For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.


—ROMANS 12:4–5 Report from the


Leadership Retreat Along with challenges, many reasons for gratitude and celebration


Leaders working on First Presbyterian’s various teams, along with elders and deacons currently serving on our boards, gathered on January 17 in Fellowship Hall for the church’s annual leadership retreat.


A major focus of the day was gathering high-level planning ideas on achieving the church’s Vision 2020 goals in exercises led by Bill Townsend, elder for Leadership and Team Development Ministry, who planned, coordinated, and facilitated the event. Leaders worked in small groups at their tables to brainstorm ideas, prioritize them, and find commonalities with ideas from other tables. Attendees also received updates on progress toward church goals, including a preview of the newly redesigned FPCA website (see box).


As Mike Drake noted, we’re making progress toward these goals not for their own sake but out of a belief that being faithful to God will lead us in the directions we’ve discerned.


Keynote speaker Rev. Keith Brown, retired senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, delivered a powerful message declaring the importance of gratitude at times when challenges get all the attention. First Presbyterian of Allentown, he said, “is a model church in the Lehigh Valley and the denomination.” He listed a number of our church’s strengths that are evident just from attending a


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Bill Townsend (far left) handed out prizes to groups that worked at tables to imagine advancing progress toward the church’s Vision 2020 goals.


single worship service, including our youth choir and even the superb acoustics in our sanctuary. He urged the gathering never to lose sight of all the good things that happen in and through our church.


Leaders later discussed aspects of our church that inspire gratitude, along with areas in which we need to pray for God’s direction and support. A summary of accomplishments by ministry area presented at the meeting ran three single- spaced pages. Highlights included:


• Focusing deacons on important areas of congregational care


• A Tuesday-evening choral program for children and tweens


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