Stegners On Mission
Ministry has been so wonderfully full, God has been doing so much! Here are the highlights since last winter: We moved our Leader's Retreat from the fall to the spring this year and enjoyed two and a half days with fifty-two of our Deacons and Pastors (about 85% of our leaders in total from across our English congregations). We spent the time studying "movement dynamics" and how best to steward the work that Jesus seems to be doing through our church.
If the duration between our updates is any indicator, it has been a very full year of ministry. My original intent was to NOT let a full year go by and write an update this fall, but then we had an unexpected emergency (see family update section below). Everyone is OK but it meant in-part that I didn't get to this until now, apologies. Without further delay: In addition to my endless executive duties (which make for more boring reading) here are some ministry high points from this last year! ✨ We again celebrated baptisms several times this year as a church, including outdoor baptism this past summer:
(Above: Summer Baptism Party at the river, five new believers baptized!) I've realized it is high time for another update (how the months slip by) and so much has happened since Spring. As usual I'll stick to the highlights and post lots of pictures. :)
At risk of sounding like the the Apostle Paul, "I have desired for some time to write to you to tell you of the mighty works of Jesus in building his church!" Yet the press of ministry these past six months has been so all-encompassing, the pitch of the battle so relentless, finding a moment to do so has been difficult. Even now I feel the weight of things undone as I pause to write this update. And yet glorifying the name of God by publicly extolling his works is the "one great end" of all of this hustle, and so I am desirous to see that he gets his due. Here's a bit of a snapshot of the last six months:
Well it's been a crazy season of pandemic-style ministry...so much so that it's been over five months since our last report (the Summer 2020 report didn't even happen!). There's so much to share that right away I'm going to mix up the format of these updates and start with our ministry highlights:
