by Rev. Eric Folkerth

“I know you told me about this, but now that I see it in person, I understand it in a new way.”

How many times have you said this to a loved one or friend? This happens to me quite often. I can hear some new thing described by a friend —either a joyful or heartbreaking issue, take your pick— but seeing it in person somehow gives me a new and deeper perspective.

There is something about seeing “IRL” (In Real Life) that is simply different and deeper than hearing about an issue second hand.

Next Sunday, our KPUMC family will gather together after the summer break. This will be our fall kick off “potluck.”

KPUMC All Church Potluck
September 10th, After Church
In Fellowship Hall

Bring a dish to share and catch up with your church family. 

Many of us have been traveling this summer. Others have been here and in and out of worship. But we join back together on this day for an important moment of “seeing IRL.”

There will be two things we hope to share with you:

1. Discussion of the “Simplified Accountability Structure.”

2. Our new Kessler Park Day School rooms and our Education Building.

A few words on both….

“Simplified Accountability Structure”
I hope you recall how we introduced this idea last spring. This is a proposed restructure of our four administrative committees (Church Council, Finance, Trustees and Staff Parish) into one administrative group that would lead our church. 

A brief summary of the “why’s” —rationales of why many of your staff and lay leaders believe this model is right for KPUMC — also appears in this newsletter. Feel free to review that and we’ll cover the details and answer any questions at the potluck.

Sometime this fall, at a date TBD, our church leadership is proposing we hold a congregational vote to enact this restructure at Kessler Park. But before we even consider a vote, we want to make sure everyone understands the proposal.

This type of model has already been adopted by many other churches our size, almost all other North Texas Reconciling Churches, more than 25 churches just in Dallas County alone, and is fully sanctioned by the United Methodist Church. (In fact, our process is being led by a “coach” assigned to us by the Metro District…)

Before we consider a church vote, it is important that all of our members understand why your church leadership believes this is a good move for our church. We want to be sure everyone understands what the model is, and why we believe it will help us drive ministry growth both now and in the future.

Day School Rooms/Building Tours
Also next Sunday, before and after the potluck, we truly hope many of you will tour our new Day School rooms and perhaps roam around the other parts of our building. MUCH has changed over the summer, and you need to see it with your own eyes!

In fact, throughout the fall, we want to encourage every member to take some kind of walk through our building. This will help you celebrate the “Phase One” completion, and also help get your own creative juices going on how we can use the rest of our building in the future.

Several times recently, we’ve had church members in our building exclaim “I had no idea these rooms were here!” Or, “Wow, the Day School looks great!” So come and see with your own eyes the great and exciting things happening at KPUMC.

It will be so good to see you all after this long, hot summer.