5 August 2021
Greetings and Blessings!
It has been a week full of blessings since my last What’s Brewing letter. So, let’s just go through some of thehappenings.
The new doors have been installed and so far, your response has been very positive! There is still some work to be done as we are implementing electronic access technology. Instead of using a key to open the door, those
who formally had keys will have a “fob,” which unlocks the door by placing it next to a pad on the door. This gives us a very easy way to provide access to a broad array of folks and organizations and if the “key” (fob) is not returned after their access needs are met, we can electronically turn off the accessibility from that particular fob. From a security standpoint, it is a great improvement for the church- and no more trying to figure out where all of our keys are!
The Spoken concert on Friday night was a success in many ways. We had opportunities to fellowship with each other and friends. I was blessed to have a strong contingent from my former pastoral appointment, Red Lion Zion present. Many of our neighbors, upon hearing a strange sound emanating from our parking lot, proceeded forth to see what was the source of such music. We had some great conversations and many expressed an interest in either checking us out on Sunday, or for many, returning to worship at Yorkshire. This was not due to the music per se, but upon their witness of our fellowship. They could tell we were having fun together.
Some of the music was not necessarily what everyone tried to find on their car radio on the way home. The exception was our opening act, Corina Rose, who was certainly a blessing to everyone! Spoken plays a form of Christian rock that may be best considered heavy metal. But what fun we had experiencing this different genre
of music. In one conversation with Janice Hoffman and Gladys
a suggestion about adding some of Spoken’s music to the Choir
remember if it was them or me that made this recommendation?
suit the listening taste of all that were present, it did not keep us from enjoying the time together and we made new friends, and greeted old acquaintances throughout the evening. We received very positive support from our community neighbors.
Another event that began and concluded this past week was the youth group trip to Impact which I wrote about last week. The great news to report is that from all that I have heard, it was a tremendously successful week for them and life long memories were made as they experienced great worship times with hundreds of other youths. One student shared that one of the most powerful experiences that she enjoyed was the outdoor worship at night. “The stars were out and it was just very powerful!” You can hear much more about this great outing from Pastor Megan in the Announcements!
Achenbach, I seem to remember repertoire… I can’t seem to But although the music did not
On Tuesday, Julie Mann, our Joyful Noise Preschool Director and I participated in a seminar at Messiah University. The purpose of the training was to learn how employers can best reach college students as part of their recruiting process. We live in very different times and reaching college students with a compelling offer of employment is not only challenging, but highly competitive. Messiah did an incredible job in providing this information and we both learned a great deal and made some very useful contacts. But it also revealed that we have some work to do in providing an electronic/social media footprint that truly demonstrates who we are as a church, what our culture is, and what the environment here is like. We have to be visible to prospective employees and those that we wish to recruit in new ways. In the old days of recruiting, we would invite prospective employees into our facilities for an interview and a facility tour. But today, if we want them to even entertain a visit, they need to be able to do research on these things via various avenues of media.
Interestingly enough, we also learned something about this with our discussions with our neighbors on Friday night. Many folks have perceptions about Yorkshire Church. Some relate our culture as a church to experiences they had years ago when attending, or visiting. Many have a sense about who we are based on what they “heard” or had come to know about our culture and worship practices. Some had preconceived notions about us based on the formality of our church building. We have a very traditional red brick building with a very high spire which to some suggests a “high church” type experience. In most cases, the perceptions of us from the outside do not reveal who we are as a church and the reality of our wonderful fellowship. But, after interacting with many of you as well as witnessing our fellowship with one another during this outdoor event, several commented that they could tell that we were different than their previous perceptions- in a very positive way! Yorkshire, we are a warm, loving, and wonderful fellowship!
In other news, we had a Joyful Noise Preschool Board meeting on Tuesday evening. We are so blessed to have Barb Snare as our Board Chair! We are blessed to have a great board of directors. Joining Barb is Rick Focht who is the Vice-Chairperson, Tiffany Ivie who also serves as the Secretary, Lauri Mink, Suzanne Robertson, and our parent-board member, Brenna Seely. Preschool Director Julie Mann and I also serve as part of the Board. There has been so much activity regarding the preschool this summer! Julie has spent tireless hours recruiting, researching, repainting, remodeling, and restructuring just about every aspect of our wonderful school. Most of this is done on her own time. Her commitment and dedication to her calling serve as motivation and inspiration to me every day. The results of her efforts are easy to witness as soon as you enter the preschool wing of the church. As a result, we now have a staff of five serving the children of our community; two teachers, two teacher aids, and a director! Our enrollment is currently nineteen four-year old students and six 3-year-old students- and we are still growing! We will be converting what was known as the pastor’s office to an office that serves the needs of this dynamic team. This is great stuff and we can truly be proud of the leadership that we have in Joyful Noise Preschool!
Many other things are happening – the Eagle Scout project transforming the garden into the Preschool playground is nearing completion. We will be reconvening choir and other musical ministries. New Sunday School classes are in development which will double our Sunday morning curriculum offerings (more to come on this). Greetings and Hospitality programs are in development to serve our fellowship-both those that attend in person, and new ways to meet the needs of those that cannot. Our missions and outreach programs are continuing to develop. Next week, I will provide a report on our financial status through the first half of this year- and I can tell you that it is very positive- thank you, thank you, thank you!
Well, these are my ramblings for this week. Blessings to each of you! Have a great day! -pastor dave.
dkominsky@susumc.org
125 Edgewood Road, York, PA 17402 • (717)755-4952 • www.yorkshirechurch.org
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