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From the Desk of Our Interim Pastor All our listening teams have met and the leaders have reported back to Session their findings. I want to personally thank everyone who participated and especially those who volunteered to serve as leaders: Judi Schierling, Jim Lewis, Pam Nomura, Rick Marovich, Charles Verrey, Janet and Gary Lee. A big thank you also to Karen Belote from PACT for her input during the training sessions. One of the many questions that have surfaced since the listening teams have indeed listened to a good number of Westminster’s members and friends is, “What will happen as a result of these meetings?” Excellent question! As mentioned, each listening team submitted written reports that have been sent to all Session members to study and respond accordingly. Secondly, they will be given to the Mission Study Task Force as they begin the first step towards calling a new pastor to serve Westminster. Let me make it very clear—your input is very important and means much to the leadership and every comment will be scrutinized and addressed! We will soon engage the congregation in the process of discovering our unique mission that is essential before the pastoral search begins. Elders Emmanuel Nana and Joel Storckman will be serving as co-chairs of Westminster’s Mission Study Task Force. During the next several weeks they will be contacting members of the congregation (English, Latino, and Korean) and bring recommendations to Session on March 17th of the individuals that have volunteered to serve in this process. Mission studies are appropriate to churches seeking a new pastor; congregations considering new strategies for pastoral leadership; and to those that have experienced major changes in lay leadership and/or have conflict that needs to be resolved. The best mission studies involve everyone who wishes to be heard and will ask the following or similar questions…
Session will hopefully approve the Mission Study Task Force in March and then will then begin the process of discovering who we are at Westminster, where we’ve been, and where we see God leading in the future! I will have more to say about this in future issues of “Life Together” however, I do want to emphasize the importance of receiving input from as many members as possible—all ages, all groups, all languages. This is the only way we can see the clear vision of our church family. Once this process is complete, the Mission Study will be presented to the Session and once approved will be sent to the Committee on Ministry of the Presbytery of San Jose for their approval. Shortly thereafter a pastor nominating committee (PNC) will be elected by the congregation to begin the search process. We now have four congregations that worship at Westminster Presbyterian Church—three are joined as satellite ministries and one leases our facilities. One of the questions posed to the listening teams was about these ministries and I promised to address this briefly in this issue of the newsletter. The International Full Gospel Fellowship is an Indonesian congregation that leases our facility every Friday evening. They worship each week in the chapel at 8:00 P.M. The Communidad Latinoamericana and the Evergreen Korean Fellowship are satellite ministries of Westminster Presbyterian Church. Our Latino congregation meets in the chapel every Sunday at 10:00 A.M. led by our Associate Pastor, Rev. Stella Matusiewicz. Our new Korean congregation meets in our sanctuary every Sunday at 1:00 P.M. led by Rev. Young Kim and Rev. Young Kwon, both serve as Assistant to the Pastor at Westminster. The English, Korean and Latino congregations are ALL part of Westminster’s outreach to the Greater San Jose’s multicultural community. Finally, I want to emphasize the importance of the Annual Congregational Meeting to be held on Sunday, March 21, 2010, following lunch in the Fireside Room. We will elect our 2010 Nominating Committee which could well present names to the congregation of those to serve on the Pastor Nominating Committee should the Mission Study Task Force complete their work before the end of the year. Following this, we will then have an Open Forum where questions posed to the listening teams will be addressed…and hopefully answered. If you have a question that you would like discussed we ask that you submit it in writing no later than noon on Sunday, March 14, 2010. You may send these directly to my email: jacklongley@rocketmail.com or to our Clerk, David Burgess at daveburgess@earthlink.net. Your questions are extremely important to us and we want to answer them as best we can, thus the rationale in requesting that all questions be submitted iqn writing prior the meeting. We are now in the Season of Lent—a very important reflective time for all believers. It is especially meaningful to us during this transitional time at Westminster Presbyterian Church. I pray that it will be a spiritually enriching time for you and for our entire congregation. May God’s richest blessings be yours and we look forward to the serendipities He has in store for us in the days ahead. Affectionately yours in Christ, Jack Jack C. Longley
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