Board Chairman’s Report

Working in the hospice field these past two years, I’ve helped guide individuals and families in dealing with two seemingly contradictory realities: hope in how things could be (and what ultimately will be in Christ); and, dealing with the harsh reality of what currently is. So, while many hospice families hope and pray for miraculous healing or at least an extended length of time with a loved one (who can be free of undue suffering), they also plan and grieve for what appears to be coming. One can have the hope of heaven while also feeling despair over the consequences of living in a fallen world.

Putting on my elder hat, there is the need for First Free to also embrace the twin rails of hope & reality. Our most present reality is dealing with the resignation of our beloved pastor Jason and all that is entailed in this change. This resignation is added to all the other challenges our church has faced over the past few years, including a pandemic year when most in-person fellowship & discipleship efforts were curtailed, and many missional outreach efforts had to be put on hold. So, while we feel great sadness over all that was lost in the last year, and while we grieve that the Abbotts will not be a part of our future as originally planned, we are also a people of hope, who claim Paul’s wish for the church in Rome, that, “the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). Like the Christians in Rome (who faced great internal and external challenge), Paul reminds us that hope from God is not dependent on our present circumstances. In fact, hope is cultivated by the suffering we experience (Romans 5:1-4). And this hope “does not disappoint us,” because “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us” (Rom 5:5). With all that is not right in our world right now; with all that is not right in your world right now; may you grieve, may you “bear one another’s burdens”; and may you also rejoice that God is in charge, that his grace and Kingdom will be fully revealed someday, and that He chooses to use us as His ambassadors to declare the hope of the gospel.

A few more words on hope at the end of this report. Let me now share a few highlights from work the elders have done in the past year.

• In the Spring of 2020, it became very apparent that the Covid -19 virus was not going away any time soon. The elders assembled a Safety & Security Team to provide advice as to church operations, based on local health department and CDC recommendations. This team has been very helpful to the church by keeping up with the latest pandemic research, setting up health safety protocols for our church campus, and adjusting these protocols as needed throughout the year. A big thanks to this team who helped keep our church body safe, while allowing us to “love our neighbor” through not making our church a Covid hot spot.
• In the absence of being able to meet in person, Neighborhood Care Groups were assembled to provide emotional, relational and spiritual support to our body. Special attention was made to reach out to those without full support networks. We appreciate the many committed members who played this vital deacon role over the past year. We also added two additional members to the Crisis and Compassion Team in expectation of increased need. Andrea Korte and Greg Foster, both of whom have extensive social service experience, were added to this team in expectation of increased need. Surprisingly, we have not yet had the level of demand for help that we envisioned.
• •The Ministry Apprenticeship Program was launched under the direction of Pastor Jason. Our church was blessed by (and was a blessing to) apprentices Josiah, Drew and Josh. We plan to continue the apprenticeship program, but will undoubtedly take a pause until pastoral staff is in place to provide the time necessary to support any new apprentices.
• •The elders explored ways to serve the community during this year of pandemic. Although many service opportunities were put on hold for safety reasons, First Free was able to provide volunteers at Care For Real (Edgewater’s food pantry) and with 40^th Ward Alderman Vasquez’s volunteer team (assisting with snow shoveling and well-being checks for community residents).
• In August, the church Bylaws revisions were approved by the congregation. The Bylaws team, led by Dan Tallacksen, did a wonderful job in updating our bylaws to reflect current practice, to clarify some areas of confusion, and to add other good improvements to the document.
• Although much of the teaching at First Free occurs through Jason, Del and our apprentices, the elders found time to teach, as their schedules allowed. In the fall the elders did a “Loving People to Christ Neighborhood outreach” series. Jason organized a three-session series that met on Sunday evenings and was well received. The elders did a fall panel on politics and the Christian, with three elders from differing perspectives, sharing their views on Christian engagement in the political realm. Finally, the elders led the December 27^th worship service, with a focus on lament. It is our desire as elders to be freed up to devote more time to teaching and prayer. As such, we will need others in the church to take on some of the business responsibilities the elders currently are tasked with.
• Two new leadership positions were created this year in the areas of Prayer and Crisis & Compassion. The goal of adding these positions was to help coordinate and move forward First Free’s efforts in the areas of prayer and the meeting of needs within the body. Jason Patterson is now serving as our Coordinator of Prayer, and I’m happy to announce that Meg Parks has just agreed to serve as Crisis and Compassion Deacon. It is a goal of the elders to increase our use of lay leaders in all aspects of the life of the church.
• The elders are committed to First Free’s ongoing sanctification in the area of racial reconciliation. After doing a book study this year on racial reconciliation by author and pastor Brenda Salter McNeil, the elders will soon appoint a team to more intensively plan and pray about the areas that First Free needs to grow and change regarding racial sensitivity and racial reconciliation. We will also offer “Be The Bridge” training to small groups who want to grow in the area of racial sensitivity.
• Strategic planning surrounding mission. In preparation for doing planning/prayer around future outreach opportunities for the church, the elders did interviews with various community leaders this winter, with the goal of learning more about our community, building relationships, and determining current unmet community needs. We had hoped to be farther along in the process by now but will continue to work on this area over the summer. We hope to continue our work with Care for Real and the Schneider Building as the pandemic lifts. We also have an exciting opportunity to partner with Passages Charter School on Bryn Mawr and Paulina (a contact Pastor Jason has made). It is our goal to have every small group in the church focused on outreach in some capacity.
• A more robust elder nomination and mentoring process has been initiated, with the goal of mentoring potential elder candidates prior to formally putting them up for elder nomination. Rachel Einfeldt took the lead in setting up a structure for this very important mentoring program. A big challenge now is to have more candidates to step into this mentee process. We are praying for 2 or 3 more candidates this Spring.
• Finally, with Pastor Jason leaving, the elders are focused on interim and long-term planning. We will have a few more details to share by the Annual Meeting, but as you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts. While we are not looking forward to another senior pastor search process, at the same time, after talking with Steven Bishop and the previous search team a few weeks ago, there appear to be ways of speeding the process up based on the work this search team did a couple years ago.

In conclusion, let me end again with a few final thoughts on hope. Pastor Jay Kim has these good observations on I Peter 1:13: “In our day and age, the idea of hope has been co-opted by passivity, neutered from its intended action-oriented nature. But Christian hope is not wishful thinking. Christian hope is an expectant leap forward (‘preparing your minds for action’). Christian hope is about rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. Christian hope does not shy away from, but rather rushes toward the suffering and pain in our world. Christian hope enables its recipients to stand tall with every ounce of imago Dei dignity possible.” (Christianity Today December 2020)

In a similar vein, Tim Keller writes, “While other world-views lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy”.

As the pandemic subsides the elders greatly desire to be a church that is more intentionally involved in missional outreach in our city. We want to be a church that, “lives such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (I Peter 2:12). So, while we grieve all that was lost in the last year, and while we sadly say good-bye to the Abbots, we also still look forward to God working in and amongst us in the coming church year as we pray and seek to live out Jesus’ prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven”.

Stephen Lepse
Church Chair