Farewell to Pr. Harrington
God be praised for the nearly two-year ministry of the Harringtons! Pastor Harrington preaches his final sermon at Holy Cross services on April 13-15 before moving to Powell, Wyoming. Please join us in worship and a time of fellowship for the Harrington family following each service.
Pastor Harrington's role as Executive Pastor heavily involved personnel and facility matters. His departure allows us to reimagine how personnel and facilities will forward Christ's work at Holy Cross.
Personnel We have reorganized our leadership team for greater focus and accountability in carrying out ministry. This includes contracting member Scott Hinton part-time to organize all human resource matters involving the 82-to-85 full-time and part-time people who receive compensation from Holy Cross. We have been blessed with additional part-time help in both middle school and high school youth ministry.
We also will learn on April 23 whether or not we will receive a vicar (one-year student pastor) and deaconess intern (also one-year) from our Fort Wayne seminary. These individuals will participate in a wide range of ministry activities in our congregation and school with particular attention to family life, youth, and mental health. Roughly ninety percent of the cost for the vicar and deaconess intern will be covered by a generous grant to the Seminary by The Lutheran Foundation.
The Pastor Search Team (PST) continues meeting weekly (excluding Holy Week) to fulfill its take of "describing and Identifying a candidate or candidate(s) who will possess the necessary capacity to assume the Senior Pastor position upon arrival or after a period of service-learning as Associate Pastor." You will have the opportunity to hear an update and pose questions/suggestions to the PST at an upcoming Town Hall Meeting (see below).
Facilities Pastor Harrington's role as liaison for facilities renovation is now being handled by Dr. Henry Graf, our new Executive Director of Operations. We continue to work with the Lutheran Church Extension Fund - Real Estate Solutions (https://lcef.org/real-estate-solutions/) and Craig Miller of Horizons Stewardship (https://www.horizons.net/craig-miller). Craig was our consultant for the past two capital campaigns -- Holy Hearts, Wholly His and Making Mission Possible.
You are invited to review our progress and pose any questions or comments at one of our upcoming Town Hall Meetings:
Monday, April 29 @ 1-3 pm or 5-7 pm
Tuesday, April 30 @ 5-7 pm
Wednesday, May 1 @ 11 am - 1 pm. (The Wednesday session is for Senior Saints (age 60 and older) and will include a lunch. Please register to participate in this session.)
All Town Hall Meetings will take place in The Greenhaus (next to Dollar General in the North Anthony Shopping Center). Also included in these meetings are a report from the Pastor Search Team and opportunity for questions/suggestions.
This all leads up to a Voters' Meeting on Sunday, June 2 after the 9 am worship service (note: we'll be on our summer worship schedule). We want you to be as informed and prepared as possible for this meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to decide on proceeding with facility renovation and the capital campaign necessary to financially support this endeavor.
Please feel free to contact Henry Graf (hgraf@holycrossfw.org or 739-6513) with any questions or comments. We must move together with God's hand leading us and His love supporting us as we do the work He has called us to accomplish as we seek to make a Christ-like difference in our world.