Pastors Reports

Pastor Pete

PASTOR REPORT

Dear Saints of St. Andrew’s,

Over the past eighteen months, as the Interim Pastor/Head of Staff, it’s been a privilege to support and witness how St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church lives out the vision to “know God and make God known through lives transformed by Christ.” If the pandemic has taught us anything over the past few years, it is to be flexible, gracious, and ready to celebrate a “win” when we experience it! I’m giving glory to God for the many items in this Annual Report that represent a common commitment to Jesus Christ and His mission in the world. I’m particularly celebrating some of the following “wins” from this past year!

• St. Andrew’s is a congregation of people who love God and express it through their enthusiasm in worship and generosity in outreach and mission! • We don’t take for granted the privilege of being able to gather in person for worship - without interruption! • We celebrate the creative reinstitution of worship practices such as coming forward to receive communion and the physical collection of the offering during the services. • Live-stream and on-demand access makes connection with the worship life of St. Andrew’s possible for many who cannot be in person, regardless of location! • The wonder of nearly filling the Sanctuary for the

Christmas Concert, and being led in worship by our amazing music ensembles! • Four unique Service Worship Sundays, as opportunities to worship through our support and service to others in our city, coordinated by Director of

Local Outreach, RuthAnn Smithrud!

January 30 was a chance to expand our awareness of the needs of our local community and how God is using

Christians in our city to meet those needs. May 29 was the Intentional

Kindness Challenge, July 29 was Serve our Schools and November 13 was

Serve Our City. • St. Andrew’s has faithful, capable, and committed leaders who serve on the Session, Trustees, Deacons, and the host of committees and ministry teams who daily are doing God’s work! • The St. Andrew’s Staff is second to none and serving alongside them is a joy and a privilege. • Jennifer Bultman was hired as Director of the Preschool and Kindergarten in

July, and the school is thriving under her leadership. • Heather Brannock was promoted to become the Director of Children’s

Discipleship Ministry, and she brings an amazing set of skills and passion to nurture the faith of families.

• The Session approved a three-month sabbatical leave for The Rev. Mat

Grover, to be taken in 2023, recognizing his seven years of ordained pastoral service to St. Andrew’s, which began in October 2015!

• Recognizing the challenge of replacing the irreplaceable Matt

Gulley who served St. Andrew’s for twenty years as Director of Facilities and Information Technology, we have hired Clint Zamora as our new

Facilities Manager. We wish Matt well in his new endeavors and we are so thankful for his service. We presently have a short-term solution to manage

IT needs, as we look for a permanent person in 2023. • The Congregational Mission Study

Team, led by Kevin Oxnam, completed surveys of the congregation, ministry teams, Church Staff, and mission

partners and held listening and reflecting sessions during the month of October. The team has been working to summarize the collected information and is nearing completion on a final report.

2023 will be an eventful year in the life of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. Particularly related to the pastoral transition, here are some things to anticipate and pray about in the coming year:

• When the Congregational Mission Study is completed sometime in the first quarter of 2023, it will be submitted to the Session and the Presbytery de Cristo for approval. The approved study will be published on the church website. • Along with the approval of the Mission Study will come permission from the Presbytery for the Session to call a congregational meeting for the purpose of electing a Pastor Nominating Committee. The

Congregational Nominating Committee will be present a slate of church members to the congregation for approval at that time. • The Pastor Nominating Committee, with guidance and support from the Presbytery, will lead the search for the next Installed Pastor/Head of Staff. The

PNC will do its work of prayerful discernment to seek the one whom God is calling to serve, ultimately presenting a candidate to the congregation for approval of that call.

I echo Paul’s prayer for the Philippians as I encourage you to abide in Christ and one another (as members of Christ’s united body) in the coming year - a year of anticipation and excitement, as well as commitment and great effort.

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” - Philippians 1:9-11 NIV

Counting it all Joy,

Pete Seiferth, Interim Pastor/Head of Staff

Pastor Mat

PASTOR REPORT

To the St. Andrew’s Family,

2022 has been a year were the phrase “new normal” or “trusting in transition” have become things that seem to come out of my mouth on a daily basis. What a blessing this church continues to be, with a heart for trusting the Lord even in hard seasons and a desire to live out authentic faith while being a welcoming and loving community. This is a church with a strong vision of what God has called us to: to know God and make God’s love known to our community and world. We have absolutely done that while dealing with grief, trusting that God is leading us in this season of transition.

Partnerships, re-imagination, and encouragement have been major themes in all of our work. I have been amazed in the ways that the program ministry directors (Rev. Connie Randall, Tim Christian, Logan Schmidt, Shelly Akins, and Heather Brannock) have been navigating a “both-and” approach to ministry in the shadows of living with a pandemic. Their love, grace, patience, faithfulness, and amazing creativity have shown brightly offering opportunties for people with all levels of comfortability.

As a cluster, we prayed for new ways to help people to connect to the body of Christ here at St. Andrew’s and ways for our church to deepen our connection to God. Our hope is always to empower, encourage, and equip people to live a life devoted to loving others and loving the Lord. Over the last few years we have used Acts 2:42 which says, “They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching, and to fellowship and to breaking bread and to prayer” to guide our ministry. Connection and relationship are keys to a growing community and growing in our faith.

Personally, as I am in my 13th year on staff at St. Andrew’s, I have been blessed to have been granted a Sabbatical. I will be on Sabbatical leave from May 15 - August 14, 2023 focusing on rest and connections with God, family, and friends. I will have time for focused prayer, rest, and discernment as well as a connection of the arts, both musical and otherwise. I look forward to giving the congregation updates as it all comes together. Our family schedule is full these days with Jane finishing up Middle School and Ethan leaving Elementary School for Middle School next year!

Through all the twists and turns that life brings, it is absolute that God’s faithfulness is great and true. His promises endure forever. Over the past year I have felt that more and more, and I am looking forward to what God will bring this year.

May God richly bless you and continue to be our guiding light here at St. Andrew’s.