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Dear Church Family, I want to thank you for your incredible generosity in December. You gave a remarkable offering in excess of one million dollars, allowing us to meet 100% of our 2012 local ministry costs, and allowing us to pay 100% of our 2012 United Methodist apportionments. We contributed $1,166,600 in apportionments in 2012, which represents a significant percentage of the Tennessee Conference revenues. Giving in 2012 exceeded giving in 2011 by $150,000. Thank you! I'm excited about the new year ahead of us. Our leaders have clarified and approved our values, mission and vision for the future. We'll be exploring our church vision at our worship services on January 26-27. I hope you will be here for this important weekend. We'll be sharing more about our values, mission and vision soon, including posting them on the website. In the months that follow, our lead team (senior staff and key lay leaders) will continue to work on practical strategies to help us live out our values, mission and vision as we move into God's future at BUMC. After a year and a half at BUMC, I've learned much about navigating the complexities of a huge church. I've certainly made mistakes and always will, but have learned from them and made adjustments. I've recently handed off some of my previous responsibilities to our new Executive Director, Leslie Hotzfeld, who I have incredible confidence in and who is already doing an excellent job. Given the learning curve I've been on, and
Leslie's help, I will now be able to focus on more strategic tasks. My priorities for 2013 are: • Worship (in partnership with our worship teams) • Missional strategic leadership (in partnership with our Church Council and our lead team) • Relationship building with both individuals and groups Given a flu epidemic, torrential rains and flash flood warnings, some of you were not able to attend worship this weekend, although in spite of all these challenges, attendance still exceeded 2,000. If you would like to hear a podcast of my New Year's message, "God's Advice to Restless People," click here. Please pray for our church and leaders as we move forward into 2013 and beyond. I hope to see you this weekend at one of our four weekend services. The message (from Isaiah 40:1-2, 28-31) will be, "To Walk and Not Faint." Finally, it was good to receive the following eight new members: Joy Zimmerman; Liz Williams; Andrew Lane; Graham, Nancy, Allison and Andrew Cowie; and Luke Thomas Robinson. Welcome to our church family. It's a great joy and privilege to be your pastor. In Christ's Love and Service,
Martin