Loving on Our Ministry-Team Neighbors: Stories From the Field

Here are some examples from staff and volunteers around the denomination that have experienced this Connections Mindset kind of love. 

1. Al Postma gathered classis clerks on Zoom to share what classes had learned about virtual, hybrid and physically distanced classis meetings. Al's roundtables became peer learning groups where timely resources were shared, helping them get ready for Winter Classis meetings. These meetings also provided Al and the clerks an opportunity to encourage each other and show appreciation for all the experimentation they have done to host meetings in a meaningful way.

2. Each Friday morning through the pandemic, Anita Brinkman and her cubicle neighbors have coffee over Zoom at 10 am. They miss the natural connection and conversations they had when they were all in theBurlington office so they decided to continue connecting informally for that one hour each week. They have found this to be such a blessing!

3. Several colleagues from Congregational Services and Safe Church Ministries threw a "surprise" Zoom retirement party for Bonnie Nicholas. She was surprised and loved on as she heard from various people who shared memories and thanked her for her work. One co-worker brought lunch, chocolate and wine to Bonnie's door while they were all on the call.

4. Amy Schenkel (Resonate) knows that she is loved by and had the opportunity to love on her Pastor Church Resources neighbors (Lis Van Harten, Dave Den Haan, and Cecil VanNienhuis) through a collaborative work project. Together they listened well, challenged one another, valued the unique gifts they each brought to the project, and developed a resource far better than they could have separately. .

5. Larry Doornbos (Vibrant Congregations) and Mark Wallace (Resonate Campus Ministry) showed love in a recent cross-collaboration meeting when they listened to a co-worker’s comment and returned to it later in the meeting, making sure to give them credit for the idea. 

6. Cassie Beadle (Denominational Office) and Maribeth Stech (Back to God Ministries International) get together on Zoom once a month to chat as they once did in the office. 

Thank you to everyone out there that is loving on your “work neighbors!” As the Beatles say: “...it’s easy. All you need is love…”