January is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions. Janus is depicted as having two faces, one looking to the past and the other to the future. The coming of a new year is an opportunity to look back upon the year just past to remember significant events, cherish good memories, and learn from past mistakes. But it is also an opportunity to look to the year ahead to dream dreams, cast visions, set goals, and make resolutions.

To what are you looking forward most in 2016? The summer Olympics (August 5-21)? The presidential election (November 8)? The release of a long-awaited movie (like the Harry Potter-inspired Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, November 18)? My wife Liz and I are most excited about the prospect of becoming first-time grandparents this June!

To what is your church looking forward most? As I have begun to tour the Presbytery, I have encountered some churches which are very good at looking backward - celebrating the "good old days" when memberships were high and Sunday schools were booming - but have little enthusiasm to look forward. We may be tempted to compare the relatively empty pews and dwindling resources of our churches to the abundance of former years, and despair. But faithfulness is not about what used to be or even about what might have been. It is about what we do today with what God has given us, trusting that today's faithfulness will bear fruit for God's reign tomorrow.

Scripture is replete with examples of how God has brought life and hope out of loss and despair. Abraham and Sarah, the exodus from Egypt, the return of the exiles from Babylon, the resurrection of the Lord, and the miracle of Pentecost are all examples in which the people of God had focused on what they lacked and feared for their future, only to be astounded by the God who gives in abundance and holds tomorrow.

Even now, God is doing amazing things in surprising places. And I am excited about what God will do in our churches and our presbytery in 2016, not because it will recreate the glory days of old, but because it will be new and surprising and life-giving in ways we can barely begin to imagine. As God spoke to the exiles, "Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:18-19).

Thanks be to God for all that God will do in 2016 through God's faithful servants in the Presbytery of Lake Huron.

 

The information for completing your 2015 Annual Statistics were sent to all Clerks of Session this week.

 

A copy of this letter and all of the relevant information and links may be found on the Annual Statistics page of our website.

 

We are here to assist you with any questions that you may have. Please call or e-mail Staci or Ted should you need anything. Staci may be reached at 989-799-7481 x2 or spercy@presbylh.org. Ted may be reached at 989-799-7481 x 4 or tmcculloch@presbylh.org. Please keep in mind that both are part-time employees and are not in the office everyday.

 

 

 

Click here to read an article from the PC(USA) describing some reasons why completing annual statistics are important to your congregation.

Wasting time and energy may be one of my biggest pet peeves as a leader. Some days I leave work and feel I never got off a treadmill. It's physically and mentally draining. Does it ever happen to you? It can be frustrating to feel your most valuable commodity - time - has been wasted, or that you invested good energy on the wrong things. I firmly believe when we get rid of some common drains on our time and energy, we dramatically improve our performance as leaders. With this in mind, I've observed in my own personal development some ways to eliminate time and energy wasters. Here are seven common wastes of time and energy in leadership.