Delivered at Church Conference 01.27.26 by Pastor Mark Miller

Our Mission
To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Our Vision

  • We connect people to Jesus
  • We worship passionately & authentically
  • We bless the Hastings area
  • We develop Christian leaders
  • We look like our community

This is my 7th State of the Church address here at Resurrection UMC. You might be getting tired of hearing these, but I never get tired of celebrating what God has done through Resurrection. I’ll start with a few new things we celebrate from last year:

  1. Average worship attendance increased again for the 5th straight year. Worship isn’t new, but the numbers are, and we thank God.
  2. The Lenten bible study of the Gospel of Mark was so large that it had to be moved into the sanctuary, as none of our classrooms were large enough.
  3. In July, we held a baptism and reaffirmation of baptism event on the lawn during Rivertown Days using our portable baptismal pool. Over 80 attended, 5 were baptized, and 23 came forward to reaffirm their baptism. Praise God!
  4. A new Care Team ministry (hospital visitations, shut-ins, etc.) was started with 13 volunteers.
  5. A pickleball court was added to the Fellowship Hall, with regular games taking place. 
  6. This past fall, Daniella Embu joined the staff as an intern for youth ministry. She is a graduate of St. Olaf and of our rezYouth program. 
  7. In November, we provided emergency food for 100 families during the government shutdown.
  8. At the 4:30 Christmas Eve service, our rezKids tried something new and performed a shadow play of the Nativity. It was wonderful. 
  9. Finally, we received a grant from the Minnesota Annual Conference to help pay for automatic door openers for the main door and a bathroom to make our building fully handicapped accessible. Generous donations from church members provided the rest and enabled the doors to be installed this month.

These things were new, but we also give thanks for all the ministries that continued in 2025.

We continue to celebrate:

  • Our growing men’s ministry meeting at Caribou on Thursday mornings.
  • The United Women of Faith Joy Circle and their passion for missions. 
  • And the Compass group that meets Sunday morning to dig deeper into the scripture.
  • Another fantastic year of VBS (FYI, this year’s VBS will be earlier, on June 8-12) 
  • Special youth events such as Red Rock camp, The Boundary Waters canoe trip, and Feed My Starving Children
  • Wednesday community dinners that host 50-80 persons each week for a free homemade meal, and the 200+ persons who partake in our Community Thanksgiving meal.
  • Faithful servants who have cleaned up Hwy 55, led services in the county jail, volunteered with our community picnic and outdoor worship, and with the Fall Fest at Tharp’s farm. 
  • Bacon on Father’s Day and cookies on Mother’s Day, and all of the coffee, donut holes, and special treats in our coffee shop every week.
  • The community groups that we welcome into our building. This church is truly a hub of the community, and we offer it free of charge to non-profit groups because our calling is to bless the Hastings community. Some of these 30-plus groups are MRCI for adults with disabilities, the community band, the hospital auxiliary, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, MomCo, the Lions breakfast, the 9th-grade high school class Respect retreat, AA groups and neighborhood groups, and homeless individuals who find a warm welcome as well as a warm building here at Rez.
  • MN Adult and Teen Challenge, who were here in August and will return this coming July.
  • The baptisms, weddings, and yes, even the funerals we held this last year. We remember the 9 persons whose lives we celebrated after they went to the Lord, and we celebrate the promise of Christ to prepare a place for us with him.
  • Our church leaders, from Trustees to staff to ushers and greeters. Thank you for your service.

Finance Chair Kim Tharp gave us the good news on giving

Giving was up in 2025. We paid all our bills, finishing the year with $46,785
in our General Fund. We made our mortgage payments, plus an additional $18,500 in principal, to leave us with $345,552 remaining on the mortgage. Our special Be The Hope mission offering totaled $15,408 in 2025, a $4,411 increase from the year before. We have a balanced spend plan (budget) projected for 2026, with total expenditures estimated at $699,133.

Looking ahead

2026 is our 170th anniversary as a church. We were one of the 5 original churches that started in Hastings in 1856, 1 year before the city was founded and 2 years before Minnesota became a state. I hope we can celebrate our past this year.

Also, I hope we can look forward to the future. When I came in 2019, we were in the middle of a congregational assessment and visioning process called Unstuck. It was to move us from complacency and fix our sights on a bold new vision for the future. At my first State of the Church address we talked about how we were going to expect the unexpected because God can do far more than we ask or imagine. And 6 weeks later came COVID and boy was that unexpected. Everything changed, and I think we did a great job of adapting. Through God’s help we are stronger than we’ve ever been since COVID. So now is the time to take another intentional look at the future and discern how God is calling us to minister in our community for the next 5 years. Therefore, one of the things I am asking our leadership to do is to choose and implement another congregational assessment and visioning process. I hope you will participate in whatever way this process needs as we seek God’s will for our future here at Resurrection.

Oh, and one more thing

Every four years United Methodist clergy are expected to take a one-month renewal leave (not a vacation, but an extended time for renewal). Since you haven’t heard me speak of this before, you know it’s been more than seven years since I have done so. At the encouragement (or threat ☺) of our Staff Parish Relations Committee, I have scheduled a leave for late this summer, August 17- September 13. Pastor Bill Robertson has agreed to preach during that time.

The evening concluded with the presentation of the Humble Servant Award to Dan Alsdurf, the election of leadership (including Dave Steinke who is stepping into the role of Church Council Chair), and enjoying more treats. Thank you to those who provided coffee and refreshments. You may watch the year in review video on our YouTube channel.

Pastor Mark