[printprofilepic]Recently, a friend of mine asked me a specific question about some aspect of the church. I replied that I didn’t know. “Why not, aren’t you President?” I explained yes, but his question had something to do with one of the committees, and Larry Schultz, who runs the Council would be the one to ask. The truth of the matter is, there is much going on in the church that I don‘t have to be cognizant of. This is because everyone, from John and Benette, to the rest of the staff, to the Board, and finally down to the Council and the various committees are quietly making decisions and carrying them out with little or no input from me or other leaders.
My father (whom I mentioned last month) ended up as a Division Leader at Sandia, with, eventually, several hundred people in his division. He once told me “you know, Dean, being a manager is easy—you hire good people, then just get out of their way so that they can do their job.” As a leader of the church I’ve tried to follow his advice.
There are numerous examples of good people just doing their job this year. Some of them are:
- A major issue, the hiring of a new Director of Religious Education. In this case, John, Benette, and the RE Committee have been working hard, looking at applications and talking to top applicants. This decision will be made by April 1 and, hopefully, we will have someone on board by the first of summer.
- The hiring of an architectural firm to develop three conceptual designs for a new church building. Rick Bolton and his various committees have done an excellent job in carrying this out.
- Kristine Coblentz, Robyn Schultz, and the rest of the Membership Committee have been developing ideas on how to improve interactions between church members as well as how to help new people become integrated into the church. They talked about this at a recent Forum.
- And, if you haven’t checked out the website recently, take a look at our new look. This is a result of a lot of work by our Webmaster, Mike Begnaud.
- Beautiful music also happens each week with occasional perfomances by the children’s, youth, or adult choirs.
- Many others are quietly just doing the work needed by the church—the building is being maintained, program committees continue carrying out their parts, planning groups are trying to figure out where we are going, and (most importantly) coffee is still served every week.
If you are not a part of the process, (or even if you are) you might give serious thought to seeing how you might play a more important role within the church. Check a few boxes on the church census that is being passed around during our canvas drive, the church needs help from all of us.
Dean Carstens
2010-2011 Church President
