Good folks of St. Mark’s,
There are so many new things at St. Mark’s. There is a new priest and a new building. However, the most exciting thing about St. Mark’s right now are the new faces that are in the pews every Sunday. When a person is new, whether that person is the priest or a visitor, parishes work hard to make them feel welcome. We want to invite new people to integrate their gifts into the life and ministry of the parish.
Our approach to our new building addition should be similar. We should be getting to know it better in order to integrate its gifts—the inherent resources of the building—into the ministry of St. Mark’s. As the building becomes available, there will be some immediate ways it will be ready for ministry. Other ways to use our new space will arise over time; the building in its yet-to-be-completed state is full of potential for yet-to-be-imagined ministries at St. Mark’s. Gather, Serve, Celebrate, the second phase of the capital campaign, is about making those immediate ministry opportunities a reality and finishing the remainder of the building, envisioning those new ministry possibilities.
Throughout this booklet, you will see how Gather, Serve, Celebrate is meant to accomplish both of these things. First, we must continue to pay for the work that is already done. This includes some expenses to put the finishing touches on what the construction company has already accomplished. In other words, putting St. Mark’s character on the space.
The second part of this campaign is aimed at allowing the building to grow into its full ministry potential. The remaining spaces need to be designed while envisioning the mission of St. Mark’s to the community around it.
I hope that as you consider your commitments to Gather, Serve, Celebrate, you see them as not just paying for drywall, paint, and Romex, but as investing in integrating something new into the parish so that it can reach its full potential for ministry.
Peace,
The Rev. Don Fleischman,
Priest-in-Charge