Special Edition 2025

Hola desde Mexico!   I am writing this from a small café in downtown Merida on Friday morning, April 25, 2025.  I arrived here yesterday and we began the Pastor2Pastor Conference with a wonderful meal with all the other leaders, just over 30 people total.   Following the meal we had gathered in worship and sermon and today we begin the conference.   Tomorrow evening after the Conference I will be going to a Mayan village to preach at their church service there.   I am very blessed to be here!

I also writing to you to give an update on some additions and needs in our Manasquan Presbyterian Church Staff. In the last Pastor’s Report I informed the church of Sarah Etzel’s important help in church business administration and that she has recently accepted a full time position in her original vocation.  Sarah was also helping with the management of the MPC website and special projects especially in print marketing and the like.   We recently hired Sandy Crowe as the MPC Church Business Administrator and she is doing a fantastic job in this role.   This still left us with the need for special projects and managing our church website.   Just last week, we hired Ryanne McShaffrey for a part-time position to Manage the website, promote church ministry through social media, and help in our print and special projects needs.  We are excited to welcome Ryanne to our staff.

Also,  during our business administration transition in the last year, Janine Randolph, who is technically a part time employee, has been  working full time.  It is Janine’s goal to get back to part time as soon as possible and with the hiring of Sandy and Ryanne this should be soon.  Janine also is the leader of our church nursery and is always looking for help.  If you would like to volunteer please contact her at the church office.

For a few years, Mike O’Brien has been our lead Audio Visual Leader. Mike has recently had to step down from this position but he remains on staff to put together our AV schedule (for Easy Worship Slides etc.) which he is able to do offsite.  So, we are looking for a person to fill the role of Audio Visual Leader and we always need extra help or volunteers in AV.   With both Mike O’Brien and Dennis Wilcox leaving AV recently we may find ourselves without AV support at times. This means there we may have to print songs in the bulletin, or use the hymnals.  This also means that we may not be able to live stream or record the services.   We thank you for your patience in this area especially over the next few weeks. 

In facilities we thank Mike Petillo (that’s the young Mike Petillo) for his continued service to our congregation with custodial and setup needs and we have welcomed Bill Klein to a part time facilities position with Mike.  Even with Mike and Bill we still have a need for an additional part time facilities person and are currently looking for this.

Even with all the changes we continue to move forward in the ministry of Christ thanks to our MPC staff that has been with us over many years.  We thank Dave Wilenta (Congregational Life and Youth), Lisa Ward (Administration, facilities, Events), Lauren Petillo (Sunday School Leader), Jan Blanton (Traditional Worship Leader, Organ), Cathy Gaestel (8am Music Leader, Celebration Ringers), Andrew Tufts (9:30am Service, Chancel Choir, Jubilee Bells), and Mike Petillo (Contemporary Worship Leader).  This is a great staff and we are excited about our future ministry together.

In Christ,

Pastor Jim Dunson