01 Nov The Shepherd’s Staff – November 2022

The elders have recently completed the staff evaluations and annual reviews. One thing remains, Mt Pleasant Church is extremely blessed to have each of our staff. God has sent us upstanding, reliable, honorable, spiritually gifted individuals to lead our church. We should all praise God for how He has provided and for the love that each one of our staff has for our community. Thank you for your prayers and the support you provide each person in their ministry at Mt Pleasant Church.

The elders and deacons met in late October to nominate individuals for our committees and chairpersons for those committees. The immense amount of giftedness in our church is remarkable. God is so good.

In the coming weeks, the elders will be spending some intentional time together at our retreat. Our goal is to plan for the future of Mt Pleasant Church. We intend to discuss and evaluate ministries, set expectations for how God can use our church to further His Kingdom, and consider ways to increase Biblical knowledge within our congregation.

In preparing for our retreat, a lesson from Mark 8:22-26 recently came into focus. This is the impactful story of Jesus healing the blind man at Bethsaida. As Jesus and his disciples came into the village, a blind man reached out to touch Jesus seeking his healing touch. Jesus then took the man outside of the village to talk and begin the process of healing him of his blindness; a retreat of some sort, if you will. Why didn’t Jesus just heal the man where he was rather than taking him off by himself? It seems that Jesus wanted the man’s full attention as he opened his eyes to his new life.

We also see this “retreating” when Jesus would go off by himself at times. In Luke 22:41, Jesus went off by himself to pray prior to being arrested. This happens throughout all four gospel accounts. Jesus’ solidarity gave him the “retreat” he needed to lift up his disciples, his followers and all believers to God; just as he did in John 17. That is the goal of our retreat, seeking God in solidarity. Please pray for us as we do so, and know that you are in our thoughts and prayers as we meet.

As you may know, this is also a very important time for our church in regard to preparing for 2023 and beyond. We ask that you please be in prayer for the candidates that have been nominated for at-large members of the admin council, elders, committee members, and committee chairpersons. Voting for admin council and elder takes place on November 20th, along with the vote to approve the budget for next year.

Thank you for all your continued prayers as we navigate these important times in the life of Mt Pleasant Church. Your prayers, love, and support are greatly appreciated.

• Bo Sink
• Joe Hayworth
• Eric Hilton
• Steve Cranford
• Kevin Logan
• Jay Payne
• Vince Brown
• Daniel Rich
• Jon Sloan