November Pastor’s Manna

Filed Under Archives, Pastor's Notes

             These last few months we have been looking at the Be-Attitudes, the Attitudes surrounding being a Christian and living in the secular world:

  • Gifts – Recognizing the gifts we have that come in many forms from God, and being generous by recognizing that God is the originator of all things
  • Service – Recognizing that Jesus Christ shows us the ultimate attitude of what our service is to be like.
  • Thankfulness – Recognizing that thankfulness and gratitude are appropriate responses to the gift of grace and salvation we have through Jesus Christ.
  • Perseverance – Recognizing, as Pastor David preached, that Perseverance plus Prayer equals Transformation.
  • Learning – Recognizing that our learning about our faith never ends, that our spiritual journey continues as we seek to grow closer to God.
  • Reformation – Recognizing that being in a reformed faith, we are constantly seeking to be reformed and transformed in our lives.
  • Love – Recognizing that Love for each other as fellow Christians is the response we are to have as a result of the Love we have been shown by God through Jesus Christ.
  • Diligence – Pastor David helps us recognize that combining each of these attitudes and adding in Diligence, we tap the unstoppable force that is the Power of God!
  • Stewardship – Recognizing that we give thanks to God by giving back out of the plentiful bounty that we have received from Him.

What attitude, and Be-Attitude is being seen in each of us as we go about our life in the world?  Is it an attitude of Service, or Thankfulness, or Love, or Perseverance, or any of those listed above?  Or is it perhaps a different attitude that we would not want to see written up on the front page of our newsletter?  Our Attitudes make an immense difference in how the world views our faith and those who follow Christ… what attitude are YOU reflecting?

In Him,
      Pastor Jon

Posted November 11, 2010, 4:21 pm | Comments Off 

October Pastor’s Manna

Filed Under Archives, Pastor's Notes

Your personnel committee has been busy at work interviewing candidates to fill our open positions of Director of Music and Financial Administrator.  They also have hired a part time office assistant as well.  Please join me in welcoming the  three newest staff members at First Presbyterian Church!

Lacie Boehme:  Lacie is our new Financial Administrator here at the church.  She started with us in the last full week of September and looks forward to handling all financial aspects of the church.  She comes to us with experience in Payroll, bookkeeping, insurance, human resources, and charity financial administration.

Phil Franco:  That pleasant voice when you call in the afternoon is our very own Phil Franco.   Phil, who has previously served as a front office volunteer, and has helped cover when the office was empty, is now on our staff, regularly working in the afternoons as receptionist and helps with general office duties as well.

Timothy Houfek:   Tim is our new Director of Music.  He starts with us on October 15th, when he concludes his service to Elkhorn Hills United Methodist Church.  Tim grew up Presbyterian, and has experience in Traditional Music, Praise Music and Children’s Music.  He has served churches in Wahoo, Omaha, and Elkhorn, and has served as adjunct instructor of Voice and Choirs with Park College, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and St. Cecilia Schola Cantorum.  He also is a private instructor of Voice and Piano.

All three of these persons are excited to be working at the church and look forward to helping the ministry of First Presbyterian Church flourish in Omaha, and the world!  Please welcome them as they begin their time with us!

In Him,
                                    Pastor Jon

Posted November 11, 2010, 4:20 pm | Comments Off 

September Pastor’s Manna

Filed Under Archives, Pastor's Notes

In the August newsletter last month, I shared the results of the Gallup ME25 survey concerning Engagement in the church.  This month the insert concerns the Spiritual Commitment levels found in the survey as well as Outcomes of our Engagement and Commitment. 

The same holds true on these results as for the Engagement results last month.  That essentially there is good news and bad news in the results.  The good news is that in most of the results we exceed what is held up as the 75th percentile for the ‘Mean (Average) Score’, which means that we have a higher score then 75% of other churches in most of the items.

The bad news however, is that even while we exceed how 75% of other churches are scoring, that is a relatively low-hanging fruit to grasp.  It is great to say that we had 34% of our members “strongly agree” on an item and the 75th percentile is 29%, but what that really means is that less than 4 out of 10 of our members strongly agreed on an item.  So while yes, we are scoring very well on a comparison basis with other churches, honing in on the questions actually reveals there is much work to be done.

            Another aspect of the survey was the percentage of people who are Engaged, Not Engaged, and Actively Disengaged.  The percentage of our congregation who are 42% of our members are Engaged in the work of the church, the more spiritually committed, the more likely to invite friends, and who give of their time and resources is 42%.  The percentage of Not-Engaged people in our church is 47% (these are members who might attend regularly but who do not have a strong psychological connection to the church.  These members give moderately but not sacrificially).  Finally the number who are Actively Disengaged is 11% (show up once or twice a year, are on the roles but might not know the name of the pastor or session members.  Some might be regular attendees, unhappy with something in the church and share that unhappiness with everyone they can).  The national average of all churches is 29% Engaged, 54% Not Engaged, and 16% Actively Disengaged.

            Isn’t that amazing?  Our church is way ahead of the curve in how many of our members are Engaged in the church, and how few of our members are Actively Disengaged.  We have actually already reached the goal Gallup suggests that most churches seek to have, which is 9% to 12% Active Disengagement (Gallup understands this will never go away 100%).  Our process now should be to seek to decrease the number of people who are Not Engaged, while increasing the number of members who are Engaged.

In Him,

Pastor Jon

Posted November 11, 2010, 4:19 pm | Comments Off