January 1, 2026 - Elder’s Update

 

Dear Church Family,
Isaiah 43:19 says” Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” I pray that this will be prophetic in the life of our church and in our lives as well. May we be open to God at work and see what springs forth.

 

We had our elder’s meeting on Dec 17. Some updates from that:

• We review our finances every board meeting and we have been continually amazed and thankful for how God is meeting our budgetary benchmarks and needs. As you give, you bless not just our church and city, but many around the world through our support of the Global Advance Fund. God will “do a new thing” in many areas – including your life - because you have/are giving generously. Thank you.

• Our Facilities Committee continues to move ahead with needed repairs and caring for our building. We received a full update on what they have accomplished and planning/wanting to accomplish in the coming months. Thank you to this hard-working committee; we appreciate the way they care for the physical structure and maintenance of our church. 

• We have hired Steve Wiebe to help with snow removal to give Ralph a needed break over the weekends and with heavier snowfalls.

• We have passed PAAC Food Policy. If you have an event that is open to the public, please check with Sandra Bergen, our Facilities Coordinator, regarding our policy.

• Every board meeting our pastors give us an updated report. It is encouraging to read how they serve our church congregation well engaging in pastoral visits and meetings along with their public duties seen by all. We appreciate all they do and the servant heart they do it with. We are blessed.

• We reviewed our strategic plan and feel we are accomplishing much of what we talked about in our organizational meeting held in March 2025.
  1. Coordinating focused material and lessons in our ministry programming that will help us be more confident in sharing the gospel and starting conversations. We appreciate Denise Hodgemen (and Rollie) leading two Sunday School classes for our High School and adults in November to give us some insight and tools as we consider cross cultural evangelism. We also appreciate the Sunday School classes and CG who are talking about evangelism in their gatherings.
  2. Planning a focused weekend with a guest speaker who can help equip us and thus encourage and embolden us in the sharing of our faith. We are looking forward to our equipping weekend with Adam Driscoll starting with our church prayer meeting (led by Adam) on Jan 9 as we pray for our hearts to be ignited with compassion and concern for those who don’t know Jesus and then to be equipped on Saturday , Jan 10, as we look more closely at evangelism and tools to equip us.
  3. Keeping in the forefront through times of prayer, reminders, and testimonials of our continual need to pray for those individuals in our lives that need Jesus or need to return to Jesus. We are continually working at keeping prayer in the forefront of all we do; may we continue to make time for prayer in our Sunday School classes, community groups, Sunday morning worship and every other activity and meeting that takes place under the umbrella of PAAC.

• We discussed our Nominating Committee that is normally formed in November. We have decided to try something a little different to give more time for the committee to pray through the nomination process as they consider the needs of our church and the giftings of our members. We want to continue to take the position of eldership as a serious commitment as, among other things, the elders form the strategic plan that helps us fulfill the vision and mission of PAAC and helps to guard the integrity of PAAC’s ministries through board discussions and policy. Nomination form will be in the bulletin on March 1 as we prepare for our AGM on March 15.

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In His Service,
Sharon Ardell, Board Chair