2021, A Retrospective

Another year has come and gone. Forgive me for going the predictable route and doing a retrospective of the year. 2021 feels like it has flown by, until I start to think about everything that happened in the year. Exactly one year ago we were taking things out of the sanctuary in preparation for the renovation. I’d have to look back to be sure, but I think the very first Sunday of 2021 was our very first Sunday worshiping back in Hildreth Hall. At the time, we had no idea how long the process was going to take. Our first contractors were telling us we would be out of the sanctuary only a few weeks and that we could still worship in there under the scaffolding. If you saw what eventually took place in our sanctuary, you might have a better idea why we sought after another contractor. However, because there were so many unknowns surrounding the timeline, we had to prepare for a quick transition and for a longer period of displacement at the same time.
              There were many, many heated conversations about worshiping in Hildreth. In most other years, we would have been able to worship in Hildreth with minimal controversy. However, we were (and still are) in the middle of a pandemic. Our options were to worship in Hildreth, find another location off campus, or do virtual church only. People were passionate about each of those, and while there were disagreements about which option was best the heart of everything was how do we best reach people for Christ while doing all we can to protect our congregants. The off campus option would potentially allow us to safely accommodate the most in-person worshipers, but the number of venues in Navarre that are available for that, along with the initial cost of buying portable equipment (trailer, speakers, cabinets, lights, etc.) and the extreme toll on volunteers to set up and tear down each week meant that it wasn’t a great option for us. That left online only versus in-person in Hildreth. Instead of making it an either/or option we did a both/and. We continued to live stream our services and do in-person worship. The leadership’s stance was that we will do everything we can to make it as safe as possible inside Hildreth, but we fully understand and encourage people to worship with us online if they are uncomfortable, and especially if they are at risk or sick themselves.
              It wasn’t a popular decision. After the first test run of putting chairs up there were a lot of concerns about if we would be able to safely seat everyone. We set up an overflow room, had a backup plan over in Taylor, and had more contingencies in place. The one thing that gave us hope was a sense of returning to our roots. Hildreth Hall was the original sanctuary on our campus, for our long term members it brought back a flood of memories. At the time, some were still hopeful that we would only be there for a couple of weeks.
              Then reality set in. Our sanctuary was in worse shape than many of us initially thought, and the scope of work kept growing. In the middle of February it became clear that instead of the 4-6 week range the original contractors had falsely promised, we were looking at a 4-6 month process. I’m not going to say that that realization deflated the leadership, but it sure made it more difficult to be excited about what all was really happening. Bruce Flannigan with Re:Done Renovations was our on-sight contractor and an absolute God send. Nathan Butterfield, our general contractor, and owner of All-Star Restoration along with Bruce were the best people we could have asked to work with. Not only were they extremely understanding and cooperative with all the legal and insurance aspects, but they also donated their personal time and money to support our church.
              We finally got back into the sanctuary in July. In the six months of worship in Hildreth, we only had to cancel one service due to Covid. It was a precautionary measure and no one that I’m aware of traced their infection back to our church. The first big thing we got to do in our new sanctuary was host VBS for the first time since 2019. As always there was an extra element we had to work around but we saw around 100 kids on campus that week and had a phenomenal group of volunteers. For the first time in almost 18 months things felt almost normal again. Then school started back, our new Children and Youth director got all the programs going again, and we got to where we are now. Almost normal.
              You see, we aren’t back to the days of pre-covid. Our in person worship is roughly half of what is was before March 2019. Our budget is around $100,000 less as well. With each new variant we have to assess what our steps will be. There will continue to be challenges ahead, but in the midst of everything we still have so much to be thankful for and to celebrate. The Good Neighbor Thrift store is setting records almost every single week. Under the leadership of Laura Beth Snow they are bringing in more money, customers, and donations than ever before. And they are doing this open fewer days a week than in 2019. And while we celebrate those records, what it really means is that we have more money to help We Care and the food pantry. These ministries support or community in so many untold ways. If you ever want to see direct life change because of our church, volunteer there and see what a difference we can make.
              Our Preschool managed to pay all of it’s staff throughout the entire pandemic and only had to fully shut down one time for two weeks. They have a wait list of over 70 kids who would love to be in the program, but we have maxed out our building’s capacity. While several other preschools in our area have shut down permanently, had several outbreaks, and struggle to keep teachers, we have only had staff leave because spouses received a PCS. Churches from all over the NW portion of our state reach out to us for ways to improve their programs. The bottom line is we have over one hundred families pay us for their kid to be on our campus and learn about Jesus (along with their numbers and letters).
              There are so many more things that we can see God doing in and through our church. I can’t list them all or even give them justice if I tried. There are bright days ahead, and if we could make it through this past year we can make it through anything.