14 January 2022 Greetings Yorkshire!
Well, we made it to Friday! It has been a great week. It has been a great week of meetings. Every night. When I look back on this week, I would not change a thing. I would not have wanted it to be any other way. Now, some of you may suggest this is an area where I need help in my life, others may suggest that I simply need a life, others may just say, “that’s not life.” But I say “au contraire!” I see
meetings as an opportunity for fellowship. I see meetings as an opportunity to get to know many of you and learn that you’re not just a face in a pew. I appreciate the dialog, the interaction, the sharing of ideas, the benefit of each of your experiences, and I enjoy the laughter and the joy that occurs. This week, I had four nights of that, and to me, that is life. That makes for a great week. And although this was a particularly busy week for many, it is not the pace of every week.
The first meeting that I enjoyed this week was the Finance Team meeting. Next week, we will share our 2021 financial numbers with you and I am certain you will be pleased with the work of this team. I want to share one item in particular that we spoke about, and that is our natural gas bill. In 2021, we spent $4,862.00 for the natural gas that we utilize. Now, a little over a year ago, we installed a new boiler system, funded by a fundraising drive which raised about $32,000.00. Your generosity was incredible in this endeavor. So, what did you get for this investment? Previous to the new boiler initiative, Yorkshire Church paid an average of $12,000.00 per year for natural gas. This year, under $5,000.00. That is a 60% savings! That investment will pay itself off in only a few years, and our Trustee team believes that through our upcoming renovations and some other adjustments, the system will operate even more efficiently. So thank you Yorkshire for your support of the Boiler Campaign and thank you to Steve Spangler and the Trustees for guiding our church in very positive ways. Thank you to team Finance that helps us to be able to invest wisely and properly in our church infrastructure needs and share with us the results of the gifts that we give!
We also held a Hospitality Team meeting. This included our Greeters and Ushers and we discussed how we greet those who come through our doors each Sunday morning. Seems simple enough to simply say hello, but we want to ensure that we have a coordinated effort to greet each person that worships at Yorkshire in a manner that makes them feel welcome. Of course, the emphasis of our discussion is on first time visitors. Going to a new church can be frightening. What lies beyond the front doors of a church can be a great mystery and sometimes intimidating. Where will I go once I enter? Where are the restrooms? Will they make me stand up and introduce myself? Will I have to fill out a card and divulge all my information? Will I know what to do? Would if they recite prayers and liturgies that I don’t know? What about my kids? Are there places that I can sit that will accommodate my wheelchair, or my rollator?
These are the topics that we discussed at this meeting as well as the logistics of opening doors, security, and the lobby (or narthex) environment. This was a great time of fellowship with about a dozen of our church fellowship. Yes, it was a meeting, but we were speaking about things that are important to each of us and
important to our church. The sharing of ideas will bring great benefit to how we can intentionally make our fellowship participants feel welcome and make our church an easy and friendly one to navigate. We would love to have, and need more of our fellowship involved in this process.
While the focus was primarily on how we provide support to first-time visitors and those who may still considerthemselves “new,” another point was brought to my attention after the meeting. It is of utmost importance for us to also be cognizant of every person in our fellowship. As we are in a growth mode, Sundays are not only a time for worship and personal interaction– it is the execution of the plans to conduct worship, Sunday School, on-the-fly repairs, find our children, be found by our children, adjust the heat, fix a microphone, unclog a toilet, or find out why the livestream cut off mid-service. It can be answering questions for new folks, or addressing some situation with our not-so-new folks. And this is important, but it also results in our taking our eyes off of what is most important, and that is each other.
What I enjoy most about Sunday mornings is the same thing I enjoy about a week of meetings, and that is fellowship with each of you. On the list above, none of those things come close to a personal time of interaction with you. When I get home, I don’t share with Holly about how much I enjoyed troubleshooting some technical glitch, but I do speak about how much I enjoyed discussions that I had that morning. And I recognize that most of your commentaries when you get home are not about some technical aspect of the message or a harmony of one of the songs or hymns that was sung. What you reflect on and remember is the joy of the fellowship that you shared that morning. As a fellowship, this is a need of each person and our challenge is to ensure that we keep our priorities focused on the personal element of who we are, and not the procedural elements of what we do.
With that said, we need to recognize there are things that need to be accomplished in order to carry out our worship services. And this is why meetings are of great value. It is an additional opportunity to meet with one another, share with one another, catch up with one another. Being involved in the activities of the church not only help the church, but it also provides benefit to each of us individually in being a part of something larger than ourselves- with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is in the voice of the church that we can share new ideas, benefit from your experience, grow as a collective effort, and enjoy our interactions with one another in addition to the hour or so on Sunday morning! If you would like to be a part of one or more of our teams, please let me know. You are important. If you would like to speak with me or spend some time in discussion, let me know, I will make myself available. It is in our interaction that I find my deepest joy – it just may need to be after the services or on another day of the week that meets your schedule.
There is so much more I could write about this great week, but I am out of space. (I could say the same thing about my sermons each week!). But I thank each of you for making this week the blessing that it was. Yes, we had some challenging moments, mysterious comma’s, early mornings and late evenings, but I give thanks to God for allowing me to be a part of this fellowship. Be blessed Yorkshire!
Have a great week! -pastor dave.
dkominsky@susumc.org
125 Edgewood Road, York, PA 17402 • (717)755-4952 • www.yorkshirechurch.org
You must be logged in to post a comment.