Staff Transitions at Grace
With the passing of our latest church budget, we’ve had a number of significant changes take place at Grace United Methodist Church. Sometimes changes happen to us and we need to respond in helpful ways to move the church forward. Other times we make intentional choices that affect our future. In the last two months we’ve had a mix of both of these kinds of changes and I want to share with you some details about how they came about and where we stand as we try to navigate the transitions.
First, many of you know that our music director stepped down as of December 31st. This was a change that happened to us and was not a choice of the church or its leadership. In the last month we’ve collected resumes, interviewed candidates and selected a new music director, Margin Alexander, to lead us into the next stage of our church’s music ministry. Margin was selected by a committee of both SPRC (staff/parish relations committee) members and the leaders and members of the various music groups in the church. The SPRC acts as the Human Resources department of the church, so it was expected that they would have input, but music can be a tricky thing. Some people may not have an ear for music, and our SPRC members are not selected to serve on the committee based on their knowledge of music! That meant it was important to include the members of the other music groups, which included our children’s choir, adult choir, contemporary worship team and the bell choir.
The process was a good one, especially as we talked about the needs of the congregation. In the end, we had well over a dozen applicants and narrowed it down to those who were best qualified and the best fit for our church. The final selection was of Margin Alexander, and I am pleased with his talents and abilities! He is gifted on multiple instruments, including the piano and organ, and gave an absolutely stunningly beautiful presentation on piano. One thing I learned about the organ is, not only are most organs uniquely designed for their church (and thus need some amount of getting used to), but that there are different styles of how one plays a hymn. Margin shared with me that some churches want the organ played exactly as the notes on the page dictate. Others want something more expressive and creative. I told Margin that his job is to make the hymns sound beautiful every day. Thankfully he has the gifts and skills as a composer to build up the sounds of our organ to truly make it sing! I’m looking forward to hearing the results with a little bit of time for him to do that work and get comfortable with our organ.
Margin will be away the last Sunday in February, since he already had a scheduled international concert before he was hired. We are excited to have him on our team and grateful to have such a skilled musician a part of our program. He will return to us at the beginning of March as we head into the Easter season, and he looks forward to working with our very talented musicians in the church as even more people join in! Be sure to send him a word of welcome at his email address - choirs@gumc.org
Speaking of the music program, we are making another significant change, one that was a combination of something happening to us and an intentional choice. For a few years we’ve been blessed with extra government funds because of the global pandemic. This money was important for us to navigate some of the dramatic changes that took place when we were not worshipping in person. We had to prerecord all our services, then transition to live services broadcast to people that were staying home. The extra money we had let us hire a lead technician for our broadcast booth and hire a lead singer. Both positions were very important to make sure we had the quality for our worship service, even as we had less people in the building and less volunteers available for the work that needed to be done each and every Sunday. Today, things are different. We are largely back to worship attendance numbers as they were before the pandemic, and people are back in the building singing and volunteering. Since our pandemic aid money came to an end in 2023, we knew we were going to have to make some changes. The end result is that our leader singer, Diane, has left us, and the volunteer choir will now lead us in congregational singing each week. In the tech booth, our tech director, Ian, will have his last week with us, and the booth will largely rely on volunteers to provide weekly assistance in broadcasting. Though these changes are challenging, and were not asked for by our church leadership, they were necessary because of the changing financial situation of the church. Largely, we are able to return to how things operated before the pandemic, and we are hopeful for a positive, inspiring atmosphere every Sunday in worship. Something that’s also a return to how things used to be is the recent hire of a new custodian, to keep the space clean, neat and organized to aid in worship. For years we’ve had a cleaning service that kept the building clean, but anything beyond that was much harder to get accomplished. You can welcome Mark at his work email address - custodian@gumc.org
Many changes in a short period of time can feel destabilizing for an organization. Because of this, our leadership team is focusing closely on navigating these changes well and offering the support needed over the next several months. We hope you’ll be patient with our new staff and our volunteers as they get used to their new roles. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to hear from you about how they are doing, though. Getting feedback along the way ensures that we are getting what we need in terms of the worship service, the online service and the church building itself. We need your input. In a few weeks you’ll see a congregational survey. You’re input there would be helpful. This post will also be updated, so check back here for changes coming up. Know that we are lifting each other up in prayer as we take these next steps God has for us in making Grace United Methodist Church an inclusive community passionately following Jesus Christ. God bless!
Pastor Brian Neville
(updates to follow)