Lead Pastor’s Annual Report 2021
Duties: Responsible for preaching, worship, institutional leadership, pastoral support, spiritual guidance, and supervision as head of staff.
I give thanks to the Spirit and First Congregational members for helping our church through this year. We are living through a time of cultural and societal change, and it is rare to recognize that is happening when in the midst of it. Yet here we are, discerning each day how to pivot (a significant word through 2021) in each moment and still look forward as much as we’re able to the future of Christ’s Church.
Following a first year of pandemic, your staff entered 2021 with a level of collective exhaustion I’d not experienced before. This mirrored our community and, I imagine, our world. Therefore, we began finding ways to supplement, particularly after Pastor Davi took medical leave time starting in January. During Lent we hosted guest preachers from throughout the UCC who faithfully spoke to our Lenten theme “Again and Again,” and this allowed me to carry through with necessary pastoral ministries. For a couple months we also hired Stevi Hamill to serve as a calling Chaplain who reached out to members, some of whom we hadn’t heard from since the pandemic began.
As visioning for First Congregational’s next few years continued—bringing in our Pacific Northwest Conference Minister for Church Vitality, Rev. Courtney Stange-Tregear and following up with “backyard conversations” and wider-community group “radical listening” sessions—we realized that so much about who we are as a congregation and within the context of Bellingham has necessarily paused and shifted. We continue to seek Spirit’s direction.
I don’t know of another church in Whatcom County who has a genderqueer or transgender pastor, and this past year I’ve witnessed this unique ministry be a holy blessing in the spiritual lives of individuals and families as more youth, young adults, and middle-aged folk with that identity come to remember themselves as beloved children of our Creator in a society that isn’t there yet. Pastor Davi came out to us in March with vulnerability and trust that our Open and Affirming commitment would embrace them. I know it has been a joy for many of you to see them be the person God created them, and it has been a challenge to some—we are all, everywhere, learning more and more about gender and gender identity and what it means to continually comprehend a non-binary world.
This year we experienced the multiplicity of sorrow + celebration + so many other emotions as we honored Sharry Nyberg’s retirement after 21 years of faith formation ministry among us. Thanks be to God that many were able to gather in person, after months of online-only worship, to give thanks for the countless gifts Sharry brought to our congregation.
Our Accountant, Renee Relin, and short-term Administrative Assistant for Care Coordination, Laura Norton, both moved on this summer. We hired Erin Kennedy as Accountant, and Susan and Ted Huffman are sharing the Interim Minister of Faith Formation position as First Congregational discerns staffing needs for our future. A much-needed Worship Media Coordinator, Skyler Spain, was hired at ~5 hours per week.
In preparation for my 7th year sabbatical, a team of members gathered to write a grant application to the Lilly Foundation, resulting in a $46,691 Lilly Grant for Clergy Renewal to First Congregational to support both my 3 months of travels and a part-time Sabbatical Pastor to lead worship while I’m away.
I lift up the often behind-the-scenes ministry of our Called to Care Team. Health Minister and Faith Community Nurse, Stephen Ministers and Parish Visitors—all of them have bolstered the physical, emotional, and spiritual care of our members this year even as they themselves struggle. The Leadership Team—moderators, treasurer, and clerk—have also held the emotionally hard and meaningful work of listening to and for our congregation, engaging difficult conversations and supporting Council’s work. I’m grateful to get to minister alongside all of them.
Throughout this year I’ve encouraged boards to do the necessary work of their ministries and let lie fallow un- or less essential programs. As hard as that is, the need to reassess what we’re able and called to do together cannot be denied as current conditions help us reconsider what Christ’s Church is truly called to be in this new era gestating and preparing to be born. We’ve learned that online meetings can be useful and online worship is indispensable, even as we remember the significance of interacting with one another in person. We’ve lived the reality of climate change in unprecedented (another favorite word of 2021) heat and floods in our region. We have lost members and gained new ones and many of us are figuring out what being part of this community means for us in this time. How is the Divine calling us to be Church in the future being born right now? That is a question I have held before me and prayed with this year, even as I have prayed through the church directory thinking of each of you.
Thanks be to God for all of you,
