St Paul's United Church of Christ
50 North Main St.
PO Box 129
Manheim, PA 17545
717-665-2447
The Reverend William J. LaSalle, Pastor
email:stpaulsucc@dejazzd.com

Pastor's Message

December 2007

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It has been more than a month since I began my ministry with you at St. Paul’s. I have appreciated the eagerness and warmth of your welcome. Thank you.

I can report to you that I am slowly, steadily, getting my feet upon the ground. The “working space” in my office study is set up and good working relationships are being built with your wonderful staff. I am beginning to learn how the church functions.

At this writing, we are at the mid-point of the YEP/YAP (Your Evening/Afternoon with the Pastor) sessions. They have been informative and fun and a big help to me in getting to know you and the church. I will summarize my learnings and your responses to my questions in a future newsletter. Thank you for the great response in numbers and enthusiasm.

One of my initial observations of St. Paul’s is the need for better communication throughout the church. Leaders, members and staff have been confused and frustrated at times because of a lack of coordination in planning meetings and events. There are some things we can do to help our communication within the church. First and foremost is the use of the church calendar.

Our Administrative Assistant, Brenda Conley, is the sole manager of the church calendar. All activities, group meetings, committee meetings, worship services and private requests for the use of the church building need to be scheduled through the church office. This procedure will prevent the surprise of arriving at church to find another group already at your planned meeting place. Using the calendar in planning events will alleviate the problem of different groups or events competing for the same people at the same time. Plans are being made to place a two month planning calendar in the hallway outside the church office to help leaders know what events are coming up when the Administrative Assistant is not in her office.

Related to the church calendar, two bulletin boards will be used to promote church activities. One will be located upstairs in the hallway near the church office and one will be located in the hallway downstairs near the kitchen. These bulletin boards will be organized in such a way that any member looking for a particular type of activity, mission or special worship service can look on either of the bulletin boards to see what event is coming up.

Additional mailboxes will be installed outside the church office so that all staff, consistory members, committee chairs and group leaders will have a place to pass on and receive mail, memos and information from members and other leaders.

Another opportunity for communication in the church will be found in the monthly newsletter. Our Consistory President, Leon Huber, has agreed to write a “Consistory Highlights” column for the newsletter to summarize the actions and decisions of our governing board to keep everyone informed.

These coordination/communication problems are what I like to call “good problems.” (A good problem is something like running out of bulletins on Sunday morning because of a good turnout.) St. Paul’s is an active church with hopes of becoming more active in ministry and mission. Such activity needs good, organized, accurate methods of coordination and communication. We hope these efforts will help us fulfill Christ’s mission together at St. Paul’s.

Shalom,
Pastor LaSalle