It’s that time of year when we take stock of the past 12 months. List writers dominate the headlines and cover any number of topics, some fun, some serious. I’d like to take stock of just a few of the blessings of my year, serving alongside all of you in ministry here at Prince of Peace:
- I was blessed to receive a call to be your next Lead Pastor in January and I was ordained and installed in February.
- The Confirmation and High School Youth groups helped plan and lead a creative and engaging worship service in February that explored where and how God is present in our world.
- Lynn Erickson took over for Marilyn Breckenridge as our Interim Pastor for Congregational Care and we welcomed Erika Coe as the new leader for our Youth Group. These additions helped us to accomplish so much this year, supercharging an already talented staff team.
- The Chancel Choir and a talented group of accompanying musicians performed the Nidaros Jazz Mass for our Masterworks Worship in April and Cheri Sykes agreed to stay on permanently as our Organist and Accompanist.
- After two years of patient instruction from Christina Meline, six delightful young men and women affirmed their baptisms before the whole congregation in May.
- Three high school youth plus Erika Coe and I went backpacking at Christikon Lutheran Bible Camp in August, experiencing the beauty of God’s creation from 10,000ft.
- In September, I traveled along with seven others to visit our companion congregation in Bomalang’ombe, Tanzania to experience this important relationship first hand and begin crafting a vision for the future of our 15-years-strong partnership.
- The community gathered to celebrate 60 years of ministry here in Roseville in October, hosting former members and a number of former clergy and then celebrated again in December with a commemoration of 60 years of worship and ministry in this beautiful facility.
- Though bittersweet, we said farewell to Tammy Wilkinson, as she transitions away from leading our Children’s Ministry by deepening into her sense of calling into ordained Christian public leadership. The Church can use more leaders with hearts for ministry that are as big as Tammy’s.
- After a number of months of conversation and exploration, our MSET has settled on a proposed staffing configuration to support the work of our emerging strategic vision.
Peter Christ, Lead Pastor
There are many more things that deserve to be listed, as this was truly a wonderful year for me together with all of you. Confident that God is so very active in our midst, I couldn’t be more excited about what this list will look like at the end of 2018. What a joy it will be to discover it together.