ANNUAL MEETING

Opening Comments by Rev. Kreig Gammelgard

Good Morning everyone… and welcome to a new day… and a new experience at PCC. We’re gathered together this morning to do the business of the church. To worship and to learn… to listen and to serve… to sing and to pray… and to recommit ourselves to the mission priorities set before us in scripture from the Lord himself.

We have gathered together as the Body of Christ in this gym… which today… I’d like you to see as a locker room… and we gather together to get ready for the game that we’re called to be involved in as God’s team… known as the church. It’s a new season… and it starts today!

When I first arrived at Pasadena Covenant Church… I observed that this was a church that was like a boat… but it was a boat that wasn’t moving. We were trying to figure out WHO’S ON THE BOAT? And WHO’S JUMPED SHIP?... and WHERE IS THE BOAT HEADING? It seemed to me to be a rudderless boat in many ways as we floated through some of the last few months with little direction… and some timidity.

But I’ve come to the conclusion that PCC has not been adrift… but tied up to the dock where repairs have been made and essential business has been attended to. There is safety and relative calm at the dock. And even though some folks may prefer the safety of the dock… I can tell you that a church does not belong tied up in the harbor… because when the winds and the waves come… nothing moves. And while some people in some churches may prefer the safety and security and even the predictability of the harbor… there is a wild world that God has called us to set sail into.

And so… today is the day that we untie the boat. Today is the day that will mark the beginning of us leaving the harbor once again and the predictability of the dock and harbor and head into the open sea to get wet again.

If the church is anything like a boat… it is certainly designed and destined to get moved by the wind and tossed a bit by the waves. It is designed to follow the influence of the Spirit from safety to unpredictability. It is designed to react and adjust to changes quickly… and even when the boat feels like it is about to tip over… and the danger from the waves are very real… that is the exact place the creator of the wind wants us to be… BECAUSE HE IS IN THE WIND… and he will never let the boat tip over… because it is designed to head bow first into the wildness of the open seas.

I welcome you to a new day at PCC. I invite you to untie the ropes of safety and familiarity and control… and to jump on board… and to leave the harbor and head into the wind together… and to set your sights toward the horizon of new adventures and new possibilities.

I call you to be a part of the adventure… and I call this meeting to order.

Let’s pray!