Being a Connectional Church

by General Presbyter Melana Scruggs

 

As we come to the end of the year, I want to thank you all for being the church together. We are the presbytery and can do more ministry together than we can separately. Your generosity to your individual congregations and to the work of the presbytery helps us answer God’s call to be light in the darkness.

Thank you to all the churches that share their resources with the presbytery for mission with our covenant partners, with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, with mission co-workers, and with special offering emphases. We also appreciate the support of congregations for the operations of the presbytery. We have intentionally been cutting the overhead costs of running the operations so that more funds can go to facilitating the work of congregations. We no longer have the cost of office space and with Alesia’s retirement, will not have cost of administrative services. Thank you for your continued invitation to be part of the work you are doing in each of your areas of ministry. All 35 churches in the presbytery have contributed financially to various aspects of our work and ministry together! That deserves celebration!

Since we are the presbytery together we also need people with particular skills to do the work of ministry and facilitation. If every committee were fully staffed, we would have 90 people from our churches at work on committees that facilitate the work of congregations. At the risk of mission someone, I want to thank those who have served and those who are beginning service. Those who are rotating off committees have served anywhere from 2 to 6 years on a committee and have given of their strengths. Thank you to: Bill Clough, Devon Andrews, Bill Teng, Sandi Soper, Martha Chaney, Helen Heinlein, Carson Brown, Bill Sitterley, Joyce Botchford, Rex Childs, Kathleen Weller, Don Olson, Charlie Mills, David Landers, and Jim Wilson. Those who have said yes to serving on committees beginning in 2025 are Ed Brandt, Janice Croley, Tim Boggess, Marlene Petro, Jennifer Kirbas, Rusty Shunk, Diane Means, Eric Robinson, Robert Karn, and Carson Brown. A special thank you to Laurie Haas, who has served as moderator for 2024! Another special thank you to Charmaine Ponkratz, who has been the treasurer for the last two and a half years and works diligently to help the presbytery understand how your generosity enables our work.

We will miss Alesia Sharpe and wish her well in retirement. You will get to see her at the February meeting of presbytery.

I am grateful for each of you and am privileged to be part of the work of Jesus Christ in southwest Florida. Blessings on your Christmas celebrations and for the new year.

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