Elders Report – February 2011

To the Members and Attendees at Harbour:

This past Saturday the Elders spent the day in conversation and prayer about Harbour. In our discussion words like anticipation, enthusiasm and expectation were frequently used.  There was a sense among us that God is at work in our church. We spent the day in prayer and examination of a number of options before us.

In order to be as open and transparent as possible we want to share the process we took and the decision we arrived at.  On Sunday, February 20^th, we invite you to attend the business meeting where we can openly listen to your comments. We have deliberately moved out our business meeting date by a week to allow you time to consider this matter, to ask questions ahead of time, to contact one of the elders but most of all time to pray.

God has opened a new door for Debra to serve His Kingdom and we are left with a void in our leadership team.  As a result of our prayer and discussion, we are excited to recommend Mark Vincent to you. He would join our staff and oversee the areas of Small Groups, Walk Compassionately and Children’s Ministry.

Mark is well known to the Harbour community after serving as our interim Creative Arts Director this past fall. Anyone who spoke to Mark knows of his commitment and passion for hurting and unconnected people. Mark is a wonderful pastor and a growing leader who will expand our ministries in the areas of Walk Compassionately and Small Groups. Mark would continue to play the same role as Debra has in children ministries, working with the current volunteers to ensure that our children and families receive great ministry. Believing God for numerical growth over the next months, we feel that Mark’s passion for people will give us a focus on the Small Groups, a key next step in moving people into the life of Harbour.

As elders, we sensed that God was leading us to renew our Mission Statement of “Walking with People from Disenchantment to Discipleship”. Bringing someone in to the team that has leadership and passion in connecting people in the areas of Walk Compassionately and Small Groups is a must at this time.

We are aware of budget concerns but feel confident in this direction as the overwhelming majority of members already agreed to increase the budget last fall and no new increase is necessary at this time.  We want to remind everyone, however, of the on-going congregational commitment we have made and what that means to each individual member and attendee at Harbour.

We have prayed about this and feel that God is involved in this. That being said, we wish to involve all of you and invite you to join us in praying for this recommendation. We are excited about the possibilities, but do not want to run ahead of where God is leading us. So please spend time in prayer for both the decision and your elders, and then either contact one of us or come to the meeting on the 20^th. We feel excitement growing here at Harbour and we look forward to where God will lead us over the next few years.

Presented on Behalf of the Elders

• Jake Boldt
• Dave Block
• Dave Cottrill
• Jake Pries
• Phil Sheldon
• Norm Schwenker and
• Jeff Bennett

PS – On a related, but somewhat separate note, please be praying for Mark and Jodi Vincent as they are expecting the arrival of a new baby this week!