Provo Community Church

You can already read the Annual Report that the Rev. Daniel Haas will be giving this coming Sunday during our congregational meeting:

Annual Report 2011

Vision 2021
At our Annual Meeting 2011 you ratified Vision 2021. This continues to be a bold statement. It is based upon our process of becoming a “God is still speaking church” of 2009. Since then we have made enormous efforts as far as hospitality and radical welcome are concerned. We have really opened our hearts, minds and doors. Vision 2021 is all about being intentional about our church life. We have a clear vision and focus for our common mission: We agree that we want to grow this household of God’s people in diversity, spirituality and numbers. We agree that we want to grow our church by 10% per year. That means adding at least 10% to membership, Sunday attendance and income every year. The price for such an ambitious goal is pretty high: Everybody has to leave their comfort zone. There are all kinds of different people gathering around our common cause who otherwise would not necessarily choose to work together, but here our God calls us to be one. The pains of church growth have been described with the image of a rubber band. There is heavy stretching involved. The bigger we grow the more tensions arise until the rubber band adjusts to the new circumferences and is ready for the next growth spurts. Keep up the great work and spirit!

Open and Affirming
At our Annual Meeting 2011 you requested that we pursue the path of registering as an Open and Affirming congregation with the United Church of Christ. On September 18th, after years of intentional deliberation, you approved
• A pronouncement on a United Church of Christ Ministry and Witness with Micronesians
• our Statement “Kirche auf Deutsch”
• and the following Open and Affirming statement: “We welcome all who seek spiritual growth into our reconciling community. This includes persons of every age, gender, race, national origin, faith background, marital status, family structure, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, mental and physical ability, economic and social status, and educational background. We invite all persons no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey to participate in the life, leadership, employment, ministry and mission of this family of God’s people and to share in worship and sacraments and to enlist in the work of this local church as it serves this community and the world.”
By that we faithfully accept God’s call to become a trilingual church. Our sister church Pingelap, Mwalok, Mand United Church of Christ in Provo (PMM UCC) has increasingly become an integral part of our church life. The German ministry we started in summer has had a very good start resulting in a German language Christmas service with 60 people in attendance.

Bible Journey
Since the first of January people have had the opportunity to read a daily Bible passage and eventually share their reading experience during our Bible Journey Meetings on Thursday nights from 6-7 pm. About 20 people have been reading along and about 5-8 have gathered weekly. Newcomers were welcome anytime. The daily load of only about a half book page thanks to the Daily Reading Plan by the American Bible Society was pretty doable. I started a special reading category on my personal blog http://danielhaas.org/category/reading/. It has been a tough but rewarding journey for all involved. This format will not be carried over to 2012 but I encourage you to subscribe to the Stillspeaking Daily Devotionals: Always relevant. Always concise. Inspired reading for your prayerful reflection each morning from the United Church of Christ, where God is Stillspeaking, http://ucc.org/feed-your-spirit/daily-devotional

Children and Youth
There are many advantages to involving your children in the life of a church! Children who come regularly to Provo Community United Church of Christ will:
• become aware of God’s all-encompassing love and extravagant welcome to all
• cherish this loving Christian community and build friendships with others in the church
• learn how to live out their values in this world
• gain religious literacy throughout their education
• have fun and make lasting memories
A special shout-out goes to our wonderful church teachers Samantha Lendall and Dorothy Talbert. Without these two dedicated educators Adventure Club and Sunday School would never be possible. JoAnn Gauer has been overseeing all our educational efforts and she has done a wonderful job getting Vacation Bible School organized. Attached you will find your church’s educational programs for the first half of 2012.

Numbers
As mentioned at the beginning of this letter your church has made a conscious decision to treat numbers as spiritual matters. The Apostle Paul was out to spur numerical growth among the early congregations and that success is celebrated according to Acts 16:5
“So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.”
We have consistently over-performed as far as our goal of 10% growth goes. In 2011 we lost one member to death and received four new members into our reconciling community. Sunday attendance in 2011 averaged 39 over 29 the year before. That is a 34.5% increase!

We are on track for Vision 2021! Keep the energy going for nine more years!
I am honored to be able to support you in this effort.

Yours in Christ