The endurance of our Purpose Statement amazes me. Most such statements have a shelf-life of perhaps three to five years. Not so with ours. It's recital concludes our four worship services each Sunday; it provides a platform to welcome new members into a mutual walk of faith together; and, it even brightens the wall in the Great Room--and soon the Sanctuary, too. Indeed, how can God's people ever tire of reaffirming that they need "to worship and serve God in love and obedience"?

So how did we do in view of this statement this past year? Well, worship participation held steady, although we did experience a slight decrease on average each Sunday to 511 at the end of 2005. This is all the more surprising given that the congregation increased in overall membership to 1,145. Thankfully, the first half of 2006 has seen an upswing in worship; on Easter Sunday, we saw our attendance top 900 for the first time in the congregation's history. The four Sunday services, I believe, continue to offer a wonderful variety of times and styles to make the worship of the Lord possible for the greatest number of people. I appreciate all those who work tirelessly toward this purpose and hope even more of us step up over the months ahead to help with choir, Praise Team, altar guild, ushers, etc. In terms of our serving, we have stayed strong in allocating a high percentage of the budget to ministries beyond our own needs. We continue to be a core congregation in the Interfaith Hospitality Network. And our enthusiasm for missions locally and globally has risen, too. Two teams have gone to the Gulf States to help in the aftermath of Katrina; a team leaves for Nicaragua soon; and, our youth ministry has made mission opportunities a chief priority. We have placed much focus on growing our love for Christ and one another through small group ministries and endeavoring to make Christ-centered relationships the heart of what we do in all aspects of our life together. Our Stephen Ministry, care team ministries, and other key ministries of the congregation provide love in real, tangible ways. We did bid a loving "farewell, until we meet again" to several members of our church family, and we continue to hold those particular families in our prayers. Finally, we strived toward obedience this past year with a great emphasis on Christian education, with the Scripture as the locus of our primary attention and study. Christian education, with Sunday Church School as the anchor ministry, has grown steadily over these past months and will no doubt remain growing and strong. We have a remarkable team of teachers and helpers who provide for us all year long. Our financial stewardship also remained a blessing over the year.

The year now ahead will of course bring change and surprise; joy and sadness. St. John--and our lives in general--remain dynamic gifts of God. But through it all, I pray that we will worship, serve, love, and obey our Lord in greater faithfulness and truth.

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

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