Message from the Moderator

Originally published in the July/August issue of The Herald

Welcome Back!

While the church takes no official vacation, and any observation of the bulletin or a daily newspaper will confirm that the needs of the congregation and the world don’t go away simply because the weather gets warmer (okay hot), it is certainly the case that less church business gets done during the summer months.

One thing, though, that I believe should never take a vacation is gratitude. And I thought it made sense to raise up some people whose work actually seemed to increase this summer.

The Building Committee ushered in some major renovation work, complete with jackhammers and asbestos removal. Thanks to their efforts, we will soon have a refurbished church school wing with accessibility to all floors — all with as little disruption to our programming as possible.

Of course, the renovation work meant that our church staff had to move out of their offices, and into shared space in the Fellowship and Daniels Rooms. This was not easy. And their cooperation and good spirits over these last few months have been much appreciated.

The Youth Group had their annual mission trip, this year to Pipestem West Virginia. Over the course of four very busy days, twelve young people, Saugatuck’s Youth Leader Georgette Huie and three chaperones scraped, sanded, primed and painted the exterior of a family’s twostory house. All as a mission from our congregation.

The Field of Flags Committee contributed countless hours to bring this powerful event to Saugatuck and Westport. It was haunting and humbling to be there that Friday as the Field grew one flag at a time. We received much communication from people in the community, thanking us. But what sticks with me is how often I drove by during those three weeks and saw one or two people — rarely members of our congregation — spending time alone in the Field.

And to help move our congregation closer to a search for a new settled pastor, our new Saugatuck Congregational Church Reorganization Team has been seeking input from current Boards and Committees on what is working and what can be improved. Because they worked this summer, the Team hopes to be able to offer a progress report at a congregational information meeting in the late fall and shape their findings into By-Laws revisions to be voted on at February’s Annual Meeting.

Of course, there has been more work done over the summer than what I’ve mentioned here and more people than I’ve named. All of it and every one deserving of our thanks.

What strikes me in all this is that whenever we notice something happening in our church — renovation work, mission work, any new initiative — there is always a person or persons connected to it who at some point said, “I’ll do that.”

If we want to be an active church that’s open to the future God has in store for us, we need to encourage and support all those who step forward on our behalf. And the first piece of that support is gratitude.

To all who gave so much over this summer,
thank you.

Michael Hendricks
Church Moderator