Pastor’s Report for January 2025

MINISTRY UPDATES AND INFORMATION

NURUTURE, OUTREACH AND WITNESS

  • We’ve begun collecting weekly reflection cards. These are small notes from congregants about how they experienced God in worship. The idea is to share and reflect on these messages later in the year. Anyone can leave us a reminder of what touched their hearts or stood out to them during a time of worship or another event at Kelsey. Leave your notes in the jar in the narthex.
  • We’ll finish our current sermon series, “Our Church Loves Our City” on February 9th. The series was designed to remind our congregation to be a presence of light and love to our community. Also, we may have to order more T-shirts. We’d like the congregation to wear their Our Church Loves Our City T-shirt when they’re around town. Take a picture and show us the many places Kelsey goes around our city.
  • I changed the online service used to send our daily text messages. Now, to sign up, text “Kelsey to 361.221.2207.
  • The United Methodist Men are hosting their Valentine’s Dinner. It’s scheduled for Saturday, February 8th at Silverado Smokehouse. The event is from 6:30-8:30pm.
  • The Kelsey Youth are hosting their annual SOUPer Bowl fundraiser. The event is scheduled for Sunday, February 9th after worship. Tickets at $10. All proceeds are designated to go to UMCOR for their ongoing fire relief efforts.
  • We mourn with the family of Berta Hernandez who passed away January 7th. Her funeral was held on Saturday, January 18th at Western Hills Church of Christ in Austion.
  • Our January average in-person worship attendance was 86.

MINISTRY INFORMATION

We are grateful to have received two grants from the Rev. Taylor Boone Innovative Ministry Grant. The first was in the amount of $5,000 for our Christmas on Comanche Street event in December. The second grant, totaling $17,900, is designated for three outreach ministries at Kelsey related to our Serve Weekend. First, $3,600 dollars is designated for Sandwich Sunday. Second, $12,300 is designated for our monthly food pantry. Finally, we have $2,000 dollars to provide shoes for a local middle school.

Thank you to Christa Creek for preparing and submitting the last forms for our year-end report. Also to Frank Fregoso for delivering two pallets of bottled water to the Seadrift community on behalf of Kelsey.

Church council leaders should expect to receive a PDF of the latest edition of “Guidelines for Leading Your Congregation.” This is a staple denominational resource outlining the responsibilities of the various leadership groups within a congregation. The guidelines we’ve purchased are for The Church Council; Board of Trustees; Finance Committee; Pastor Parish Relations Committee; Lay Leader; Nominations and Leadership Development. It’s important for every leader to review the guidelines for their assigned subgroup. Also, since everyone on the board functions in all the administrative capacities at some point, it is helpful to have a good working knowledge of the other groups. So, we’ve asked our leaders to take time to review the documents.

I accepted the invitation to participate in the 39th Annual MLK Commemorative March and Celebration, hosted by the Corpus Christi Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. The march began at the county courthouse and concluded with a service at the Church of the Good Shepherd. I led the call to march.

Several clergy members have reinitiated an intentional campus ministry presence. It is called Mosaic Campus Ministry and is in the initial stages of establishing itself as a student organization. A group of students meets weekly on campus for fellowship and Bible study. The Mosaic leadership, several clergy members from our area, distributed welcome baskets and snacks to welcome students to a new semester. We’ll continue the work of being present on campus, with hopes of extending to Del Mar in the future.

I’ll be preaching the closing service at this year’s Clergy Convocation. The meeting takes place at Alamo Heights United Methodist Church in San Antonio, February 17-18th.

Finally, as our new church council assumes their responsibilities and discerns how they’ll accomplish their work, I am looking for a resource the group can use to learn together throughout the year. If there are areas of interest you’d like to explore, let me know so I can search for appropriate material.

Blessed Beyond Belief,