Congregational Connector

Just because the kids go back to school soon doesn’t mean that summer is over. Enjoy what remains of it as we transition into the fall season. Reminder not to forget your St.Thomas family throughout not only summer but throughout the year as well. God is certainly great and continue to enjoy the many blessings He has bestowed on each and every one of us.

as a recap, voters who attended the Voters Assembly on May 23 approved a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 and elected a full slate of officers to serve on various boards and committees. The installation took place during the church service on June 18. St. Thomas is blessed to have such strong and committed servants to run and manage the various areas of the church.

the Call Committee is in receipt of a new list of pastoral candidates to be the next senior pastor of St. Thomas. Based on the information presented, the list has been trimmed to four candidates and interviews are now being scheduled with each of those four (either in-person or remotely). Based on the outcome of the interviews, the Committee will present the candidates to the congregation for their approval to move forward with a call

Please plan on joining us on May 23, 2023, in the church sanctuary for the regularly scheduled Voters Assembly where we will discuss and vote on the balanced budget for next fiscal year as well as the slate of officers running for the various board positions.

Quick recap on the calling efforts for a new Senior Pastor. A call was extended to Pastor Karl Strenge on February 15th. After much consideration, Pastor Strenge notified St. Thomas on March 4th that he was not accepting the call. As per the approval of the congregation, a call was made to the second candidate, Pastor Craig Donofrio, on March 9th. As of this writing Pastor Donofrio is prayerfully considering the call from St. Thomas. Please continue to keep Pastor Donofrio and St. Thomas in your prayers.

As Pastor Hetzner attended his final BOD meeting (Pastor Corbett attending for orientation), the following steps were outlined: 1) The call committee will be conducting interviews of candidates on Thursday (1/19). 2) Pastor Corbett will be installed as Vacancy Pastor during the morning service on Sunday, February 12 (and begin his serving on February 20).

The call committee (Fred Bauss – chair, Deb Closurdo, Tom Dawda, Dale Edwards, John Hupp, Tim Kruse, Mark Matheson, and Heather Miller) is working through the list of 10 names received from the Michigan District, with the goal of which candidates they wish to contact regarding follow-up interviews.

While October saw STL make some gain on the budget deficit, we are still behind. The major concern at this time is that we are 1-2 months behind on the mortgage payment. On the good news side, STL General Fund has received a $2,828.56 bequest from the estate of Kenneth Holley, who served a summer vicarage at STL in 1961. This will be included in the November income statements.

After the first quarter of our new fiscal year STL is $15,000.00 under the budget projection. Until this situation is remedied, the BOD has set aside its standing motion to disperse $1,000 from the General Fund to pay off debt to the Restricted Account. That debt will remain at $6,263.27 for the indefinite future.

As we say “thank you” for all of the support given for MCREST, we turn our attention to S.A.S.S. which is just around the corner on October 15. On that Saturday we will be serving pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, chili, hotdogs, and with other items to the people of our community. We anticipate a crowd of about 200.