Greetings from your Board of Directors!

The month of July saw continued well-attended worship services both in the Sanctuary and online. We are averaging 160 people in the pews and 100 “hits” on our online streaming and videos of worship. Seeing so many people in the Sanctuary pews and online makes us all feel like we are providing an inspiring and meaningful worship experience. FCC board highlights in July include the Welcoming and Orientation for our new board members. New to the board following the June Congregational Meeting are Georgia Quick and Laurie Swanson Gribskov. The orientation included a presentation on the “Importance of Pronouns” by church member Ms. Ana Luthien Keithley. In this presentation Ana shared some of her personal experiences with being “misgendered” and expressed her appreciation to the members of FCC for their motivation to learn to “ask first” if there is any question about gender.

A second activity that took place during the orientation was engaging in a Healing Conversation. This conversation was part of the overall set of Healing Sessions conducted by the Transition Team in June and July. Pastor JT skillfully worked with board members to elicit “high points” in our experience with FCC and thoughts or feelings that could be getting in the way of embracing the FCC mission wholeheartedly. The experience was an excellent way to build a teamwork spirit between board members.

The board voted to appoint Steve Carmichael to coordinate the effort to develop a proposal for acquiring an enhanced sound and video system appropriate for a church of our size. Steve will work with members of the Facilities Committee and Director of Music Ministries, Jared Fisher, to accomplish this task.

I certainly hope you enjoy a relaxing and enjoyable summer.

Dan Close, FCC Board Moderator