Membership Mtg 9/18/24

To the Genesis FWB Church Membership

Good evening church! Before we dive into this brief membership meeting, let me start by saying: I am NOT resigning as Pastor! Hopefully that resolved some of your anxieties as to why we called such a meeting on such short notice… maybe you are now disappointed! However, I have called this meeting to announce a new role in my life which, if done well, will not affect you any.

On October 1, 2024 I will be returning to bi-vocational ministry as your pastor. I have accepted a role at Harvest as the Assistant Advancement Director, a position to which I feel called. In accepting this position, I will be stepping back down to part-time ministry here at the church, and as you will see in upcoming financial statements, my salary will reflect such a change.

That being said, Harvest has been gracious enough to understand my role as pastor and will let me continue to hold various office hours as well as allowances for hospital visits, funerals, and any other emergency that may arise within the church.

As I step into this new role, let me assure you of a few things:

I still pledge, as I did in 2022 when I became your pastor to:

Keep up with sound preaching and study

Keep up with pastoral duties

Remain on-call as your pastor

The only changes that you, the church, should recognize are: 1) the change in salary which will give us more room for giving/outreach and 2) one Sunday a month I will travel for Harvest to fulfill advancement duties there. On those Sundays, you will be glad to know that fill-ins from within our congregation will be preaching as often as possible with occasional outside ministers.

I love each of you, I love Genesis Church, and I look forward to your support in this transition.

- Pastor Matthew Stone