Can you help us promote Bethlehem Journey?
Though we don’t have an official social media presence, would you be willing to share our Bethlehem Journey link on yours? Or invite your family and friends through text or email! Performances are tomorrow and Friday from 6-8pm, and Saturday 6-8:30pm. And you let people know we have some new elements this year including a fun “game show” during the Sanctuary waiting time. If you’d like to share on social media, copy and past this link into a post: https://frcportage.com/the-bethlehem-journey/
Tech Team iPad Donation
The Tech Team recently had additional training on the sound board and one of the cool features of our equipment is the ability to set sound levels “remotely” on an iPad. This allows the sound tech to walk around the sanctuary and the stage and hear how the changes they are making sound from various parts of the room. If you have a used iPad that maybe isn’t being used much or you’ve replaced with a newer version, would you consider donating it for use as our sound board remote? See Dan Kalleward for more information.
Church Center Training and Menu Change
Some people have expressed some difficulty using Church Center recently and we’d love to provide some training to help you get the most out of the app. Kyle will hold a training Sunday, December 28th, after service in the Fellowship Hall at 11:00 AM. It will include a follow along presentation on the projector and hands on help with your own device. It will be no longer than 1 hour. We will hold another training in January, or reach out to Kyle for one on one training. The cost is a few cookies and some coffee.
Also, please note that we made a menu change in Church Center: along the bottom, we replaced the “Sermon Audio” button with “Me” which is a page that shows all of your service notifications and schedule. The “Sermon Audio” button is now on the “More” page, which is the far right bottom button with three dots.
Annual Meeting Summary
We had a good meeting Monday night with 50 members present. The budget and slate of new Consistory members were both passed unanimously. The new members are John Byholt, Sr., Rick Reeves, Brad Dayton, and Tom St. Peter. We also shared some of the indicating statistics that show our church is growing slowly but steadily and recounted some of the positive things that have happened this past year.
Weather Announcement
This past Sunday was a good test of our communication system for service cancellation. If you did NOT get one of the five ways of notification (Church Center notification, email, phone call, website or WWMT) would you please let Cindi in the office know and we will be sure to remedy the disconnect.
Bulletin Change
One new thing coming up for 2026 will be a bulletin refresh. We would appreciate your thoughts about the current bulletin (both good and constructive) so that we can consider improvements in the redesign. Ideas might include your thoughts about having care groups listed, font style, redundant info or info you’d find helpful. Please email Kyle with those thoughts and then be on the lookout for new designs starting in January. We will likely try 3-4 different layouts over several weeks and then collect feedback again.