Last week, we held our “Leading the Way” leaders reception for the church’s capital campaign. It was an interesting event. Typically, you would see a “formal” dinner for this kind of event. It was decided by someone to do a less formal dessert thing. Ok.
At the event, the leaders were informed and challenged to rise to the occasion in “leading the way” in giving towards the capital campaign. This was accomplished by a couple of key leaders standing up and talking about the campaign. We have a fantastic team of people who have worked very hard to bring together the pieces of the capital campaign. One of the best decision the Ministry Council made was to hire a fundraising partner to help us weed through the details of coordinating a capital campaign. The partner doesn’t really have a magic button ot make it happen. One could certainly argue that we could do everything they have done on our own. However, as they were the experts (they did travel more than 50 miles to get here), we generally abided by what they had to say. We couldn’t have assembled the team e had without their help.
I also need to disclose that I was a part of the communications part of that team. And a part of the Ministry Council who has talked about building for my entire (current) 3+ year tenure on the council. Though the actual capital campaign started only yesterday, to me, it feels like it’s been going on for years.
The event was a success. Overall, the planning and execution of that event went well. I did make several interesting observations. Some people took the event very seriously and dressed up for the event. Others may have taken the event seriously, however, they chose to come very casually. The stage was set, but out of the 4 spot lights that light the center of the stage, only one was functional and it was focused 3 feet from the center. The video (my part) went relatively well. Though, as with anything, I could see the places where it could have perhaps been better.
We have generally thought of and even presented the church as “family”. It occurred to me during the event that this was “just” another event in the long history of that family. We gathered together to be a part of another chapter in the life.
