This coming Sunday our church family will host significant celebrations of leadership on our church staff for very important ministry areas.
We will give thanks to God during the 10:00 a.m. worship service for Donna Barrickman’s ministry and have a more informal opportunity to send her into retirement with our love and appreciation during the reception after worship in the Ministries Center Court. In her 27 years on the church staff as Membership and Communications Manager, Donna has welcomed more than 1,200 new members and coordinated 108 New Member Orientation classes! For many of us, Donna has extended the first word of welcome as we came through the doors of BMPC.
Her membership role grew and grew beyond the good work of one-on-one evangelism to expand our communications across a variety of media platforms. She has lived her faith in joyful service to this church and we send her into retirement with profound gratitude for long years on the church staff and with glad hearts that she continues as a member of this congregation. She’s already agreed to join the volunteer photography team!
Then we will celebrate the installation of the Reverend Frank Pottorff as Associate Pastor for Congregational Life and Stewardship and the Reverend Mary Steege as Associate Pastor of Pastoral Care and Senior Adults. I invite you to join us at 4:00 p.m. for this joyful worship service for this congregation and Philadelphia Presbytery. A reception will follow as we formally welcome Mary and Frank as new pastors.
This Sunday of transitions, when we say thanks and farewell to Donna, and thanks and welcome to Frank and Mary, is indeed a celebration of a vibrant and vital congregational life. Donna has done wonderful work in laying a strong foundation upon which we are building a new chapter of congregational life. Mary and Frank are already making a difference in the ever-expanding ministry of our church, and I can hardly wait to see what new things God is doing through us together as the future unfolds.
I hope to see you this Sunday in both the morning and afternoon!
