State of the Church

Each year for Charge Conference the pastor is asked to do a report of the state of the church that he or she is serving. Below is my report for this year.

 

This has been another hard year for our church. Both membership and average attendance, for both Worship and Sunday School, is down. One promising thing is that the percentage of decrease is less than it has been in the past few years. Also troubling is the fact that our giving is down. At the end of July we were over $7,000 behind our budgeted donations and over $10,000 behind last year’s giving. We need to do better!

However, there are some encouraging signs. Ruth Sizemore, our Children’s Committee Chair, did a great job with our Easter Egg Hunt and our Vacation Bible School “G-Force=God’s Love In Action”—was really successful with an average of over 20 kids each night. God is good!

Our Mission Outreach continues to do great work; with our Health and Welfare Assistance program each Tuesday making a real difference to those in need.

Our United Methodist Women remains one of the strongest units in the Wytheville District. Several members of our local unit serve in leadership positions on the district level.

Our Music Department does a great job—this adds so much to our Worship. However, our brightest light may be our Kid’s Junction ministry. Started with the help of a Holston Conference “Change-for-Children” grant, this has not merely survived but grown greatly. This school year we were able to provide fifty plus backpacks for students as well as other needed school supplies. This is in addition to our on-going distribution of coats, clothes, diapers and personal hygiene items not covered by SNAP benefits. Way to go church!

This is a time of change for First Galax United Methodist Church as we transition from the type of church we used to be and become the church God wants us to be now. Change is always scary but if we seek God’s will to commit to doing what God wants, we will have a bright future.

Richard