Dear youth and parents,
 
We're in the final throes of our preparations for UCC's three Christmas Eve services, all of which will be moving, meaningful worship experiences in their own way.  I hope that if you're in town you'll be able to join us at 5, 8, or 11 p.m. to welcome Christ into the world anew.

I also wanted to share an update regarding our search for a permanent Assistant Minister for CYF.  An interview committee met today to assist me in reviewing materials from applicants and discerning which one might be the right fit to lead our ministry to high school youth here at UCC.  I'm pleased to report that we had multiple highly qualified applicants and agreed to proceed with scheduling interviews for the first week of January.  Assisting me in this process are Bruce Border as Chair of the Youth Committee and Lance James, Jessica McCoy, and Katie Swanson as youth representatives.  If you have insights, comments, or other ideas about our search for an Assistant Minister for CYF, feel free to contact me or share your thoughts with Bruce, Jessica, Katie, or Lance.  And if you'd like to see exactly what we're searching for, you can download a copy of the position announcement and job description by clicking here.

In light of that positive news, I have to say thanks to Isaac Varner for sharing his gifts with us in an interim capacity as Assistant Minister for CYF since the end of August.  Having a seasoned youth minister like Isaac at the helm of our high school ministries has given us several months to build a good job description, advertise the position locally and nationally, review applications, and interview candidates.  Experience has taught me that a quality search (as a opposed to a hasty one) generally results in a quality candidate for a ministry position, and I believe that will most certainly be true in this case.  Thanks, Isaac, for the gift of time that truly allows us to discern.

Grace and Peace,
Russ

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