different mediums and places for this as well. We are working on improving our online presence with social media and website. We are working to develop our video capabilities by starting a YouTube channel. We are working on improving our use of our church marque sign. It is important what we say and how we say it. I feel confident in my communication skills but if anyone is willing and able to help, I welcome the help. 

I am happy with the work in these five areas and also recognise these will be continual areas to work on. There is overlap in these focus points. I actually like to picture them as five strands that coil together to work in tandem. I have even thought of adding a sixth strand, leadership development. I am working on developing myself as a leader and developing other leaders. In reflection I realize that this has been occurring in surprising ways. I have grown in my first 90 days. I am seeing growth in the church in these first 90 days. People are stepping up and God is blessing our obedience and trust. 

I gave myself a passing grade in my first 90 days. I hope you agree. 

Psalm 127:2

In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat--
    for he grants sleep to those he loves.

I’ve never been a night owl but, lately I have been staying up late. I have been battling with sleep issues this whole year. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea this spring. CPAP therapy has been a huge help but it takes a holistic approach to regulate my sleep. The psalmist is speaking against workaholism and hustle culture that is prevalent in our society. The psalmist tells us it is in vain that we work so hard and yet struggle for food and rest. We serve a God who grants us rest. Why is it that we are not willing to rest?

Sabbath is a way of life that runs counter to every culture in some form. We are slaves to our economic systems. Now hear me this is not me shaming anybody. Every human throughout history has been subject to economics systems in some form or another. In our contemporary system we have become more enslaved. We are blessed with convenience and dopamine machines but we are also deeply lonely and anxious. We lack rest and community. At some point in history we traded away community and rest for these conveniences and dopamine machines. I think we are on the losing end of that trade.  

What if we had more rest in our lives and we ate more within community? 

How do we live more counter culturally? 

How do we make sabbath as a way of life?

These are the questions that I am asking. I desire to live out sabbath but sabbath has always required community. Will you join me in this pursuit after Sabbath?

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