Opening: New Covenant Presbytery’s Associate General Presbyter for Evangelism and Church Revitalization, Wendy Bailey, wrote an article in their monthly newsletter I’ll never forget. She closed her article with a question that was more like a charge, “If you closed your doors today, would anyone in your community know you were gone?” Would anyone lament over your passing outside of the members who warm your pews on Sunday?
 
Because the point is, that is the point of our being here! We’re not here to be pew warmers but, by the love of God, grace of Jesus Christ and presence of the Holy Spirit, we’re to be heart warmers and life transformers! Our congregation isn’t anywhere near ready to close our doors, but Wendy’s charge wasn’t primarily directed at those who were; it was at the rest of us so we don’t get to that point one day soon!
 
The fact is, it takes a ton of work to keep these doors open and for us to sit here in comfort and worship our God week after week; to bury our dead and marry our living with hope and faith that God is truly with us; to baptize and confirm; to teach our young and our old how to be a family, not any family – God’s family and to make sure they know they are welcome home in this place – this family; we teach them how to love and how to live! That’s what we do; that’s who we are!
And by the grace of Almighty God, I want to say that we do that well! Using Wendy’s litmus test, if we closed our doors today people would mourn our loss!
 
These things don’t happen on a wing and a prayer as they say. … A lot of prayer and even some occasional winging it may take place; but above all it is loving dedication and faithful hard work that make things happen. More than you can ever imagine. Let me hit on the highlights of what took place in our committees and ministries this year:
 
Clerk of Session: Harry McCune was our new clerk of Session this year and he has done an incredible job! A first year in any job is tough, but Harry took over after a transitional couple of years and has worked tirelessly to get our Session minutes and official register fully up to speed.
 
PNC: We had a Pastor Nominating Committee made up of 9 people who worked days and nights for 2 long years to seek God’s will regarding your next pastor! I’m thrilled they picked me; but their work didn’t come to an end the first time I officially stepped into the pulpit on Dec 1^st last year. They transformed into a Pastor Nurture committee and kept meeting with me and you, our congregation. They did it with grace, love, faithfulness and a steadfast commitment to make this relationship the best it could be. The first year in any relationship is critical and they did an outstanding job making sure the tough questions and the easy love were covered. We had our first year final evaluation with a team from Presbytery. Their questions were graceful but probing. And they closed by saying we were a good congregation and pastor match. That didn’t happen in a vacuum. It was the result of 3, not 2 but 3 years of prayers, hard work, and trust in the grace of God by our PNC. The larger Church came and was present for us and said, “Well done.”
 
Presbyterian Women: We have an amazing group of women at first Mabank. I’ve never seen a church of any size with a PW group to match ours! This is most definitely due to the hard work and dedication of our women here; but they’re work shines a light on a legacy of outstanding, … no, amazing women of God from the founding of this church! You mention our congregation in this community and we are known, loved, and respected as the roots that have fed it with the love and sense of family and unity that define us. Our community looks in and says, “Well done.” And we keep carrying on the torch with women like Pam Dotson, who is elected as the leader of PW for our Presbytery! Because of their dedication we give to the widows and orphans and those in need. They also support our youth and even give generously to our general fund each year.
 
Presbyterian men: Our faithful leader, Harry keeps our men’s breakfasts going with essential fellowship for the men of our congregation. And Bill Burnett organizes our regular lunches as well! … This keeps a bond that can’t be underestimated, but is often only felt at those critical points in our life’s journey.
 
Trustees: If there is a lackluster, behind the scenes, job that is so often unseen and unnoticed it is our trustees. They have done some great things this year: finding us a new insurance carrier; reviewing our mortgage; insuring our potential areas of liability are covered and properly conveyed; handling ongoing insurance surveys and coverage questions; renewing our leases; preparing to sell cemetery plots donated to us. Be sure to thank them for all the work they do and they do it well!
 
Building and Grounds is also an area that often goes unnoticed! The lights are constantly being assessed; doors repaired. Things are repaired, cleaned and ready when we need them. AC units get fixed and our trash gets removed and the lawn is kept up; thanks to Craig Jennings for his ministry on the lawn. But they’ve all worked hard to get our roof repaired this year too; our AC unit in Fellowship hall replaced and the one in the parlor back working; they completed the final touches on our building program this year by getting the windows in the pastor’s office and the new parlor furnishings complete and the lovely banners of the great ends of the church hung; just to name a few things. Because the way they come and go and get things done most of us really have no idea all they do year-after-year.
 
Christian Education has been an area that we had to start from picking the wheat in order to make the loaf of bread. Our CEC has done wonders getting things back up and going this year! We have two weekly adult classes every Sunday plus a class on Wednesdays at 11 a.m.
 
Our youth have a Sunday class, and we have a children’s program under Pat. We had a VBS that averaged in the mid 20’s; … and it was great! Our youth were right in the middle of it too! And the youth had a great Synod work shop again this year, plus a Mo-Ranch outing! The youth worked hard for the money for these things and we need to be proud of them and the love for the Lord and each other with which they worked together. We have some dedicated loving leaders! Kathy, Nathan, and Denise are 3 of our jewels who helped organize our youth events. And Linda Sharon and Charity Reynolds also served as sponsors this year. And we added to a great youth legacy here with the graduation of Alec, Tyler, and Jake this year! Two Eagle Scouts added to our legacy too! Things to be proud of; but also a call to keep the faith and the hard work!
 
Congregational Care has had a great year too! We made a marathon review of our inactive members at the first of the year. Not by simply marking off names of folks who haven’t been here in a while; but there was a “from the heart” outreach to those we haven’t heard from and a loving call and welcome back home! We have worked on revitalizing our Shepherd groups and a new support group and training in pastoral care-giving to augment previous training was initiated by Rev. Linda Sharon. What were your favorite fellowship events this year? There were so many it’s hard to name them! And then we have our weekly brunches, prayers and support chains, and support groups that keep a constant watch on each other!
 
Stewardship and Finance is another area that we have made incredible strides and advances this year!  Costs are being tracked and controlled in a way that empowers our elders on Session to more effectively manage and cut their costs! We had an outstanding stewardship effort this year and our percentage of pledges are way up. But they are not satisfied with either and keep working to cut costs, manage our funds, and increase our giving! The hours that our treasurers and stewardship committee put in and Denise’s leadership have been unbelievable and we can offer our prayers of thanks to God for our blessings knowing that we are being good stewards of the resources the Lord has called us to give to His service!
 
We got a for real Webpage and active Facebook page going thanks to Phil and Joan Becker and our leadership team too!
 
Worship is another amazing area of service. Those of you who have never served on this committee need to come and sit in on one of their meetings sometime. You would be amazed at all the work and dedication that goes into the worship that we offer to the Lord week after week; never missing a beat! Pews and sanctuary cleaned and made ready by volunteers and Judy. Ushers, nursery, liturgists coordinated; communion served; baptisms held; weddings and funerals performed. The serves are rigorously, ardently prepared. 
 
We lost all three of our music ministry professionals within 3 months this summer. We hired Kaitlyn and Kristi to step in at the most difficult of times; when we were hurt and reeling from our losses.
 
We established a nursery ministry, hired an attendant, Jeanna Row, to run it, and established a superintendent, Linda Mynar, to oversee it.
 
We set up a new building use program for our church and a Weddings Policy and Fee Schedule.
 
We got our organ up and running again without having to spend tens of thousands of dollars to replace it! We have Tyler now as our sound tech to improve the quality of our official sound system and stop the damages. We repaired the sound system throughout the building so people can hear in the sanctuary and in the rest of the building and don’t have to feel cut off and not welcome. We established the new parish associate position with Linda Sharon now as an official second pastor for our congregation.
 
Summary: The work that has been done by this congregation is staggering! And I haven’t even touched on things like our Fall Festival that left me in awe and that’s exactly what I saw on the faces of so many people who passed by here in those few days. Hundreds of caps have gone to people whose lives are changed by the love that went into those stitches and pearls! And kids felt loved in a time when they felt life and maybe even God had let them down through the toys that were created by hands, but mostly from the hearts, of our Monday sewers and stuffers!
 
And then of course there is Bill Burnett and our food ministries in the community. You notice I didn’t just say M.A.G.S. because Anne and Bill reach out way past that and keep encouraging the rest of us to do the same!
 
Brothers and sisters in Christ! People know we are here. They know that we love them and that God loves them because they felt the warm glow of your hearts. And if for some reason God calls us to take a rest from our labors here, we can report that tears will flow, hearts will mourn, people would miss us! That is the State of our Union-in-Christ address!