A Note From Our TLC President

Thanks

This is my last column as the President of YOUR Congregation and I have some closing thoughts to share.

My first thought is that we have a great Church. I know everyone likes their Church otherwise why would you belong? I think we have a great Church for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that we have many wonderful members who; share their amazing talents to make worship services happen, make the Sunday School run, keep the building in good condition, create, coordinate and run our outreach evangelism, sing and play bells in our Choirs and Soul Purpose Rock Band and put together special services, events and programs that show God’s presence in the world. And we have a great Church because of our staff – Sharon, Becca, Jana, John, Tom, Amy and Pastor Bill all work very hard to make TLC great.

Second, I think we should recognize we are financially ok. We are able to fund our programs, pay our staff and give some money to the Greater Milwaukee Synod and the National ELCA to do God’s work beyond our Church walls. Yes, it would be wonderful to have a bigger budget; that said, we are ok.

Third, TLC has been blessed with great leaders. We usually talk about TLC as a family in Christ, and we are, we are also a nonprofit business organization. We have a long history of past Presidents, Council Members and Ministry Team Members who have worked to set up sound practices to keep us organizationally and financially strong. All those great leaders, our positive financial situation and our wonderful congregation members have made my role as President rather easy and helped the last two years fly by.

A final thought. I went to high school with a classmate named Gene. In one of our classes we had a big, for HS, project where we had to write a 20 page paper. Gene liked doing his homework right before the deadline so he wrote his paper the night before it was due. Late at night, as he composed the final pages, Gene typed I wonder if anyone really reads this” in one of his paragraphs. When Gene got his paper back from our teacher he found the response "yes I do" written on that page. Sometimes I wondered if anyone read my column; occasionally I’d get a comment, usually from a family member. It maybe a little uncomfortable for us Lutherans to clap along with a song, show some emotion during worship or give some feedback. Believe me when I tell you people like to hear how their doing, they like feedback on what is working well and they usually want to know (if done politely) how they can make things better.

We have many opportunities to grow Trinity Lutheran Church. I ask you to support Gail English as she take the President’s role, say yes when she asks for your help, support her with your feedback and keep her in your prayers.

Thank you for your support while I was YOUR Congregation President.

Peace Be With You

Steve