904 Washington St SE, Olympia, WA 98501
State of the Church – Part 1
The COVID + Years: 2020 to 2023
It’s hard for me to believe but it has been 5 years since you all called me and entrusted me to be the Senior Pastor, here at Olympia First Baptist. In conversation with the Executive Leadership Team at our last meeting, we thought the timing was right for me to attempt to present to you all, for lack of a better word or phrase, a “State of the Church” address. From my perspective, what I want to share is to review what God has been up to these last five years as God continues to bless us, challenge us, surprise us, and even grow us into that sustainable, unknown future that God has been preparing us for. There is much ground to cover these past 5 years, so I think it wise to do this in 3-parts! This will be installment #1 and I will do my best to be brief, but still informative and transparent.
2020
I officially began my call as Sr. Pastor on March 1st, 2020. On March 15th, we were in lockdown mode due to the global pandemic of Covid-19. For the next 2-years, our focus was on finding ways for us to stay connected as a faith community despite the limitations that were placed on us and that we supported, in order to keep one another as safe and healthy as possible during a really difficult time. Technology became our friend during this time and we embraced and expanded our capabilities to connect with each other thru that technology. Those Covid years, forced us, but also helped us, become more flexible, adaptable, creative, and imaginative, not only in that present time-frame but as we started to think, dream and wonder, more and more, about the future.
Post-Covid, late 2022 into 2023
I like to think of as the Year of Exploration. It seemed pretty obvious to most of us that things were never going to be quite the same again. The world around us had changed too much during the pandemic. Going back to business as usual did not seem realistic or practical. So, what now? During this time frame, we focused our attention on questions like, “Who are we?” “What focus do we want our ministry to take-on?” “What are our values; the things that make us unique?” “What do we want people to experience when they come to Oly First?” “Where do we see God at work, around us and within us?” You know…easy questions, with easy answers.
We held a summer series of Fireside Room Chats to discuss, ponder, share and wrestle with those and similar questions. Additionally, we sought guidance and insight from the Rev. Sam Kim, who is one of our Associate Executive Ministers at our Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches.
Out of this process we:
Rededicated ourselves to being a downtown, neighborhood church, with an emphasis on engaging our surrounding community more intentionally.
We prioritized – Hospitality, Relational Connection, and Spiritual Nurture, as our most commonly held values as a congregation.
Continued to flesh out and be prayerful about Purpose – Vision—Values – Goals; as well as tapping into the concept of “Currency of Place.” The discussions about place led to putting together plans for utilizing our outside space, which became the Front Porch project.
This year also placed an emphasis on looking at existing ministries and what kind of new opportunities for ministry there might be for us. And who knew that refugee resettlement through World Relief, would became a reality for us?
2023
On top of all of the above, post-Covid, 2023, was also a time of deep, deep loss. We gathered too many times to grieve and say goodbye to those who we loved and who had graduated into God’s eternal and loving presence. We ended the year with a Blue Christmas worship service to acknowledge the lament of loss during a time of anticipation and celebration around the birth of the Christ child.
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I think it best to stop there. Next month, I will pick up our story, with an overview of 2024, what I like to call the “Year of Transitions!” I think it is important that we take a look at where we are in relationship with where we were. I hope, we as a leadership team hope, that you will see how good God has been and that that goodness and faithfulness from God is ever present now as we lay a new foundation alongside the good foundation of our storied history and past, as we forge a new chapter toward a new future, here on the corner of 9th and Washington.
Blessings and Joy!
Humble over Hype!