At the November 9th COME meeting (Committee on Outreach, Mission, Evangelism), there was good discussion about how we as a faith community can do our best to ensure that people are informed about joys and concerns. We emphasized that staying connected is a central aspect of a caring faith community, and this is especially important to consider for those who do not live in the Springdale/West Branch area, including Pastor Kimberly. Our team agreed that the entire congregation is responsible for sharing joys and concerns as appropriate, then as we are aware of a joy or concern, that information can be shared in an intentional way.
In the spirit of caring Christian connectedness, the COME members agreed to put the following process into place on a trial basis:
- When you become aware of a joy or concern, ask the person(s) involved if the information may be shared with our faith community.
- If you receive permission to share the information, then contact Deborah Schoenfelder, who has agreed to serve as the point person.
- In turn, Deborah will:
a. Contact Pastor Kimberly, informing her of the joy or concern, and
b. Disseminate the information on the SUMC email mailing list.
If you would like to be removed from the email mailing list, please send an email to me (just to me, not a reply to all) at deborah-schoenfelder@uiowa.edu and I will remove you from the list.
*We will need to continue to discuss how to inform people who do not use email, so that a concerted effort is made in an intentional way to keep our entire faith community connected. The intent is to keep us all in touch in terms of what is going on in the community: Joys and concerns in need of our awareness and attention, our thoughts and prayers, and perhaps our actions.*
Contact information for Deborah Schoenfelder
Email (preferred, so I have the message in writing): deborah-schoenfelder@uiowa.edu
Home telephone (leave a message): 319.354.5271
Cell phone (use voicemail or text me): 319.321.2370
**Please note that although email is preferred, telephone messages are also fine. The point is to be connected!**
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:11)
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