For Everything There is a Season
2025 has already been a full year in the life of our community – even if you don’t count politics!
In January we celebrated our new vision: to be an inclusive Christian community that loves everyone unconditionally and connects with our neighbors to build a more just world. We aspire to this through the core values of inclusion, worship, community, service, and justice.
In February we doubled down on the spiritual gifts that are our tools for working with our vision, core values, and our call as Christians in this time and place. We also celebrated several baptisms and our newest class of First Church members.
In March we will begin our Lenten journey alongside our favorite foot-in-mouth disciple, Peter. We will also begin to combine the work from January and February, connecting with each other to support existing ministries and develop new initiatives based on our core values, spiritual gifts, and affinity groups.
This week we bid a fond farewell to Matt Edey, our Office and Communications Manager (and queen of our hearts). As we said at their February 16 church-wide celebration, we can’t wait to see what unfolds for them next!
(Friday, February 28 is Matt’s last day in the office if you’ve been meaning to stop by to show them some love)
Matt’s departure leaves two areas to be filled: management of the office and the church’s communications work.
Church Office
To reflect the actual operation of the church and the needs of our budget, the church office will adjust its hours. Starting Monday, March 3, the office will now be open Monday-Friday, 9am-Noon. Drop ins, phone calls to the main office line, and other unplanned church business may take place during these hours. The congregation and community may come to the church in the afternoons by appointment or scheduled program only.
A part time Office and Scheduling Coordinator will be hired to manage the office while it is open, with the help of our steadfast office volunteers. The Coordinator will also manage our complicated building use schedule and work with our many tenants each day.
The interview team received over 300 resumes for the Office and Scheduling Coordinator role and are in the final stages of the hiring process. Please be in prayer as they discern the right candidate for this role. We look forward to introducing our new staff person to you soon.
Other staff will still be present for their usual workdays. Meetings and programs may continue to be scheduled as they are currently. For security reasons, the doors to the church will continue to be locked (even during business hours). The video doorbell at the chapel narthex doors may be used for entry during the church’s business hours.
If you have any questions about how you can interact with the church office, suggestions for how we can be available to the congregation and community, or would like to volunteer with the church office either while it is open or for other projects in the afternoons, please reach out to us!
Church Communications
We are excited to re-introduce the staff person who will work with our church’s communications needs beginning in March. For just over two years, Mary Beth Howard has served as our Church Administrator. In that time, she has helped us completely revamp how we budget, track our finances, and has transformed many different processes of the church to be more efficient.
Mary Beth will begin new role at First Church beginning in March: Director of Operations and Communications.
She will retain many of the responsibilities of the Church Administrator role, with tenant management and schedule oversight shifting to the new parttime staff person. She will also be able to utilize gifts and prior experience in church communications for those additional responsibilities.
As our primary communicator, Mary Beth will be responsible for the nuts and bolts (bulletin, website, newsletter) and will also train up and delegate communications work to other staff and laity. If you are a communicator, Mary Beth will need your help to meet the vast needs of this role. Whether your expertise is in photography, illustration, website management, social media, writing articles, copy editing, stuffing bulletin, or something else, the opportunities abound. Contact Mary Beth to put your name on a list of folks she can call upon if needed. Even if your particular skillset or method doesn’t fit our communications needs, your willingness and support is meaningful and appreciated.
The writer of Ecclesiastes says that everything has a season. For us at First Church, this season is one of spiritual reflection, sustaining energy, and forward momentum. Let’s keep going!
Peace,
Pastor Karyn