Session Update – February 2024
Session Update – February 2024
The Session of Highland Park Presbyterian Church is the ruling body of our congregation, charged with governance, overseeing the Church’s spiritual health, and guiding its mission for Christ in the world. To do this better, the Session frequently communicates with the congregation of HP Pres to report its decisions and activities.
On Monday, February 26, our Session met after prayer and fasting to discuss leading HP Pres. Below are some of the highlights from the meeting that you should be aware of and pray for this next month. If you have questions or feedback about any of these topics, you can contact the Session.
- Our meeting began with a time in worship led by Aaron Williams.
- Two of our newest elders, David Murray and Charlie Davis, shared their faith stories.
- Tyler Pace, our Director of College and Young Adults, has begun his journey to ordination in ECO. The Session passed a motion affirming Tyler’s desire to explore becoming a pastor.
- Emily Scates, Pastor of Discipleship, shared that we welcomed 75 new Covenant Partners after our latest Becoming HP Pres experience and invited our elders to get to know our newest members in person.
- Jackie Burke, on behalf of the vision committee, discussed some of the preliminary findings noticeable in the Congregational Survey results we’ve seen so far. If you have not yet taken the survey as part of our Senior Pastor search, you can still do so by going to hppres.org/search.
- On behalf of Grace Church Lake Highlands, part of our Family of Churches, Charlie Dunn shared that this past Sunday was the largest Sunday in the church’s history, seeing 273 visitors come through their doors. The Session passed a motion supporting Grace Church Lake Highland’s vision to operate a faith-based child care center to serve the Lake Highlands community.
- Simon Kingori, Pastor of All Nations, shared some exciting developments in All Nations, part of our Family of Churches. We’re praising God for more guests, in-person and online, more people following Christ, more people serving, and more people experiencing discipleship as part of the Rooted curriculum.
- The Operations Committee reported that we had strong giving in December, followed by solid giving in January, coming in at a total of $6.68m giving fiscal year-to-date. Thank you for your generous support of the mission of HP Pres! Giving in January was slightly under budget, but an increase over last year, and our church’s expenditures are under budget by $264,000.
- There will be a congregational meeting on Sunday, March 17, after our 11 am service, to elect new deacons and elders being nominated by the Officer Nominating Committee. The nominees are:
- Elders
- Earl Blankenship
- Will Craine
- Jen Melson
- Robin Pou
- Tim Roberts
- Terese Stevenson
- Deacons
- Dee Blakeney
- Tom Blakeney
- Laura Clift
- Stuart Cochran
- Nash Evans
- Andrew Harper
- Anna Harper
- Bethany House
- Shana Millican
- Lee Oden
- Rich Paterick
- Karen Pou
- Misty Quinn
- Kathy Jo Usher
- Bob White
- Brenda White
- Elders
The Session of HP Pres
