Starting July 1, once Coleman Glenn has joined the Bryn Athyn Church pastoral team, we are going to try out having a Coordinating Pastor for each of our worship services—Jeffrey Smith for the Young Children’s Service, Coleman Glenn for the Informal Family Service, Malcolm Smith for the Family Service, and Derek Elphick for the Adult Service (and for Community and Festival Worship Services). John Odhner, who works part-time for the Bryn Athyn Church and for the General Church Office of Outreach, will continue to assist with all of the services but with a particular focus on the Young Children’s and Informal Family Services.
The Coordinating Pastor for each service will be in that role to 1) care for the people who attend that service and 2) care for what happens at that service. All of the Bryn Athyn Church pastors are here to serve whoever needs them but we hope that you will feel extra permission to reach out to the Coordinating Pastor for the service that you attend most often. The Coordinating Pastor for each service will be the one “minding the shop” for that service—paying attention to how things are going week after week. At a practical level, the Coordinating Pastor will be the one to send emails about what’s happening at that service (sign up to receive emails about specific worship services at brynathynchurch.org/get-involved); to receive feedback on what is going well and what could be improved; to coordinate guest preachers and volunteers; to plan for how to help the service better serve the people currently attending; and to plan for how to reach new people.
The Coordinating Pastors will be coordinating what happens at the individual services and also coordinating with each other about what happens at all of the Bryn Athyn Church services in hopes that anyone attending our services will feel cared for at an individual level and will also feel part of the larger whole that is the Bryn Athyn Church community.
This will begin in earnest in July but we wanted to let you know the plan and what we will be working towards in the intervening time. If you have thoughts about this plan, get in touch with Derek and Malcolm (derek.elphick@brynathynchurch.org and malcolm.smith@brynathynchurch.org).