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Monday, January 13, 2025

The 2025 State of the Communion Address

Introduction
At the beginning of each year, I like to review highlights and achievements of our church over the past year and also look forward to what I think should be our priorities for the coming year as we listen for God’s Word in Holy Scripture.  Let me begin with the Scripture God placed on my heart today.

Philippians 3:12-14
10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Paul’s Words of Encouragement
These are the words of the Apostle Paul, encouraging the Christians in Philippi.  Even Paul realized he was far from perfect.  He had work to do.  And he encouraged the Christians in Philippi—and us—to follow his example.  We need to leave past failures behind—and successes too.  We need to focus on pursuing the ultimate goal: the heavenly prize of eternal life with Christ. This passage encourages believers to persevere in faith, grow in holiness, and press forward with purpose and determination, trusting that God calls us to a greater future through Jesus.

Persevere in Faith
We can’t give up.  Eternal life is granted immediately when we decide to follow Christ.  But real life change takes time.  Holiness, healing, deliverance, peace, joy, the fruits of the spirit…  It usually takes time before they overflow in our lives.  We have to walk with Christ.  Often, we have to suffer Christ before we enjoy the full benefits of citizen of heaven in this life on earth.  So we have to persevere in faith.

Grow in Holiness
And we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit to grow in holiness.  We are to be holy as God is holy.  It’s not enough to simply say, “I’ve been saved.  I’m going to heaven.”  Strive to become more like Jesus.  He deserves your full obedience.  He wants you to be full of love—for everything you do to be motivated by genuine love.  He has already saved you if you follow Him.  But what good is it to say you believe in Him if you will not allow Him to refine your character?  Grow in holiness.

Press Forward with Purpose and Determination
So, let us not grow weary of doing good.  Let us press forward with purpose and determination.  Christ did not give up when he faced the suffering of the cross.  He was determined to win our salvation.  He suffered the shame and endured the cross for our sake.  Let us follow His example by pressing forward to do His will on earth.  Let us commit tell people everywhere about our Lord Jesus, testifying to how He saved us and is changing lives.  And let us encourage others to follow Jesus too.  For He commanded us in Matthew 28:19-20:  “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Review of 2024
In 2024, we got a brand new start in a new denomination.  Pleasant Grove transferred into the newly formed Global Methodist Church, seeking to fulfill our desire to be part of a new, global methodist renewal movement. Seeking to be faithful to the God of Scripture in a new age.  We began with great excitement and hope of leaving the tumultuous past behind and walking boldly into an excited, yet unknown, future.

We saw new growth in our church.  We had 4 Baptisms, 2 new Professions of Faith, and 7 New members.  Our average Sunday attendance for 2024 was 126 people.  I know that may seem exaggerated, because when we look around on most Sundays, we don’t see more than 100 people in our sanctuary.  And indeed, the average in person attendance in our sanctuary was on 79 last year.  However, we live in a new age.  And not only our church, but every church in our country has experienced dramatic decline in in-person attendance for decades, and especially since the pandemic in 2020.  However, our attendance in 2024 included an average of 47 people participating in our live online steaming worship service, meaning our total average attendance—in-person & online—was 126, which is better than our attendance prior to COVID.

A New Hymnal & A New Bible
One of our goals for 2024 was to supply our church with a new church hymnal, which we proudly have in each of our pews today.  And along with this new addition, we also refreshed and upgraded our pew Bibles, with larger print so that every worshipper in our congregation has easy access to both the music of our service and the Word of God.

New Church Directory
Another goal for the year was to publish a new church pictorial directory, the first since 2018.  Thanks to your cooperation in being photographed and the hard work of Tom Dickson and Jeremy Barfield, we have a beautiful new church directory.  And I think it’s the best looking directory we’ve ever had.  It includes pictures of 56 families from our church as well as numerous examples of different groups and activities from 2024.  I encourage you to take one of our directories with you after the service—especially if you are new to our church, because it is a great way to get to know the new names and faces of our church family.

Updating Up Membership Roll
The third goal we had for 2024 was to continue work auditing our church membership roll.  Thanks to the faithful work of Donna Phillips, we have fully transferred our membership roll from the old analog books to a new digital format that is easier to edit, update, search, and organize.  We have discovered a number of corrections that are needed on our membership roll.  This year, we will be reaching out seeking your help in identifying people on our roll which we need to contact, remove, or update their status.  It is important to us—and to me—that our church membership roll is accurate and up to date.

It is impossible to name all the wonderful work we have done over the last year.  And when I try, I will inevitably take too much time and still leave something important out.  But this year I had some help from our music minister David Crawford, who wrote and recorded a great song to remember some of our highlights from the year.  And I want to share that with you now.  Click here to watch David’s music video recap of 2024.

Pleasant Grove’s Strengths
Now, I want to turn my attention to our goals for the coming year—2025.  Recently, we sought your feedback about what we do well at Pleasant and how we can improve.  According to your feedback from those surveys, Pleasant Grove is widely recognized for its vibrant music and impactful preaching, offering a blend of traditional and modern worship that resonates deeply with members. The church is celebrated for its warm, welcoming atmosphere and strong sense of family, alongside its diverse outreach efforts, including snack packs, trunk-or-treat, shoe boxes, and community meals. You highly value our work with children, youth, and Bible study, and appreciate our sermons for being biblically grounded and inspiring. Additionally, the church’s technical capabilities and streaming quality are appreciated, providing flexible ways to worship. Your feedback also indicated financial support for meaningful causes, and dedication to youth and children’s ministry are key strengths.  (Obviously, we would like to see more children and youth in our church, but we have wonderful leaders and programs dedicated to ministering to them.  We just need to encourage more families with children and youth to participate.  Will you help us invite more families to join with us this year?)

It's wonderful to celebrate our strengths and I appreciate your encouragement by sharing the things we do well at Pleasant Grove.  It is gratifying to know you notice and appreciate our efforts to lead and serve well.  We will continue to strive to do all of things well at Pleasant Grove.

Areas for Improvement
We also appreciate your suggestions for how we can improve. And based on your feedback, I have identified three main areas for improvement that we can focus this year.

Number 1 – Enhanced Communication
The was a lot of feedback related to communication.  Some called for a weekly, Sunday bulletin.  Others shared they have difficulty reading the weekly emailed newsletter we email we call The Leaf.  Some indicated they get too many emails from the church while others said they wish they received more.  All this indicates to me that we can do a better job communicating more clearly and concisely.  So that’s one of our goals.  I would like to reformate the Leaf as a weekly bulletin that we can print and email in a format that can be read clearly by all.  We are going to work on that.

Number 2 – More Volunteers
Feedback from surveys also highlighted a need for more volunteers and increased commitment from members of the church, especially younger ones.  Something I have personally noticed since the pandemic in 2020, volunteer engagement has gone down significantly in our church.  And I want to point out, it not just our church.  This is a problem in Christian churches all over our nation.  And it extends beyond the church as well.  Volunteer engagement in civic organizations is lower as well.  Fewer and less committed volunteers is a new pandemic we are experiencing in our churches and our communities. 

Sadly, this leads to burnout in our church.  Those who do volunteer find themselves being asked to serve more often—to the point it can seem they are the only ones doing anything.  This is a plague I’ve seen specially with our children’s ministry for some time now.  Our children’s ministers cannot find the help they need.  They helpers they do enlist are overworked.  And our children’s ministers quickly find themselves burned out.  And we had some great children’s leaders, but we’ve also had too much turnover.  And the root cause often comes down to not enough help. 

Bottom line, we need more volunteers.  What can we do about it?

We need leaders to manage volunteers.  We often have people willing to help, but they don’t know what to do.  And often our volunteers feel like they are the only ones serving.  So, we need help supervising volunteers.  Some people need to step forward as leaders who have a gift for organizing, recruiting and motivating volunteers, creating volunteer schedules, and keeping everyone on track. 

People want to serve and they want to feel good about serving.  Is God calling you to help organize a team of volunteers?  I can see several areas where we need help with this:

1.     Children’s volunteers – Summer, our children’s minister, is already available to organize and schedule volunteers.  But she needs more helpers with nursery, Sunday school, and children’s church.

2.     Ushers – I want to see a group of at least 4 men serving as ushers each Sunday:  greeting people and making them feel welcome and safe in our service.  Who will organize and schedule a group of ushers?  Who will serve as an usher?

3.     Youth Volunteers – Amy does a wonderful job teacing our youth.  But she needs help in the form of volunteers who come on Wednesday nights and sit in during the youth program.  She also needs chaperones who can go on youth trips with her.

4.     Handy Men – It would be wonderful to have a team to assist with small tasks for church members in need, promoting involvement in service for people in our church.  Who can volunteer?  Who hand lead and organize?

There are lot’s of ways to serve.  But we must have volunteers.  And we need leaders with a gift to organize our volunteers so they don’t get overwhelmed and burn out.

Number 3 – Enhanced Community Outreach and Engagement
Pleasant Grove is well-known for our creative and effective outreach programs, such as: 
Snack Packs, Trunk or Treat, Super Bowl Sunday, The Community Easter Egg Hunt, & VBS.
But perhaps we can find ways to better encourage people who benefit from these large outreach efforts to also participate in deeper ways with our church—through weekly worship, study, and fellowship.  In 2025, we will consider how we might enhance community outreach through follow-ups and ongoing engagement with people in our community.

Holy Communion
I can’t think of a better way to end our time together today than with Holy Communion.
Through this sacrament, we remember that Jesus is with us always, and we find nourishment and strength for the work He’s given us.  So let us seal our commitment to our goals for this new year with the sacrament of Holy Communion.

 

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