MCCC Board Report – Pastor’s Report – April 2020
4/19/20 Greetings, everyone!
What a beautiful service we all were able to enjoy together this morning. Thanks so much to everyone involved in putting it together! Truly, our church is NOT the building!
Today would be the day of our “normal” monthly Board meeting. Since we have no decisions pending at this time, I wanted to simply send you some information and updates, just so that we can keep in touch. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me and I’ll do what I can to get the answers.
Below & available for download, please find monthly updates from Chad, Liz and Paul.
Stay safe and be well.
Cathy Hakala-Ausperk, Board Chair
MCCC Board Report
Pastor’s Report – April 2020
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Well…how about– ”it was the strangest of times”? Here we are in the middle of a pandemic and shelter-in-place orders in the year 2020. On Friday the 13th of March 2020, our church board met to talk about whether or not we should gather for worship that coming Sunday. We talked for over an hour and came to the conclusion that for the love of our congregation and community we needed to suspend worship for the next few Sundays. Little did we know that we would be over a month later and not once having met face-to-face by state order.
Technically, churches are permitted to gather, but it would be incredibly irresponsible and not at all a reflection of loving God and loving our neighbors. So….we wait for the day when “social/physical distancing” will be relaxed and we can gather again. Many, many thanks here to our Board Chair, Cathy Hakala-Ausperk who has been instrumental in our discernment process during this time and keeping on top of things administratively. Cathy and the whole MCCC Board has made wise and compassionate decisions.
Overall, I am profoundly thankful for and amazed by the patience, grace, and generosity of our congregation during this time. MCCC is an incredible church and we’ve made that even more clear during this time. Navigating the pandemic has been hard on everyone. Many have lost their jobs, many are stressed with new remote working arrangements, and the challenge of the schools working online. People are stressed, grieving, and just trying to take it day-by-day. That being said, we are surrounded by powerful acts of generosity.
Kids Weekend Meals is meeting every 2 weeks and putting together over 1,300 meals to help the children in our community. Multiple members of our church continue to work through the epidemic as nurses, grocery clerks, cashiers, farmers, truck drivers, and more. People are making masks, contributing to our online worship, and giving of their finances to help the church stay afloat and help others. The church building was empty on Easter this year–maybe for the first time EVER–but believe me, the church is ALIVE and moving about in the Name of the Risen Christ. Thanks be to God!
Online Worship
I don’t know what we would do without Pastor Sarah Smith during this time! As a seminary student and teacher she is immersed daily with many responsibilities and “tugs” for her time and attention. Yet, on that Friday evening in March….she said “Yes” to the call for helping pull together an online video service. She has worked tirelessly, many (many) long hours of editing, searching, waiting, and creatively designing our MCCC worship. Folks will send her the videos and she has put them together. Sarah is a student, a full-time teacher, and a VOLUNTEER at our church. She deserves our deepest appreciation and admiration for all she has done for our faith family at this time. She has served with enthusiasm, compassion, and the deepest of commitment. I have also been so deeply moved by the contributions of our Worship Chair, Pam Auble, who has been passionate about keeping our congregation involved in the service. We come up with ideas and she runs with them and has done an amazing job. Adam Petrosino, our music director, has been pressed into service in a far different way than any of us ever imagined and he is still providing us with beautiful accompaniment to our virtual hymns. Many, many thanks to the whole Worship Team who keep finding ways to stay involved and keep worship moving!
FINANCIAL UPDATE
Liz Meeker, Treasurer
Our total income for the first quarter of 2020 is $65987.02 and our total expense is $37924.89 leaving us a net profit for the quarter of $28062.13. Some reasons for this high net income is due to some accounting changes done at the beginning of 2020 and the fact that some members of the congregation were able to pay their full year’s pledge. That being said, if you are able to make your pledge or a general offering, it would still be much appreciated in order to carry us through the year with all personnel intact. And if you can’t, no worries, please don’t stress in these already stressful times!
The checking account balance at the end of March 31st, 2020 was $32158.49 again for the aforementioned reasons.
All bills are paid, except for the Disciples Mission Fund and all payroll has been paid.
TRUSTEE’S UPDATE
Paul Meeker
Coronus has us snookered for the time being. Last activity on the parsonage reno was on Saturday, March 14th, where several people showed up. The windows got washed down stairs, some more painting was done, some work was done in the bathrooms and kitchen area. After that, things came to a halt because of COVID-19.
Since then, I did order up and received 150 gallons of fuel oil for the parsonage this week as it was getting pretty low. This should carry us to the nicer weather without having to fill the tank completely. Pat Hoskin asked if it was alright if her and Mike did some painting on their own in order to move things along. I thought it would be O.K. as it would be just them and it would be within the social distancing guide lines.
I want get over myself and reinstall the overhead light fixtures that were removed for ceiling painting which is now done except for the living room, dining area and kitchen.
I moved Chad’s car over into the parsonage garage just to get it out of the weather and prevent possible theft since there is very little activity around the church itself.
