September 24th, 2006 - Sunday Service, Ministries Fair and Lunch Potluck to meet Pastor Mark Beatty and Family

Pastor Fred gave the sermon today. Luke played a beautiful Debussy piece during the offering for the second service. There were many other activities of note in addition to worship today. First was the Ministries Fair between the early and late services. Knowing many of the ministries the Creator congregation is involved in is one thing but seeing a good portion of those ministries represented at tables in the Fellowship Hall, the diversity and number of ways to serve was impressive.

This gave people in the various groups and committees some opportunities and deadlines as well. For Hunger Awareness there was an impetus to make and pass out refrigerator magnets that showed what will be collected monthly for the Oregon Food Bank.

There was a Creator Guidebook to Worship, Ministry and Membership that was passed out. Toni worked on putting together this guidebook and Ruth was also responsible for the final product. Photos were taken for an upcoming pictorial directory.

There were sign ups for Music, Sunday school, Adult Education, Youth Activities, Worship Activities, Bible Studies, and Fellowship among others. There was acolyte training and also training to read the Bible for worship given to the children.

After the late service there was a meet and greet lunch potluck for Pastor Mark Beatty, his wife and daughter. After a few delicious salads, sandwiches, wraps and desserts, Mark was given an opportunity to answer and ask questions of the congregation.

A first impression for me – Mark is a thoughtful man of quick wit and deep faith who defines and respects life decisions. He has a mission statement for his life; to live abundantly, love deeply and leave the world around him better or at least as good as the way he found it.

As the youth asked questions it was apparent that there was growth from where they had been when Denise left. They talked about the youth leadership that had been established and what Mark’s thoughts were on that. He was glad they had taken responsibility and there was general talk throughout that being part time and having additional pastoral duties, parents and youth would have to step up to responsibility and leadership for the youth.

Ruth asked Mark his feelings about outreach. He gave a thoughtful answer and referred to the double meaning of outreach; either church serving the community in some way or outreach as intentional effort to create opportunities to build membership. He elaborated that when the church serves the community we must understand this is not done for the purpose of gaining new members.

It was clear from this talk Mark is inspiring. We look forward to the next steps in the call process, the congregational vote and Mark’s decision to accept the call or not.