Good afternoon, and welcome to our long-awaited annual meeting. We have been on a transition journey for the last almost 2 years and though most of us have been on the ride together and have experienced the different terrain that we have covered, Joe and I want to take this opportunity to reflect on the faithfulness of God to lead us in measurable ways into being a transformed community that loves God and loves others by being fully engaged in the life and mission of Jesus. It has not been an easy journey, but we have sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit and felt God cultivating good things. We want to thank Him and praise Him for what he has done and continues to do.
The year began with the first time we met our now Intentional Interim Pastor, Gregg Caruso. He, along with a team from Vital Church did a thorough assessment of our church, which included a survey and over 100 personal interviews. All this data was prayerfully compiled and given in an oral report in January of 2023. It was a meaningful and significant day of hearing some difficult truth centered on the gospel of Jesus. The church was given 9 primary recommendations to bring about a healthier church. The people of HRAC received the report well and what ensued was an “all hands-on deck” effort to realign with the purposes of God at Hood River Alliance, A Transition Team was formed to assist our then Intentional Interim, Steve Miller, with accomplishing the recommendations set out by the Vital Church assessment. The team was divided into three groups: governance, mission/vision, and reconciliation to strategically target our needs. Though the process included its own bumps and setbacks, the efforts were fruitful. Although there are aspects of all the 9 recommendations that should be perpetually revisited, all of them have been completed or are nearing completion at this time.
The church engaged in a 12-week Peacemaking class that was held after services. Through this class, we learned how to practically apply principles taught by Jesus, regarding reconciliation, peace-making and peacekeeping in all relationships in life. This class was also a great start in getting out of the isolation that Covid caused and gave us the opportunity to know each other and ourselves better while learning new conflict resolution skills. We also held 2 “Summits”. The first helped us look back at our more than 100-year history to celebrate the good, as well as reflect on the difficult parts of our history. The second summit involved round table discussions of our current values and our desired values as well as discussions about the ministry needs of our community. This information was then used to take a fresh look at our mission, vision, and values. The process reinforced various aspects of our previous mission and vision yet helped us refocus and better understand our barriers. Collectively, we realized that our fellowship had been characterized by a spirit of consumerism. We repented of this and revised our core values: Authenticity, Restoration, Community, and Sacrifice.
The Elders and the Transition Team also hosted a “reconciliation forum” to continue to make every effort towards reconciliation with former staff and attenders who were confused or hurting or wanting answers. Questions regarding the previous year’s turmoil were pursued, then compiled and answered in a Spirit of openness. Every effort was made to speak the truth in Love and with vulnerability. The task was difficult as it was evident that sincere Christ-followers who loved each other saw past events through very different lenses. Even though many in the congregation were not directly affected by the staff turmoil, this difficult process was a necessary step in the efforts to move toward a healthier future for the church.
While these areas of reconciliation and mission/vision and values were being addressed, the slow process of a governance overhaul was taking place. At the direction of both Vital Church and The Alliance Northwest district of the CMA, we began to take steps towards moving from a 2-board system to a 1 board system and implementing the structure of policy governance. This process will take on its final leg of complete implementation today as we vote to accept the bylaw changes that will make it all possible.
By summer we were feeling some stability and the Governing Team approved a 3-month sabbatical for me. It was an amazing gift to rest and seek the Lord and enjoy family, friendships, and camping. The Lord encouraged me, brought needed healing to my heart and new rhythms to my life, and affirmed my call to being a pastor at Hood River Alliance.
September started off with a sermon series on our newly adopted core values. This came with another transition of interim pastors as Vital Church saw fit to bring in Gregg Caruso to finish out the remaining items to be addressed in this transitional season. This change was a shift into high gear as Gregg worked diligently to quickly get policy governance up and running and, along with the nominating committee, discern who should join this Governing Team for this important new season in the life of our church.
Gregg also worked hard to improve the communication between the congregation, the staff, and the Governing Team through friendly gatherings, intentionality in our newsletter, all church fasts, regular town hall meetings and other feedback loops. In all these ways we have sought to hear what the Spirit is saying to our church and to respond in faithfulness.
Looking back, there are MANY bright spots and a clear pattern of the faithfulness of God to use difficult times to bring about maturity, humility, and other good fruit in his children. Some of the bright spots that we would like to highlight are: 1) Volunteer engagement: We have strategically moved from staff-led ministries to lay-lead ministry teams that are equipped and supported by staff. We praise God for this movement and are so encouraged by the leadership of lay volunteers in youth ministry, women’s ministry, prayer ministry, security team, community groups, shelter meals, worship ministry, children’s ministry, financial advisory board, and others. Our strong desire is that everyone who calls Hood River Alliance Church their church home would know their gifts and be using them for God’s glory. We have made great strides in this and have plans to help facilitate this with a spiritual gifts seminar this spring. 2) Attendance - we continue to see attendance increase and see new faces attending as well as ones we have missed for a season. We praise God for this. 3) Children’s ministry. We have seen steady growth in our children’s ministry attendance over the last several months. It is exciting to see the mass exodus of children from their sanctuary to their classes before the sermon. We LOVE having the kids with us during the first ½ of the service. We believe that there is great value in all worshiping together and love seeing the next generation learning to know, love and serve Jesus.
We are looking forward to more all-church family fun events, deepening our understanding and practice of prayer through an upcoming training, further developments in our Sunday services that help us to connect with God, respond to him, as well as connect with others, the development of local and global outreach along with a reconnection to Alliance Missions along with other plans.
As we look forward, we are much closer to being ready for our next permanent pastor. Our lead pastor search team is well under way in their work, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the diligence, giftedness, passion, and teamwork they are exhibiting in going about the task of discerning who God has called to lead us. We encourage you to pray for a spirit of unity and discernment for this team regarding the person God has called to be our next lead pastor.
While we are very much looking forward to being on the other side of transition, so much of it has really been a gift. We have had to cling to Jesus and each other and “re-gospel” ourselves regularly. I believe that 5 years down the road we will look back at this transition period and revere it as a necessary and beneficial period of refinement that brought about immeasurable Kingdom fruit. It has been an honor to serve and participate in the work of God. This is an exciting time to be part of Hood River Alliance.