At Pearl, our financial/ministry year runs from July through June, so each year we host a member’s meeting in July. This past July 10th, the Oversight Team led us in celebrating the last year, shared some important updates for the upcoming year and ways our community can support our vision. Below you'll find highlights for a few of the most important updates from the meeting.

Members’ Meeting Highlights

Member Updates

• We met and welcomed twelve new members over the last twelve months.

• We celebrated several members’ forthcoming marriages and recent weddings.

• We celebrated high school graduations and new babies born into our community.

• We heard updates on health from several members and remembered those who passed way this year.

Working Against Racism
Over the past year our board has worked out some language regarding our intent to work against racism. You can find that statement here. We also shared about the board’s recent work with Dr. Debra Jenkins through Share the Flame. At this point our Oversight team has met individually with Dr. Jenkins and as a team. Soon we will make available a church-wide meeting with Dr. Jenkins in the coming months.

Ben’s New Role
During the meeting we shared that Pastor Ben is now working full-time as our Operations Pastor, from July 1. Ben will continue to preach and offer pastoral care, but will also be taking on the operational aspects of Pearl - finances, managing staff, volunteer coordination and donor management. This position was created after the Oversight Team met and charted out what tasks could be removed from Pastor Mike’s plate to create more room for exciting work both inside and outside our church. (See below for more on this!) The Oversight Team asked if Ben would be interested in taking on these responsibilities and he shared that it felt like a dream job description. We commissioned Ben in this new role on Sunday, July 17.

Mike’s New Work
As I shared on Sunday, I’m excited about these changes. With Ben taking over the operations side of my job, I’ll now have time to pursue more of my passion and skill by developing non-violent theology while also expanding Pearl’s work in the world. I believe that this is important. The theological work that we’re doing at Pearl is helping those who are deconstructing to reconstruct consequential faith and we’d like to be intentional to make this work accessible beyond Pearl. To be clear, the majority of my work will continue to be embodied in our local community. And, I’m looking forward to thoughtfully exploring how Pearl’s work may extend beyond Portland. I believe that the extension of Pearl’s work in the world will help to nurture change that’s desperately needed in today’s American Christianity.

I look forward to sharing more about this transition when I share my heart for Pearl as an Oversight Team member, on 8/14.

Supporting Pearl
We're so excited about the good things that are happening at Pearl - this is a work that we all share in, together. As we begin moving forward from these pandemic years toward the future, making room for more people to find and join us at Pearl will depend on our community supporting Pearl, both by volunteering and giving financially.

Part of Pastor Ben's role will be to help provide opportunities to get involved—whether spending a Sunday morning with our kids or youth, serving our Pearl Court Neighbors at our monthly Pantry, greeting newcomers on Sundays or hosting a home group. We want to be sure that all of us are able to share creatively in making this a warm, inclusive community for all people.

In addition, the Oversight Team shared that in order to hire Ben full time, we have extended ourselves financially, with a 2.75 year runway of savings to support this. In order for our community to continue to grow and thrive, we are depending on the generous giving of our members and attenders. You can learn more about ways to give, here.

As always, please be in touch with any questions.

Thank you,

Pastor Mike