A View From The Hill
Pastor Skip Armistead

Wow! God is Good!  All The Time!

                  It’s amazing what God is doing in our midst.  Not only did Bruce Myers and Bill Cloud do an outstanding job leading worship May 7, so many people made so many profound statements and testimonies about mother’s for our Mother’s Day message, and Krissy Jorden did one outstanding job as a teenager preaching last Sunday.  All three Bell Choirs were outstanding during the past two weeks, our end of the year Wonderful Wednesday Children’s program was simply fun while educational.  God is good!  “All the time!”

        Property Next Door:  Our Church Council decided Sunday night to ask all of us to spend the next few weeks in a season of prayer for God’s long direction and vision for our Hilldale Church family.  We will pray for God’s guidance through June.  During July, our Facilities Study Task Group will lead us through to process of discerning that vision.  The decision about the property next door or the hospital site or anywhere else needs to be prayer and God directed.  The question concerning facilities is, thus, not about money, tradition, feelings, personal desires, facilities, nostalgia, or anything else.  Our first question is “What does God want from our Hilldale family?”  Because our facilities exist to fulfill God’s vision, we will make a decision concerning facilities after this process is complete.  This is one of the most freeing experiences we can have.  For, if it is of God, whatever the vision ultimately is, God will provide, and if God provides, we won’t ever need to worry because God is good!  “All the time!"
 

        Church Council:  Rarely have I ever experienced such a productive meeting as our Church Council’s meeting last Sunday.  We made over a two hour period . . . well … it seemed like 100 decisions all of which are very positive.  We approved the purchase of a new sign which, if we choose, can someday be upgraded to an electronic reader board.  We approved a new Scholarship Team.  We decided to select our chairs for 2007 by September so they can begin transitioning this fall with our present teams, boards and committees.  Our Council members will lead our congregation by taking turns praying with our pastor at 8:15 on Sunday mornings prior to all ministries beginning.  So we can be more centrally connected with all of our Clarksville community, we agreed to become members of the Chamber of Commerce.  We will now be purchasing an A.E.D. (the paddles we use when a person has a heart attack).  Plus, for Father’s Day, I will put together another video similar to Mother’s Day.  This video will be available for donations so we can purchase a second A.E.D.  The Council approved a medical reimbursement plan to assist Betty Bowles, our custodian, with her health insurance.  It approved having a “Health Congregations” training in August.  It received demographical information concerning our church, where we live and potential implications (more details later).

Church Council also heard reports about Lisa Smith returning for a concert on June 24 and to be with us in worship on June 25 (potluck lunch following). Chris Johnson will now be coordinating our nursery ministries. We will begin more small groups this fall centered around God-driven passions.  We will look to start a young couples group, have another CPR class with an emphasis on infants, and another self-defense R.A.D. class for women.
 

Charge Conference:  Our May 21, 2006, Hilldale Charge Conference approved a resolution to incorporate and another resolution to transfer all assets from the unincorporated Hilldale United Methodist Church to the incorporated Hilldale United Methodist Church (legalese we have to do).  Without incorporation, every member, every personal checking account, every home, etc. was open to liability in the event our church was sued.  Incorporation provides much greater legal protection (almost complete) for each individual and individual family in the event the church is sued.  Individuals can still be sued, but individuals are not liable in a lawsuit strictly against the church.
 

Alternative Worship:  John Leutert suggested last fall during the visioning process that we might consider a worship service of another style to as to reach another group of people we are not presently reaching.  Our Visioning Team presented this to our Church Council who immediately approved it.  We have been studying the issue.  Presently, we are attempting to see if there is enough interest to develop and sustain such a service.  If there is enough support, we will probably experiment for a while to make sure this is sustainable.  If we have the needed personnel and resources and if we feel God is driving this, then we will go forward.  If not, this will come to an end.  This is a “study process.” 

I heard two interesting rumors about this process: “Skip is pushing for us to have this service.”  Also, “We are going to replace one of our worship services with this new style.”  Let me assure you that these rumors are not true.  Our Visioning Team proposed and the Church Council approved several things to consider to fulfill our mission of “Making Disciples of Jesus Christ!”  This is part of the process. 

New Members: God also led six persons (click here for details) to become members of Hilldale during the past three weeks! 
 

Worship Attendance:  At this point, our worship attendance for this year is 32 persons greater than the same period last year.  That’s almost an 11% increase.  Well, God is Good!... - Skip