I still cannot believe we are already in February of 2020. This year seems to have taken off as quickly as a SpaceX rocket. Yet, despite the rapid nature of this seemingly still-young year, there is a lot to look forward to and a lot of work to be done.
One of those primary focal points is an annual mission we create here at TPC. Every fall, the session (the governing body) meets for a retreat to recap the year. We discuss what worked, what we did well, what we enjoyed, and what we could improve. A number of church functions and happenings are discussed and highlighted.
It usually is a productive meeting that lasts a few hours and (hopefully) most of us come out of there looking forward to the upcoming year and appreciating the previous one. For the previous few years we have also crafted and shaped a “mission” to focus on for the upcoming year. As such, 2019 was no different.
The mission focus that we created for 2020 is: “Building resources and reaching out for families.” Our hope and our goal with this mission is to improve ways in which we build all sorts of resources for all people in the church–from Sunday School curriculum to ministries or fellowship events to beginning new activities or events at the church or improving some of the more-established ones. Our overall goal is to continue to grow in many different ways, and our prayer and hope is that it will manifest itself through our missional focus for 2020 and hopefully beyond.
The next portion, reaching out for families, involves any number of intentional events, from our Easter Feaster to the Pepper Choplin event we had in January to our Sunday night youth group, women’s study, and music makers. The idea here is to continue on this trek of implementing new events and activities that intentionally reach out to families.
Believe it or not, what we do in the community and the world around us also constitutes reaching out for families. Maybe the person that we always get our coffee from at the counter notices how we carry and conduct ourselves and inquires as to which church we attend. Maybe the friends we get together every other week for dancing, bingo, or our children’s activities could use a personal invitation to an upcoming event we are hosting or even to worship on a Sunday. The possibilities are endless, and everyone can contribute.
Additionally, each elder and committee chair will also hopefully look and see what their specific committees can do to live into and fulfill this specific missional focus for 2020. We feel each separate committee could have a specialized focus in this mission that falls into place with each of those committee’s goals and responsibilities.
Now, we intentionally left the broad term “families” in place for a reason. We view families as families of all shapes and sizes: young children, single parents, experienced members, and newer ones. Families of one and families of ten all fall under the umbrella of family here at TPC.
We hope you will join us on this journey at TPC for 2020; and, by all means, if you have any thoughts, feedback, or suggestions feel free to submit them to the church office, communication committee, or me.
God bless and merry 2020!