His responsibilities will include serving as piano accompanist during our morning worship services each Sunday, rehearsals with the Choirs and Instrumental Ensemble during the week, and occasionally performing special music. He will also fill in for Mark Brown as Worship Leader when Mark is not here.

Richard brings impeccable qualifications and loads of experience with him to this position. He has a B.A. in Piano Performance. He has held staff positions as both Accompanist and Music Minister at two large local churches, including one church with weekly attendance of 6,500. He served as an accompanist for Sandi Patty for two years. He currently works for Lawrence North High School as their Choral Department’s Accompanist and Instructional Assistant. Richard has experience with a broad range of musical genres.

He has a deep calling to use the arts to help people connect to God, and looks forward to growing with the Music Ministry and Jesus MCC. Be sure to make him feel welcome!

Look for the entry titled Proclaiming the Name of Jesus and Podcast #12: Worshipping with Generosity.

So we’re going to use this as an opportunity to offer a different kind of worship experience. Sunday evening worship will begin at the same time (6:00 pm), meet in the same space (the sanctuary), and still be led by Jeff and Melody. However, we will get to know each other at a deeper level. The service will begin with sharing and prayer. Then we will watch a recording of the Sunday morning sermon together, after which Jeff or Melody will lead a lively discussion of the sermon, challenging us to wrestle with the key concepts.

Some will love this more interactive form of worship, while those who want a more traditional worship format will have the option of shifting to Sunday mornings. These changes will take effect on Sunday, March 7!

Historically, Jesus MCC has had a part-time accompanist to supplement and support the work of our Worship Arts Minister. The position has been vacant for the past two years due to the deep economic recession and associated budget shortfalls. In recent months, however, giving has begun to return to pre-recession levels. So, at our January 31 Congregational Meeting, a budget was approved that restores funding for the accompanist position.

If you know someone who might be interested, please download the Position Posting. The deadline for application is March 14, 2010. Let’s pray that God will bring us the right person!

Lavonda comes to us with a deep business background. Before connecting to Tradebank, she spent years managing in Kohl’s and Lazarus Department Stores. Initially, Lavonda’s work for the Church will include:

• Office management (including coordination of office volunteers).
• Management of building and grounds.
• Help with marketing strategies for Found Pearl Press.
• Database management.
• Payroll and HR.
• Purchasing agent.
• Budget compliance and trend tracking.
• Constituent service enhancement.

When you see Lavonda and Charlene, be sure to thank them for this incredible act of generosity! Lavonda has been on the job for 5 weeks now and is already making a huge positive difference!

We also want to thank all those office volunteers who give one to five hours per week doing critical clerical tasks. If you would like more information about being an office volunteer, just email Lavonda.

Have you met Rev. Keith Phillips? Professionally, he is a full-time hospice chaplain. But for several years, he has also been an active member of our Church serving in a variety of volunteer leadership capacities, including Discipleship Teacher, supervisor of our current clergy intern (David Zier), and Found Pearl Press Board member. Keith is also editor-in-chief of the second book our Church will publish — a daily devotional by gay, trans, and affirming Christians called Quench!. Quench! is at the printer now and will be available for distribution within a couple weeks!

So, though you personally may not yet know Keith, he is already doing so much to bless our Church community and, as a hospice chaplain, the broader central Indiana community.

Keith holds a Master of Divinity degree from Earlham School of Religion, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Seminary. For all of his 30 year career in ministry, Keith has been ordained in the American Baptist Convention. But Keith wants to serve in a denomination that openly welcomes and celebrates LGBT people. So, over the past two years, he has gone through a process for transferring his ordination to our denomination, the Metropolitan Community Churches.

At regional conference in June, an ordination panel approved the transfer of Keith’s ordination credentials to MCC. In the November 1 worship service, we made that official with a Rite of Ordination. Please be sure to congratulate Keith!

The document below is a rough draft of a 25-Year Plan prepared by the Board and staff. We would welcome your comments — please email them to Pastor Jeff. Jeff will share your comments with the Board and staff. Several forums will also soon be scheduled.

25 Year Plan

• Eliminate our part-time Administrative Assistant position. Mark Shoup has filled this position with great distinction. Mark has now taken a full-time position elsewhere, and wishes to transition out of his position here. Although we would dearly love to refill this position, we have decided to bite the bullet and leave it open until giving returns to normal. That means clerical and administrative tasks will fall back on pastoral staff, reducing the amount of time they can devote to core ministry.

• Reduce our support for MCC outreach. We normally invest about $650 per month in special MCC outreach projects in Africa and Latin America. These investments have been suspended.

• Reduce contributions to the MCC clergy pension plan.

• Renegotiate contracts with various service providers — phone, trash collection, payroll processing — to achieve small savings here and there.

Taken together, these cost cuts should save about $1,693 per month. The Board will review the situation again next month. If further cuts are necessary, remaining staff will be directly affected.

If you have a job, and if you’re not yet a regular giver, please consider becoming one. Your generosity will make a huge difference in this time of economic stress. Also, next Sunday we’ll begin a Spare Change Drive to help close the budget gap.

We also want to say a special thanks to new givers who have stepped up in recent weeks. Without you, the crunch would be much worse!

Together, we will get through this. If you have questions or suggestions, please email the church office, or call (317) 722-0000.

To be part of the professional directory, please download this form or pick up a copy from the info kiosk. For more info, email Sheryl Holko.

Like Vivian, David is a seminary student at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, entering his final year of work on a Master of Divinity degree. After completing his degree, David plans to retire from his current line of work, seek ordination within MCC, and serve as a full-time professional volunteer here at Jesus MCC.

David was born and raised near Washington, DC. His father was Lutheran and his mother Jewish, but neither were active. David discovered a Southern Baptist Church while in high school. Soon thereafter he entered the University of Central Florida, came out, and became active at Joy MCC in Orlando. After graduating from college, David returned to Washington DC and served at Open Door MCC.

David and Pastor Jeff met there and married in 1991. This week they’ll celebrate their 19th anniversary! David moved with Jeff to Jesus MCC in 1997, and since has served in a variety of leadership roles, including Chair of our first Board of Building Trustees (back when we began planning and fund raising for our building) and current Chair of our Missions Board.

David holds a BS and two Masters degrees in electrical and medical engineering. He has worked at NASA, the Department of Defense, the Food & Drug Administration, and now Quintiles Consulting. Most of his career has been devoted to developing new medical devices.

Several years ago, David began feeling called to pastoral ministry. His current plan is to volunteer full-time at Jesus MCC once he completes his clergy degree. Over the next nine months, you will see David assisting with worship leadership and engaging in a broad range of projects. Be sure to welcome and encourage him during this important phase of his pastoral education!