A fresh start
Ordinarily, I might be inclined to say as I begin this blog, “I don’t know about you….” But in this case, I think I DO know about you when I say, “Aren’t you ready to launch into a New Year with fresh beginnings and the past couple years firmly in our rear-view mirror?” I’m excited for 2022 and I’ll bet you are, too. God’s got great things in store, I’m sure of it!
Just a reminder that we are only having ONE service tomorrow, January 2, at 10:00 am. Both our Gig Harbor and Port Orchard congregations will be worshipping in Gig Harbor together, too! We will offer kids’ worship and childcare for birth-pre-K as usual during the worship hour.
As I mentioned in my last blog, we’ll commission and pray for Pastors Megan and Larry and they will both be speaking. We have always dreamed of Port Orchard becoming a self-sustaining church. We are excited to reach this launching point!
Since this is the first church that either we OR our presbytery has ever planted, it is a milestone moment for all of us! It will mean some painful goodbyes for us here in Gig Harbor as we vote to change Megan and Larry’s terms of call per our denominational guidelines. This will free them to focus exclusively on their work in Port Orchard.
But maybe painful isn’t the right word. Perhaps bittersweet. Any parent knows what it’s like for their daughter or son to leave the nest and make their own way into the world. As this daughter church is sent, we remember with fondness and gratitude the ways Larry and Megan have served so capably here in Gig Harbor, and we rejoice in the expectation of the ways God is going to work his wonders through them in Port Orchard.
Please join us immediately following the service for a reception in Gathering Place in their honor. And as a way of telling them “thank you,” I also want to encourage you to consider bringing a gift contribution toward their kitchen remodel to the reception; we will have a special place where you can leave it. (Please make out checks to Larry or Megan Hackman.)
The last thing I want to remind you about is that the following Sunday, January 9, we will begin our new Sunday worship schedule. Our classic service will be at 9:00 am and our modern service will be at 10:30 am. Childcare and kids’ worship will take place during both worship services. And we will kick off a brand-new sermon series on 1 Peter that will be extremely relevant to the times in which we are living, so you might want to take a look at that letter before we begin digging into it together.
Pastor Mark
Chapel Hill Gig Harbor
Photo by Mira Kireeva on Unsplash