First, I want to thank the leaders of our Being Church~Building Community stewardship campaign along with their partner team, the Building Team. We have over 80 people now involved in the work of these two teams. I am impressed, awed, and humbled by what they are accomplishing, how they're setting goals and timelines, and how they're making things happen. All I have to do is pray for them, offer an encouraging word now and then, and practice writing and saying the word "deliverables" since I've discovered that to be a very important phrase to these folks!
 
Second, I want to thank our "Re-Fi" team. These amazing people have journeyed into the less than hospitable world of lending and finance attempting to convince some bank, somewhere, that MCC Austin is a good candidate and reasonable risk for a refinance and building capital loan. They've put together loan packages and interviewed and walked the property with bank presidents and lending officers and have come up with not one, but TWO, financial institutions eager to have our business. Those of you who have been around awhile, just let that soak in for a minute or two!
 
Third, I want to thank our Board of Directors. When this year began, one of the things the Board committed to was becoming an effective, efficient team--a true team in which our whole body was greater than the simple sum of our parts. We restructured our agendas and prepared ourselves to become a strategic, visioning board as opposed to a project or program board in which each member held responsibility for certain tasks and areas. Last Saturday, prior to attending an MCC Cluster conference in San Antonio, we spent time together creating a covenant that would guide how we work together and finalizing our goals for the year so that they would not only help us stay on time and on target but also so that our progress toward them could be objectively measured. You'll be able to see these covenants and goals on the website soon. (An aside: You might want to ask Jeff Lutes for directions to I-35 or ask Glen Hunt how he endured the silence in his car on the way home.)
 
Finally, I want to thank our lay delegates and staff members who also traveled to San Antonio to represent MCC Austin. As Elder Darlene Garner led us through a process for reviewing and offering input on the first drafts of our proposed new organizational structure, our delegates offered thoughtful, hopeful feedback. All in all 15 people represented MCC Austin at Saturday's gathering, and all of them are ready to share what they learned with all of you.
 
If there's a song that fits how I'm feeling today, it's "God Is Still Doing Great Things." If I wrote a new verse, it would be "God is still doing great things through you."
 
Love and Thanks,