Pastor's Page

Our Pastor: Rev. Brad Hirst

This is the time of year, in the relative peace between Christmas and the New Year, when folks in my line of work can let out a welcomed sigh of relief and pause to reflect on the year that is now past.
There are many things we have been doing here for a while: Second Sunday Jazz, the Aggieman Triathlon, Table of Plenty, Fort Foster worship, and our annual Evergreen Festival. These are things we have been doing a while and doing well, but always improving on them.
There is a ethos here of learning, growing, and reaching new levels of understanding that gives us the courage to listen for God's still speaking voice and respond in faith.
It is that same courage that leads us to take on new things, discovering new ways to be the church and serve God's people. So here's my Top Ten New Things we did in 2011:
Turnaround Boot Camp – Church leaders were challenged and empowered to take us in a new direction of growth and renewal.
AMIGOS Brown Bag Auction – We found a new, fun way to raise funds for an existing mission project.
Turnaround Church Coach – We invited Paul Nickerson
to come in and work with our pastor and leaders to turn our church around.
Kittery Block Party – Our neighborhood hosted the biggest party in Kittery in years!
Bike and Build – We hosted 35 young people riding bicycles from Portland to Santa Barbara, CA raising money and awareness for affordable housing.
Financial Peace University – 12 people discovered new ways to be faithful stewards of their resources.
Unbinding the Gospel – Our original unbinding group created two more, and the Spirit grows.
Worship With Your Hands – We worshiped God with hearts and hands doing work around the church and in the community.
Each One Bring One – We extended an extravagant welcome to 14 invited guests at worship on November 6.
Advent Dinner – We dressed up ourselves and our vestry for an elegant dinner, and had some fun too!
Maybe you remember some other new things we did last year. I'm sure I missed a couple. The good news is that we are doing new things, and God is at work doing a new thing among us. It was a great 2011, but the Spirit is telling me it will be an even better 2012, and I look forward to spending it with you!
See you in church,

Brad