The State of the Church Address given during the Congregational Meeting on January 17, 2021:

I have to admit that writing this State of the Church address was tremendously difficult. 2020 has just been that kind of year.
We have had amazing things happen, as we have all heard, and yet it seems as if as soon as we get started, as soon as we get back to a rhythm, the wheels come off the proverbial bus again, but not really in a physical way, but in an emotional way.
Whereas we were incredibly blessed in 2020 with some amazing things, it seemed for me as your privileged shepherd, life was just off half a beat.
Almost every night I call my dad just to check in with him. And inevitably, when I call him on Sunday nights, he will say, “There just seems to be a real sweet spirit about the church.” I always agree with him and then he will rattle off some of the precious memories that he has seen in the life of this wonderful part of Christ’s bride called Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
There is a sweet, sweet Spirit, in this place and it is because God has richly blessed this church in so many ways.
This past year, we lost one of our few remaining founders of this church. We started with 81 members, dipped down to 80 and then added 8 more. Hopefully in the coming months we will have another new members class.
We also had the privilege of baptizing a baby, Fuller Curtis Shoda.
I can still remember when we sat in the Gathering Place as Session, wondering how we were going to make it financially because of the shutdown? It turns out we made it just fine. God used you all for us to do some amazing things…
We purchased a new van to help get kids for Wednesday night, and for us to use to haul the youth, the deacons and anyone else around who needs it.
Through your generosity, contributions above and beyond our general budget of over $24,000 came in to do our amazing front entry and I can’t wait to see the finished product as we put in the rock garden and the trees. I look forward as well, as we look to finish out the courtyard with an amazing play structure for our enjoyment as we make that area a more usable space.
From someone outside of the church we received a sizeable donation that has allowed us to do some much needed repairs on the roof of Trinity House, a new water softener, sealing our parking lot, and allowed us to start our CIA, our capital improvements account.
We gave more money to missions than we have in years.
We weathered the complete shutdown of our nation and even our church functions.
Through some grant money we were able to upgrade our computers, our wifi network, and we are getting to the point to be able to live stream much sooner than later, we just want to make sure we turn out a stream that is both understandable and worthy of the God we worship.
But as great and amazing as all those things are, they are not the reason we have such a sweet spirit in the church.
The reason we have a sweet spirit within the church is because our God is faithfully using His broken children for His glory.
Whether it is in writing simple Christmas Cards…
Volunteering to lead a VBS class…
Teaching Sunday School…
Texting late in the evening trying to understand theology better or who certain heretics are…
To running wire and erecting pergolas, fixing toilets and fixing doors.
Getting a van painted, or plugging a bus in to make sure it works on Wednesday nights…
To making sure that the website is running as smoothly as possible…
Or running the computer for Sunday morning…
Playing drums for worship, or keys, or singing…
Maybe it is holding a baby, or even having a baby and wanting what is absolutely best for him or her…
Teaching Sunday School….
Or making a gazillion cookies, or plates of unknown, unrecognizable combinations…
Or laughing with one another in the hallways…
Or crying with each other as we mourn the loss of a loved one, even if it meant getting exposed to the same virus that killed that beloved sister…
Singing a solo in a Christmas pageant…
Having Holy Communion, socially distanced, at a friend’s house…
It is a passion to want to rightly understand the Word of God…
It is the love to want to teach others, even though you are too young,
It is 2 teen aged boys teaching memory verses, trying to hide God’s word in children’s hearts,
Or a group of girls trying to make up motions and lead a bunch of seemingly disinterested kids in song…
It is stepping up to help finish a ministry of gift giving when a fellow brother and sister are diagnosed with COVID,
It is going above and beyond to decorate a stage for a Christmas story, even laughing when a bull and a goat begin to jump and wrestle on that same set…
It is elders stepping up when a pastor has to quarantine…
It is men willing to run sound, where the only time it is really noticed is when the batteries run out on the mic, or there is feedback, but for hours upon hours, these men faithfully serve without flaw…
It is those who came in on a Saturdays to make sure we have a message to listen to on Sundays as we worshiped in clusters in our homes…
It is brother and sisters crying together for answered prayer, for chemo treatments and healings and sicknesses of people we have never met and some we have known for their entire lives…
It is phone calls given to encourage…
Long talks in the parking lot…
Meals made to feed hungry mouths and broken hearts
It is hands still working, even when those hands cramp up, or get an extra set of wrinkles because of all of the dishes that need to be washed…
Written copies of the sermons delivered faithfully to those who don’t have a computer…
It is deacons singing the same Christmas Carols at 10 different houses of those who are shut in,
It is elders who well up with tears for God and his faithfulness, and God’s children and their brokenness…
I could go on and on, but brothers and sisters, the reason we have a sweet, sweet spirit in this church, is because you all are the Holy Spirit’s mouthpieces.
You are His trumpet,
His declaration
And because of that,
Because of the hope of Christ living in you, I am blessed and absolutely humbled to be called your shepherd.
But I must confess, as much as I am thrilled about the sweet, sweet spirit in Trinity, we are missing some fellow brothers and sisters…
We are missing some of the loved ones that need to be here so we can worship as a complete family…
Those days I pray will come sooner than later.
I want to thank all of you who have been so faithful in keeping up with those individuals and families. I know as your shepherd, I have let many of them down, or have not been able to be consistent with them, for this I am truly sorry and am striving to be better at, but I believe, that is why there is a sweet, sweet spirit in this church…
Because you all are the church, not me as the pastor.
And you all are doing a great job of loving on each other, so please keep it up, in spite of the Pastor.
And so, when I look at the state of Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian church of Columbia City, Indiana, we are blessed,
We are healthy,
And we are getting, and going to get even more healthy as we grow in a spirit of grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This coming year, as I have said, I am looking forward to the many improvements that are in the works for our facilities… the playground, the finishing of the front entry, the island, and who knows what else…
But I am looking forward with even more anticipation of how we grow together as Bible based, disciple making, Jesus worshiping, Gospel centered brothers and sisters in Christ.
As we study God’s amazing grace in the book of Galatians…
We learn the importance and beauty of Christ’s return and living in the End Times.
And as 2021 rolls on, may we never forget,
God is sovereign,
God is good,
And the moon is always round.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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