Administration Ministry Team
By Damon Bratcher
How have you seen God at work in your ministry over the year?
2 Corinthians 9:8 - "And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." For the past two years, the current admin team has met, on average, every week - 104 meeting, 260 hours. While each meeting came with its own joys, burdens, and important topics (some which I believe we got right and others we probably got wrong), there were a few common threads in every single meeting. The first is starting and ending in prayers asked God for wisdom, compassion, the ability to listen, and the right heart to ensure God will for TUC be done. The second was prayers of thanksgiving to God for all he provided - the people, skills, and right spirit needed for such times. The last was that in each meeting, we saw, celebrated, and were inspired by the multitude of ways you as a congregation stepped up in joyful service to the Lord: MoHN continuing their work in the face of adversity, the selfless sacrifice of all those involved in allowing us to worship via livestream, the 2.0 fund, those that kept the youth program going, those that resolved to meet in fellowship via non-traditional means, those who became proficient in strange technology to stay caught up with the church, those who called congregants one by one to see how they were doing, those who have provided for the financial management of the church, and many, many more. We, as an admin team, have seen God provide for TUC through his people - all of you. We end this year in the churches' life grateful for the chance to serve and inspired by the acts of service from the congregation.
Please list the activities of your ministry this past year.
Pre-COVID, the Admin was managing the rhythm of the church, in the midst of a journey to bring our organizational structure more in-line with our core values (Open to All, Integrated in Community, Active in Joyful Service), and building a long-term program to bring Christians within and outside Japan together in Tokyo to grow in faith and work (Fuji Fellows). In 2021, with the second year of COVID and the country largely close, God led us in a new direction of ensuring the safety of the congregation, creating digital connection points, listening to the congregation and fellow council members to calibrate where our decisions have worked and where we needed to alter course, conducted experiments on new ways to engage in ministry in the time of COVID, and started the journey of determining what post-COVID TUC will look like. We made some difficult decisions (e.g. closing the Fellows program and determining when worship would be online only) but also celebrated God working within TUC (e.g. seeing members connect online, continuing our older youth program in a safe manner, launching an experiment that contacted X members of the congregation, completing several digital experiments, and growing closer together as a leadership team). We are looking forward to where God will lead us in 2022.