6 minute read
Pastor’s Message
Pastor's Report to the Congregation
Dr. Wesley Avram, Pastor
Pinnacle Presbyterian Church, 2020, in a list!
WE BEGIN OUR LIST IN JANUARY
• Weekly worship, care, activity, mission, administration, and more • Weekly Sunday and Wednesday Table fellowship • Weekly SAGE, Women's Bible Study, Men's Breakfast, and more • Ongoing work of care, memorial, celebration, and fellowship • Several support groups and other organizations use campus weekly • Fran Park Center welcomes a class in residence from Princeton
Seminary and hosts their Board of Trustees in conversation—with active interactions with members • 2020 Stewardship Campaign brings increased pledging • Annual Meeting luncheon brings news, conversation, and votes for progress • Lenten devotionals and Vespers services offered • A mission trip to Mexico is completed • Youth took a music & mission trip to California • Women's small groups are organized • A visit from our Mission Partner from Haiti, Pastor Luc Deratus, with educational events • New staff welcomed: Sara O'Brien begins as Director of Finance and Operations • A bequest to the church provides funds to complete paying off
Pinnacle's mortgage
THEN . . . . NEWS OF PANDEMIC COMMANDS ATTENTION!
• Staff and session study, pray, and make pandemic decisions—however provisional • A medical team and a group to give implementation advice are appointed to give counsel • Values were affirmed, on which we'd make those decisions: Witness: We seek to honor the One we serve in all we do. Proclamation of the Gospel: We will let nothing hinder our essential call, to tell the story of God's love for all people in Jesus Christ. Neighborliness: We care not just for ourselves but for all people. Care for the Vulnerable: Following Christ, we care especially for those most at risk. Refuge: The church should be a place of physical safety for all who participate. Fellowship of the Saints: We are called to be together in worship, friendship, and mission; we join all who have gone before and are yet to come in that fellowship.
• Painful choices are made to cancel or delay programming • Worship taken online (for what we hoped would be just a few weeks), live-streamed • Church boards and committees take their meetings online • Youth Rummage Sale goes COVID-friendly • Available technology quickly adapted, with staff turning on a dime • Easter goes virtual, but Resurrection celebrated nonetheless! • Pinnacle says farewell and blesses Rev. Kelsy Brown, virtually, as she begins her ministry in Tempe • Lack of adequate cabling and broadband from the street takes us off live-streamed worship to prerecorded worship • Study undertaken to figure out what technology improvements and skills are now needed • COVID Response Fund established, to support pandemic-related needs of Mission partners as well as pandemic-related needs of families in the congregation. Over $60,000 raised and distributed • "The Pinnacle Plan" is published, including commitment to technological advancement, care for others before selves, safety of staff and participants, COVID Relief and support for Mission partners, and a medical matrix for decision making • Deacons reshape their ministry around invitations to online engagement and caring contact • Stephen Ministers work virtually • New small groups formed to create community while regular programming, committees, and fellowship remain online • We learn how to innovate in recorded worship • We learn how to make "mash up" videos of children, youth, and adults making music!
• We watch Ilona's feet making music on the organ's pedals and hear choral music through masks! • Our summer intern from the January seminary visit, Katie Rosenson, preaches from inside the organ! • Children's sermons come from backyards and messages from outside! • Special services from the Memorial Garden, for Easter Sunrise recorded outside! • Worshippers become a living Advent Wreath in two Christmas Eve services on the Green • Children's programming becomes drive-through Palm Sunday palm pick-up, outdoor activities like
Family Fun-Fest, and more • Collections taken for foodbank and Navajo relief projects • Mission partners supported • 1600 handmade, high-quality masks made by members for homeless families at the UMOM shelter,
Native American sisters and brothers, and other mission partners • 75 homeless youth at UMOM participate in Pinnacle's virtual Vacation Bible School with our children, made possible by Pinnacle donation of tablet computers • Summer mission opportunities for youth developed, even as trips canceled • In response to national turmoil, a series of conversations around racial reconciliation, race equity, and the role of the church are shaped by the Park Center, with nearly 200 participating, with commitment to sustain these conversations past the moment • Increasing number of members impacted by the virus • Memorials for loved ones postponed, put over Zoom, shaped for just family, or pre-recorded • We are discovered online by some and our worship is shared all over the country • Concerts go virtual: organ, ensembles, Phantom, and more • Education goes virtual, with Zoom studies, live-streamed talks, webinars, podcasts and pre-recorded • Gifts support significant investment in new technology in the sanctuary and staff to run it—so all may worship, promising permanent innovations in ministry • Chancel floor damage from leaks in water feature repaired; sanctuary closed for nearly a month • Improvements in Teen Center, campus storage, Rehearsal Hall, and major plumbing upgrade accomplished • One of two large cooling towers breaks down from deterioration as second hobbles along, so plans made to replace both • Brennen Hogg completed time as Interim Youth Director • New staff welcomed: Brandon Huenemann – Director of Youth & Young Adults Katie Rosenson – Summer Seminary Intern, then Resource Coordinator (part-time) Diane Jezek-Powell – Director of Stewardship (half-time) John Lutz – Associate Director of Communications for Media & Online Engagement (part-time) Lance Regnier – Facilities Coordinator
• Session completes work on Congregational Covenant and continues visioning for the future • 39 people join the church, virtually • Pinnacle founding pastor, Dr. Larry Corbett, joins the Church Triumphant in December, as we extended our gratitude for his ministry and condolences to Meredyth and the Corbett family. • Staff put in 150%, leadership gets prayerful and creative, members step up, ministry adapts and continues • Oh, and there was a contentious national election in there too!
AND SO . . .
I'm sure that even with that long list, I've left much out. And each one of us brings our own 2020 list alongside Pinnacle's.
No doubt about it, the year was challenging. We missed each other. We both checked in and lost touch. We both thanked each other and made demands. We lamented. We cared for each other. We disagreed and also showed support. We got creative. We wondered, learned, questioned, stepped up, participated in whatever way we could, and at times stepped back. We lost members, family, and friends to the disease. Some lost jobs. Many took action to help. We got tired and we got second winds. We prayed. We gave generously.
It was a watershed—even as its challenges and opportunities continue into 2021.
Pinnacle will change, even as we will build on what's already strong and cherished. And by God's grace, we will be even more faithful, clearer, closer, and ready for what God is calling us to.
Thanks to all the staff. Thanks to lay leadership. Thanks to you for being part of this congregation, and for welcoming my leadership. And most of all, thanks be to God for God's faithfulness to us all, through all things.
Yours in faith,
Wes Avram
