2 December 2021 Good day Yorkshire!
I write this week’s rendition of What’s Brewing with a particular joy as we have completed our last few meetings of 2021. Of course this includes our church Charge Conference which occurred on Sunday evening, but the highlight of that evening was the Hanging of the Greens which followed the conference! As you read this, you may think to yourself that my “particular joy” is the result of not having any more meetings. And although there is an element of truth to that, the joy that I feel is actually a result of the meetings that we had.
In the past two to three weeks, we have had Finance, Staff Parish, Missions, General Staff, and several other meetings that were in preparation for the church conference. If these were simply meetings, then anyone would feel joy to be finished with them. But, for our various teams, these meetings have become times of great fellowship. Sure, we are working through the business stuff of the church, but in each case, it is a gathering of brothers and sisters in Christ, in fellowship, to work together seeking God’s will for how our church is being called to serve Him for a time such as this. In these times of fellowship, we have not only worked through the tasks at hand, but we have laughed together, sometimes to tears, and we have shared a joy in our relationships with one another.
I have learned a few things during this period of time, as well. I have learned that the church has “squishy- things” from which we serve coffee. You pour coffee into these “things” and then “squish” the top which then pumps the coffee from inside the container, out of the spout, and into your cup. We also have variations of these things known as “flippy things…” from which the coffee is dispensed by the pulling of a lever (In other churches that I have served, these were known to me as carafes.) I have learned that when purchasing socks for our mission’s outreaches, we should never buy “jicky-jack” socks, but only cotton or wool as they wick moisture away from the skin. Although I don’t personally purchase socks often (because I get
them as Christmas gifts on Christmas morning), I don’t recall ever making a decision between “jicky-jack” types and any other type of sock. I’ll look closer next time I am at Kohl’s.
In addition to critical-minded thinking through the elements of “squishy, flippy, and jicky jack” discussions, a great deal of business has been discussed and decisions made that bring value to our fellowship. We will be publishing our 2022 Financial Budget shortly so that you can see how we are planning to use your gifts and offerings in support of our church operations, worship, facility, and missions’ outreach over the next year. There is still a great deal of work to do on our facility to not only repair the issues of our flooding this past year, but also to update the space with improved ADA access, restroom equipment, many other general maintenance concerns. The finance team has considered rising costs in energy and other areas that will impact our financial resources and will continue to not only look at how we are spending our finances, but also in seeking places where we can operate more efficiently- even while we are experience growth in our attendance, and our preschool enrollment.
Two goals of the Finance team are to improve our participation in our Online giving platform in 2022 and to simplify the giving categories in both the online program and our envelope giving. You will hear more about this in the near future, but the concept is to have four major areas of giving; 1) General Fund, 2) Missions Fund, 3) Joyful Noise Christian Preschool Fund, 4) Building Fund. Through these various “funds,” the church
leadership will be able to manage the needs of each area more effectively. Online giving through the website or what many know as Stripes, benefits us as it significantly simplifies our counting processes on Sundays and the beginning of the week. This change in fund focus will NOT eliminate any preferred giving methods.
From a Staff Parish perspective, we will continue to support our staff and personnel resources while continuing our search for a Worship Leader. Discussions were held with each of our staff members on their goals and objectives for next year- with every member of our team focusing diligent efforts on seeking God’s will in their areas of responsibility in serving Yorkshire Church.
Our Missions team is continuing to look at ways to serve our fellowship. We discussed the overwhelming success of this past year’s community outreaches starting with the Spoken Concert in July, the Rally Day program in September, and our most recent event, the Trunk or Treat in October. The team wants to grow our support of our missionaries in 2022. The Finance Team has supported this goal by at least doubling the amount that we contributed in 2021 to Henry Hauser in Africa, Rebecca Jacobs in the Dominican Republic, and James Reacher, in our college campus ministry support at West Chester University (Cru). The Casserole ministry remains strong and there are so many that support this great community outreach. If you would like to learn more about how you can participate in this ministry, please reach out to Mary Beaverson who can get you connected to this program. You may even learn a new recipe – Zippy Beef. (I am beginning to see a very unique Yorkshire trend here… “squishy, flippy, jicky, and yes, Zippy- you can’t make this stuff up!).
In other news, it looks like our new member induction service will be held during the services of 19 December. We will be welcoming 12 new members into the Yorkshire family membership. Membership is a personal choice for each person and does not change any status in worship participation. Some will choose to “join” a church, and others will simply choose to worship at a church and participate in its services and ministries. All are equally valuable and important. All folks that enter our portals, regardless of their “membership” choices, are part of our Yorkshire family. The important thing to celebrate is that we have many people choosing to be a part of our family. Jesus tells us that this will happen when we are a family that loves one another and our neighbors, just as He does. (John 13:34-35, Acts 2:42-47). Jesus also tells us in John 15:11-12,
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Love each other as I have loved you.” -Jesus.
So, how can we find joy, even in our meetings? Well, I believe it is the result of our love for one another. And it is this joy that the world will see and experience as we witness to those around us and share with those that God leads through our doors. The joy is you, Yorkshire Church, through God’s presence within you.
Peace and Blessings!
-pastor dave.
dkominsky@susumc.org
My command is this:
125 Edgewood Road, York, PA 17402 • (717)755-4952
• www.yorkshirechurch.org
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