This week, I had the opportunity to fill in for our Board Chair Kitty Meyers at our biweekly Board of Stewards Zoom meeting. I’m so proud of Kitty and all our board members and our staff in how they have responded to the pandemic with such care and faithfulness to our church and our community. At our meeting, Valerie Slade gave us an update on our church’s financial situation. For the first half of this year, with help from our Paycheck Protection Program loan, most of which we expect will be forgiven, and the Board’s decision to decrease our annual budget, we have weathered the financial storm of the pandemic fairly well. But we are concerned about the months ahead. Bill Balthrope, Chair of the AHUMC Foundation, along with fellow board members Andy Ahrens and Dianne Dorsett, made a request to the Foundation for a larger gift to the church this year, which the Foundation generously granted. But, we will need your help through the rest of this year and beyond. When we look at per capita giving to the church this year through the pandemic, we’ve seen a decrease in the number of givers, but an increase in the amounts each individual and family is giving. So, if you’ve not been giving on a weekly or monthly basis to the church, I encourage you to start. Any amount will be helpful. Such giving enables our congregation to be the hands and feet of Christ.
Our Building Reopening Task Force also gave us an update on its work, as well as the current use of the building. We will continue to watch conditions locally as we make decisions for in-person worship and use of our buildings throughout the week. If you’d like to reserve a room for a small group at the church, please contact Leah Jayne in the church office.
Matt Scott gave us an update regarding attendance for our online worship services. It continues to be robust, and we are all thankful for our pastors, staff, and volunteers in making these opportunities available to us. I also thank each of you for participating in these services, whether in the live stream on our website, Facebook, YouTube, or through watching or listening throughout the week. I pray that we as a congregation might be a light to our city and our community through these unusual times.
Grace & Peace,
Jamie Patterson
