Letter From Melissa Kummerer

On Sunday, we welcomed 51 people into membership at All Saints, and baptized 12 children.   It is pretty easy to see this evidence of growth and blessing at All Saints, as we move toward our 9th birthday in September.  But there are other evidences of growth, as well.

For years, we’ve heard two things, consistently:  first, that All Saints is a wonderfully welcoming community, in which people immediately feel at home and able to mature in faith; and second, that All Saints is a congregation where people find great difficulty getting connected, and where it is hard to dig below the surface.  We all long for community, for intimacy, for others with whom we can put down roots and grow.  I’m eager to look toward helping our congregation find connection and ministry, so that together we can be equipped to believe and live the gospel in daily life.

In the process of maturing as a body, we’ve experienced all of the needs of any congregation:  grief and loss; fragile and crumbling marriages; conflict; financial and health crises.  The brokenness of sin permeates not just the world around us, but also into the very midst of us.  Our desire is to develop a culture of honesty and transparency, where those in need receive care, and we are able to minister by bearing one another’s burdens.

I am excited to be stepping more fully into a role of caring for our congregation.  Our call to hospitality, welcoming others as Christ himself welcomes us, is to be extended from the entryway on a Sunday morning throughout all of life at All Saints, so that all whom the Lord calls here find a place to love, serve, and press on toward righteousness and Christian community.

I will also continue to oversee our ever-growing Children’s Ministry. Caring well for our children, training and teaching them the truth and freedom of the gospel, and directing them as they love, serve, and participate in the church is a blessed opportunity.  The harvest is plentiful, and we are privileged to participate in worship alongside our children.

Concluding my tenure as Director of Women’s Ministry is bittersweet. After nearly 8 years I have learned, loved, and grown through my years of service to and with our women. But I can’t think of better hands into which to entrust this ministry than Kim’s. I’m eager to have her join our team, and envision a partnership in which our body—men, women, and children—will flourish.

The peace of Christ, extended, indeed… Melissa