Our Annual Spring Congregation meeting will be held prior to worship on Sunday, February 18th, 2024. The purpose of the meeting is to receive and approve the 2023 Annual Report Book. Report books will be sent to the congregation electronically (email). Any one who desires to have a hard copy for the report book should contact the church office to make arrangements for one to be provided.
Our Annual Spring Congregational meeting that was postponed will be announced within the next few weeks. The printing issues with the annual report book seemed to have been resolved. The Church council will review this report and upon their recommendation, the congregational meeting will be announced. As stated before, anyone desiring a hard copy of the report book should contact the church office so Jean can print your copy. All others will be distributed by way of email.
Our Annual Spring Congregation meeting will be held prior to worship on Sunday, February 19th, 2023. The purpose of the meeting is to receive and approve the 2022 Annual Report Book. Report books will be sent to the congregation electronically (email). Anyone who desires to have a hard copy for the report book should contact the church office to make arrangements for one to be provided.
2020 has been a year that none of us could have imagined or planned for. However, new doors and opportunities have opened and presented itself to us during this year of unknowns and wait-and-sees. I want to thank the congregation for their continued financial support, attendance in-person, streaming and in thoughts and prayers, and your support of our Church Council. It has been an honor to serve as Council President this year. You, the congregation, blessed Chris Doyle (Vice President), Pastor and me with an action oriented make-it-happen Council. I cannot say enough about the work of our 2020 Council. I would like to share with you some of our accomplishments and action items. The full 2020
Council report will be included with our annual reports.
Worked on the following goals:
• Strengthen and Grow Sunday School by Revitalizing, Promoting and Recruiting (Christian Education, Teachers, Quality, Faithful, and Attendance)
• Strengthen and Grow our Youth (Pre-K thru College) (includes “OWL” Program)
• Community Service Opportunities
• Spiritual Growth in Stewardship Opportunities (includes On-Line Giving, Investment and Financial Opportunities)
• Revised our Ministry Team Structure and Responsibilities
• Reviewed and updated our church constitution (approved at December 6 congregation meeting)
• Installed new audio visual equipment in Sanctuary and TV in the fellowship hall for streaming services and mesh Wi-Fi network
• Contracted with Incite Technologies for all network and technology needs
• Moved church funds with the exception of our general fund checking account from BB&T to Thrivent
• Moved Sites Endowment from Wells Fargo to Thrivent
• Opened our doors to the Courage Center for weekly meeting
• Accepted, approved and presented our Parking Lot and Portico project (approved at December 6 congregation meeting)
Again, thank you! These accomplishments would not have happened without the full support of the congregation.
We ARE St. Jacobs Lutheran Church, SJLC, Serving Jesus Loving Community!
Happy New Year!
Sherrie
Council voted to open our doors to The Courage Center (TCC) so that they could establish a meeting place in Chapin. What is The Courage Center? The Courage Center provides a safe, supportive, recovery-focused setting for young people and families on their journey to recover from substance misuse or substance use disorder. There was a need for a meeting location in the Chapin area. Many families in the Chapin/Newberry to Chapin/Dutch Fork/ Irmo vicinities were traveling to Lexington. During the midst of the COVID crisis and the civil unrest, The Courage Center saw some real, tangible signs that there are families in greater need of support and assistance.
• Overdose incidents in Lexington County are higher than the state average at 15 per week.
• The Lexington County Coroner’s office shared that although there was a 40% reduction in fatal overdoses from March through May 2019 compared to 2018. During that same time period in 2020, there was a 200% increase.
• Fatal overdoes, of young people under 30 years old, have seen a 50% increase over 2019.
St. Jacob’s is meeting this tremendous community need. The Courage Center meets in our Fellowship Hall each Thursday at 7:00 PM. As we have posted, no one with symptoms in the past 24 hours or knowingly been in contact with anyone who has a confirmed case of COVID-19, can enter into the building. They use a no-contact digital forehead thermometer, nitrile gloves, face masks, and hand sanitizers upon entrance into the fellowship hall. All participants have to complete the Safety Precaution Form to attend the meeting. They have plenty of room to social distance. All PPE supplies are provided by TCC. After the meeting, they wipe down and sanitize the chairs, doorknobs, etc. in the Fellowship Hall before leaving. We ask that you lift The Courage Center and families in prayer.
Thanks,
Sherrie McTeer
Council President
It is hard to believe that it is already April. Wow…Time flies when we are having fun, growing, and serving. Council has been very busy the first three months of 2020 doing the administrative work of the church. This month I wanted to share with you a few of the projects that Council has been working on and has approved for next steps. You will see and hear more about these projects in the coming months.
Council has approved a new ministry team structure, which was started by our 2019 Council. The new structure is centered around the ministries of Christian Education, Congregational Care, Discipleship, Property, Stewardship, Worship and Music, Staff and Safety. We will be scheduling meetings with our team leaders to roll out the new structure and share responsibilities and expectations. More information will be shared in next month’s newsletter.
We have approved the use of a new mass email communication tool. We are working through the details to set up the new tool to share events and happenings at the church to our members who have email access. More to come as the tool is implemented.
The Director of Choirs/Organist job description was approved at our March meeting. Staff Support will be working with Pastor David as we move forward to advertise for this position.
Lastly, we continue to work on our goals as shared last month. Meetings will be scheduled to further discuss our plans and direction for each of the goals in April. Watch for these meetings and join in the discussion as we move forward in working through our goals in support of our NALC values – “Christ-Centered”, “Mission Driven”, “Traditionally Grounded”, and “Congregationally Focused”. So…. Who are we? We are St. Jacob’s Lutheran Church – SJLC! Serving Jesus Loving Community!
God Bless!
Sherrie
Who are we? We are St. Jacob’s Lutheran Church – SJLC. We are a congregation Serving Jesus Loving Community! This is our 2020 theme for Council. During our January Council Retreat, we reviewed the Mission and Core Values of the North American Lutheran Church. Our Core Values are: “Christ Centered”, “Mission Driven”, “Traditionally Grounded” and “Congregationally Focused”. Council discussed how we, as a congregation, are fulfilling these values, what additional opportunities we could offer and areas that we could focus on this year. During our retreat, we established the following 2020 goals, which touch all our Core Values.
If you feel called to serve and to assist us in working on any of these goals, please do not hesitate to reach out to any of our Council members. It is our congregation working together – Serving Jesus Loving Community that will make each of these a reality.
God Bless! Sherrie
