Seasons of Change
Having announced at our recent congregational meeting that I intend to retire “sometime this summer,” I hope you will allow me some space to get nostalgic.
As I look back on my seven and a half years as your pastor, I am proud of many things we have accomplished together:
We have maintained—mostly intact—the vast majority of our members and friends through a frightful pandemic. We were very careful to follow public safety guidelines from state and federal sources. Within a week of the stay-at-home order, we had Zoom up and running (for the most part!) so that wherever you were holed up, you could still be connected to Grace. All these years later, we are still using Zoom as a huge tool for our ministry.
We have renewed Grace Preschool. Thanks to excellent board leadership and the incredible commitment of our Preschool Staff, we are once again experiencing robust enrollment for next school year. This year we added an afternoon “enrichment program” that has become very popular with parents. We also repurposed the Youth Room as a large motor skills area for the preschool. Thanks to the generous support of our members, we have been able to furnish the space with excellent equipment. Support for the Preschool’s fundraisers pay for new equipment. The addition of an indoor “gym-like” space for energetic preschoolers has become a real attraction.
We have, I believe, improved the esthetics around our building both by moving the confirmation pictures to a very public space and by adding live plants to the shelf above the altar.
As part of a Green Initiative, we identified multiple ways that Grace could be a better steward and also how we could educate our members and neighbors about things that regular people can do to contribute to the healing of the planet. Our Grace Garden and our three “Living Green Expos” have become and I hope will remain a community “brand” for Grace.
Grace has maintained good relations with the River Trails Park District and with two non-denominational congregations who use our building, as well as deepened our relationship with Trinidad Lutheran Church in Humboldt Park. Our hands-on ministry there and our moral support for their ministry means a lot to our sisters and brothers there.
We have celebrated the lives and deaths of some incredible saints of Grace.
We have witnessed a succession of fine young men and women affirm their baptisms (confirmation). It is such a privilege to watch them grow up, go out and come back!
Our relationships of trust, mutual accountability and stability have encouraged the incredible generosity of our members and friends.
I could go on. But I won’t.
Except to say thank you for your partnership in the months and years gone by. I look forward to continuing to serve you for months to come.
In the love, joy, peace and hope of Jesus,
Pastor Daniel Schwick
