2010 Annual Report: Outreach Council

by Perry Chang (outgoing Outreach Council co-chairperson)

Outreach Council serves as a hub and catalyst for Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church’s outreach, mission, and evangelism activities.  In 2010 Agnes March, Bob Abrams, Chris Snyder, Izzy Jones, Janine Linder, Jeff Gilbert, Lowell Linder, Lucy Steilberg, Marcus Perry, Perry Chang, Rebecca Barnes-Davies, and Wanda Abrams participated regularly in Outreach meetings, with Amy Linfield, Carlos Lara, and Pastor Jane Larsen-Wigger also participating periodically.  Marcus and Perry led the Council as co-chairpersons.  Participating in individual meetings were Alan Pauw, Brooke Pierson, Diana Stephen, Gail Bingham, Jennifer Thalman Kepler, Kashama Lengulula, and Paula Tibbs. 

Everyone is welcome to Outreach meetings at 7:00 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month, in the Fireside Room.

Key activities of the Council, and the church, this past year included:

·       Book distribution.  Thanks to the generosity of CHPC’s Ann Yeargin, the church gave 1,000 books (Bluegrass Breeze and One Tiny Twig) to local children and families through half a dozen partners:  United Crescent Hill Ministries, Presbyterian Community Center, Eastern Area Community Ministries, Breckinridge-Franklin Elementary School (in Irish Hill), and Fairmont Elementary School (in New Albany).   The council worked with the books’ author, Dan Rhema.  Among the others who helped with this were:  Alan Pauw, Chris Snyder, Dave Bush, Diana Stephen, Gayle Trautwein, Izzy Jones, Pastor Jane, Johanna Wint, Marcus Perry, and Stephanie Gregory.

·         Food for Thought series.  Working with Pastor Jane, Charlie Boyd, Molly Boyd, Bruce Whearty, and Lora Whearty began this series of light lunches and presentations by Crescent Hill folks involved in various missions and ministries this past spring.  Many presenters made PowerPoint presentations, and most let folks know how they could get more information and what follow-up action they could take.  Making presentations were Anne Del Prince, Bruce Whearty and Lora Whearty, Christi Boyd and Jeff Boyd, Fletcher Padoko, Jerry Van Marter, Mary Love, Stephen Bartlett, and Tricia Lloyd-Sidle.  These lunchtime events gave people a chance to hear about different mission, outreach, and advocacy opportunities, and gave individual CHPC folks a chance to reflect on what difference their work (paid and volunteer) has made in their lives and the lives of others.

·         Mission month.  With a kickoff sermon at the beginning of the month by Pastor Jane that reminded Crescent Hill folks why we do mission, Crescent Hill celebrated August as mission month.  Church mission teams that traveled to Appalachia and Guatemala (and participated in the Presbyterian Youth Triennium) led worship services.  All long-term Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-workers who Crescent Hill supports participated in this.  Christi Boyd and Jeff Boyd (in west Africa) spoke at a Food for Thought lunch, and Jeff also gave a Minute for Mission during worship.  Amanda Craft (in Guatemala) spoke to a Wednesday evening audience, before Council meetings.  (Our own Hunter Farrell, director of PC(USA) World Mission, also preached.)  Carrying over into early September were:  (1) a worship service led by  participants of Louisville Presbyterian seminary Brazil mission trip (with Rebecca Barnes-Davies preaching), which Outreach had recommended for church support; (2) a sermon by JoElla Holman, who later this past fall left for the Caribbean became a fifth PC(USA) mission co-worker the church supports; and (3) a dinner with Nancy Collins (in east Africa) and some Outreach folks.  Carrying over into December was a talk by outgoing Young Adult Volunteer Luke Van Marter to current Youth Group folks and Youth Group alumni/ae.  The month plus helped focus the church’s attention on mission.

·       Ministry opportunity fair.  In October Outreach put together displays about its work and arranged for displays by several CHPC ministries and CHPC partner organizations (many of them staffed with people to respond to questions):  greeters ministry, Guatemala mission partnership, Habitat for Humanity, joint three-church English as a foreign-language teaching ministry, PC(USA) international mission co-worker liaison team, Presbyterian Community Center, Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville, and United Crescent Hill Ministries.  Participating in this were Amy Linfield (who designed two beautiful displays), Ana Lara, Bob Abrams, Diana Stephen, Jamie McMillin, Jennifer Thalman Kepler, Lowell Linder, Stephen Bartlett, and Wanda Abrams, along with mission partners Irene Spicer and Lori Jacobs.  Several dozen Crescent Hill folks signed Christmas cards for the mission co-workers, and their families, who the church supports, and several people signed up for volunteering or to receive more information for each of the ministries with displays/sign-up sheets.  The Latin American food in the Outreach Council corner (which Lowell supplied) was among the most popular at this very successful event, and drew more people to the displays.  The event also pushed Outreach to pull together more detailed information about fall 2010 volunteer opportunities with some dozen ministries with which the church works.

·         Preschool.  2010 was a time of promotion, reflection, and restructuring for this 50-year-old-plus children’s ministry of the church.  Licensing issues, up-and-down enrollments, staff changes, the economic downturn, and changing marketing strategies helped trigger a discussion among Outreach Council, the session, and especially the preschool board about the preschool’s future.  A mid-year marketing campaign that included several dozen Crescent Hill families and individuals putting CHPC Preschool yard signs in their front yards, and inviting opportunities to talk about the preschool and the church in general with neighbors, netted just enough students to continue preschool operations during the 2010-2011 school year.  Discussions about the future (of both the preschool and ministries to children in the community, in general) continue.  Participating on the board are Ada Asenjo, Katherine Futrell, Pastor Jane, Janine Linder, Julie Leake, Lucy Steilberg (board chairperson), Lowell Linder, Sally Flick (preschool director), and Tom Peterson.

·       New members.  Two classes of 16 people total joined, affiliated, or associated with Crescent Hill church, in March and October.  Those included:  Andrew Black and Dawn Black, Anne Del Prince, Dana Hemming, Donna Burch and Marsha Berry, Eric Proctor and Laura Hayes, Jennifer Thalman Kepler and Paul Kepler, Jim Hubert and Kristy Hubert, Kara Smith and Taylor Smith, Risa Musto, and Stephanie Gregory (who moved from affiliation to membership).  Pastor Jane and Lucy Steilberg helped coordinate new member activities and connecting new members and sponsors.

·       Giving and benevolence.  Outreach helped coordinate the church’s participation in four churchwide special offerings, the One Great Hour of Sharing offering (which helps fund the PC(USA)’s  Disaster Assistance, Hunger, and Self-Development of People ministries), Pentecost Offering (which funds PC(USA) ministries for at-risk children), Peacemaking Offering (which helps fund the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program), and Christmas Joy Offering (which helps fund assistance to needy active and retired church workers and PC(USA)-related racial ethnic schools and colleges).  This year the church received about $7,300, down slightly from the previous year, when there were fewer competing giving opportunities.  That includes $2,715 for the One Great Hour of Sharing offering, $1,321 for Pentecost, $1,862 for Peacemaking, and $1,398 for Christmas Joy.  Two of these offerings include local funding opportunities, and Outreach recommended that $330 of the Pentecost Offering receipts go to support the Bellewood Presbyterian Home for Children and that $465 of the Peacemaking Offering go to help support the peacemaking lecture series at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, in honor of Professor George Edwards, who died in 2010, and Jean Edwards.  Brad Wigger, Chris Snyder, Janine Linder, Jerry Van Marter, Martha Gee, Ruth Farrell, Sally Pendleton, Shannon Langley, and Stephen Bartlett helped promote the offerings.  Outreach made recommendations about use of the brand-new CHPC Mission Fund, including $1,000 that went to the United Crescent Hill Ministries (and got the church a logo on the December Santa Sprint and Stroll promotional materials and T-shirt) and $500 to the EFL ministry.  Outreach also worked with Dave Bush and UCHM to turn some $800 Crescent Hill church folks donated into $4,000 for utility assistance for Crescent Hill residents (through the Metro Match program) and to have Crescent Hill church folks donate nonperishable food items for UCHM’s emergency food assistance program once a month, instead of just once a year.  Outreach played a role in a successful December effort to shore up end-of-the-year finances, which helped the church keep its 2010 benevolence commitments.

·       New ministries.  Outreach Council blessed and helped provide an advisory committee member (Lowell Linder) for an outreach ministry with French-speaking African immigrants and other French-speaking people.  Helmed by Kashama Lengulula and Paula Tibbs, the ministry began offering Sunday afternoon worship services in the CHPC sanctuary in November.  Outreach also helped provide a member (Lowell Linder) to a new board for the CHPC Community Garden, as well as $500 to the year-old EFL ministry.

·       Neighborhood outreach.  Outreach Council talked periodically during the year about ways to reach out to Crescent Hill/Clifton neighbors.  The Council continued to have the church buy ads in the Crescent Hill Community Newsletter, mailed to residents, and considered other strategies.