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Mission Statement South Gate United Methodist Church is a congregation of caring Christians seeking spiritual growth and wholeness through worship, education, and faith in action; caring for all of God's creation, and sharing God's love in our local and global communities. |
STATE OF THE CHURCH REPORT
CHURCH CONFERENCE 2003
South Gate United Methodist Church is a vibrant community of faith whose setting is in an established, yet changing neighborhood of south-central Lincoln. The congregation is a faithful people wholly engaged in mission, outreach, growth, and nurturing ministries. The strengths and weaknesses of this family of faith are evident in the work area summaries that follow this introduction.
As pastor of this congregation, I feel compelled to express my appreciation for the love and support that I have felt as we have joined together over these past five plus years of shared ministry. Even though I am well into my sixth year of ministry with this local church, in many ways I feel as though we are only now prepared to truly move forward. We are a people with a proud history of discipleship coupled great potential for growth as we face current and future challenges. The parish is a healthy mix of young families with many youth and children, empty nesters, and seniors. We offer a myriad of options for people to get involved in the ministry of Christ through our local church.
It is my pastoral opinion that South Gate UMC sits on the frontier of a wonderful future of Christian discipleship in all areas of ministry. I believe that, with a willingness to embrace new and creative methods of meeting our logistical, spiritual, missional, and educational needs, this congregation can establish itself as an ever-expanding and critical presence in this south Lincoln setting.
Creation of the Endowment Fund
Assuming this church conference votes to establish this new work area, it will be the culmination of several years of research and work by many people. It is our hope that this new opportunity for stewardship will greatly enhance our ability to support current ministries and engage in an untold number of new paths of service.
Finance Work Area
This is perhaps the most challenging area this congregation faces. While we have excellent management of expenses and resources, we do tend to struggle mightily with financial stewardship. I believe there are several factors that are at issue in this area:
History Work Area
This is a newly created work area. South Gate is making every effort to preserve our history and traditions as we approach our 40th Anniversary. We are grateful for the tremendous number of hours that Gladys Helm has already invested in this project as she created written and video histories of our church. This newly formed work area will continue that important ministry.
Nominations -- see printed report
Staff Parish -- See printed report on required forms.
Strategic Planning Work Area
This group has just recently contracted with a professional consultant to aide in the process of creating a strategy for moving into the future of our local church. This will be an all encompassing plan that will coordinate the efforts of all work areas in the short, mid, and long term visions and goals that the congregation will establish. It is our hope that this template for planning and doing ministry will take South Gate into this new century with renewed vigor and a sense of identity that blends our traditions and future goals into a coordinated guide from which we can measure our progress and be held accountable to God’s call upon us.
Board of Trustees
Our congregation has been blessed to have a history of very effective Boards of Trustees. The past five years have been filled with a number of successes in building repair, maintenance, and equipment replacement. We are proud to say that our church facility exterior is now about as maintenance-free as buildings get. The current year has seen a new state-of-the-art sound system installed and maintenance free coverings on all remaining eaves and guttering as we have tackled the last of the major exterior maintenance concerns. New carpeting will be installed in the sanctuary this fall.
The parsonage main bathroom has been remodeled in the past year and a new roof installed. We are currently looking into replacing the original windows and perhaps blowing more insulation into the attic. We hope to have the exterior trim scraped and painted in the coming year and repair the retaining wall in the back yard. The kitchen cabinets and floor covering are in need of upgrading.
See printed reports on required forms.
Congregational Nurture and Care Work Area
The CNC group has been a very active and creative force of ministry since it was introduced a few years ago. Their efforts have expanded ministry to our congregation in several ways including:
Evangelism Work Area
Due to illness and other events, this work area has not been as active this year as it has in recent years. However, a door hanger campaign was done last fall in coordination with the national television media event. We continue to have new visitors almost weekly and even though our membership roles have been gleened, we have taken in enough new members to offset these losses to this point. South Gate UMC should receive about 50 new members by the end of 2003. Specific goals for 2004 have not yet been established in detail, but becoming more involved in developing visitors into members and encouraging new membership involvement in the congregation is high on the list.
Education Work Area
Education ministries continue to develop. We are proud that we have well over 30 teachers and leaders involved in this area. We offer a full array of classes for every age level of children and youth. Adult education is developing as well as there are established classes focusing on young families and another class which is intergenerational and is using the Genesis to Revelation study. We also offer two weekly Bible study groups that involve around twenty adults. A 12 week class on Untied Methodism will be offered on Wednesday evenings by the pastor beginning in January 2004. We use Cokesbury literature in the Sunday School and for almost all other programs. The education program also includes many projects aimed at teaching outreach and mission ministry to our children and youth. Mission projects are a vital part of each season. We also focus on family involvement as we offer Lenten and Advent Family Events. Children’s Day is an important event each Spring. Bibles are presented to all 3rd graders each Fall. We also have an installation and appreciation time in worship for all our education leaders and teachers.
Mission and Outreach Work Area
This group is one of the most active and effective in the whole church. Their creative leadership has been invaluable in motivating the congregation to give support and get involved in numerous mission projects every year. Giving for the six special offerings has sky rocketed the last couple of years. Denominational, interdenominational, and community outreach has continued to grow every year. A monthly Mission Minute has been very important in interpreting the mission of our congregation in terms of people and program. The many missions we support include but are certainly not limited to:
Worship and Music Work Area
The music program has doubled in size over the past couple of years. We now have four vocal choirs and two bell choirs. The bell choirs were added this year and were made possible by an anonymous gift to purchase a three octave set of bells. The children’s choir is growing again after a couple of years with smaller numbers. The youth choir and adult choir remains healthy as does the men’s chorus. Newcomers to our church always comment on the quality and diversity of our music ministries when asked what draws them back to worship.
South Gate UMC has a marvelous set of worship banners that have served the church for many years.
We are now in the midst of having them reconditioned as they have begun to show their age. This project will be completed in 2004. It is funded by group and individual donations.
Lay involvement in worship is an important tradition. Ushers, liturgists, and communion servers are important ingredients in congregational ownership and experience in worship.
We have revamped our Sunday schedule to provide more time for early worship and Sunday school. We also experimented with one service during the past summer. That experiment has yet to be fully evaluated.
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