Over five years ago, John Jahns stepped in to lead the Set-up and Teardown crew that made holding Sunday services at Rosemont Ridge Middle School not only possible, but under his leadership, smoothly routine. As we added a Saturday service at the 10th Street building, John again stepped up to handle setup and teardown. He also joined the staff on a part-time basis to provide janitorial and maintenance services for the building. When we began the process of moving into our beautiful new building, his role continued to grow as he assumed responsibility for the move. Caring for our new building and welcoming all of the new groups who use space in it again expanded John’s role. For more than a year now since the move, John has been faithfully filling the role of full-time Facilities Coordinator.
At each step in our church’s growth over the last several years, John has demonstrated his servant’s heart by cheerfully accepting each new challenge. But after prayerful consideration, John has now decided that it’s time to make a change. For those of us who know John well, it’s almost shocking to learn that this strong, youthful man could possibly be old enough to retire! But John believes the time is now right to turn the reins over to someone else so that he can spend more time with his wife and children, his aging parents and his grandkids. So it’s with mixed emotions that we’re announcing his retirement as of the first week of August (we haven’t determined his final day of work yet). While we’re going to miss him terribly, we’ve been truly blessed by the time he’s been a part of the church staff and know God has great plans for him.
As the church has grown, the functions necessary to keep it running smoothly have changed. In recognition of this fact, and with John’s input, we’ve taken the opportunity to review and realign operational responsibilities. It’s with great pleasure that we’re announcing that Rhonda Johnson will join the church staff on August 1 as Operations Manager. Rhonda will oversee all functions related to the use and maintenance of our church property, including setup and teardown for weekend services and weekday use, custodial and maintenance needs and event coordination. To accomplish this, Rhonda will assemble groups of volunteers to handle the various tasks. Adding these teams of volunteers allows us both to keep our property ready for guests, but also provides opportunities for more people to serve – an important step toward spiritual growth for all of us. Those of you who have had the pleasure of working with Rhonda in her role as leader of the Food Ministry know her heart for serving people and involving others so they can feel that same joy of serving. For those of you who have not worked with Rhonda yet, we’ll look forward to doing a more expanded introduction in our upcoming newsletter for fall. For now, if you’re interested in serving in the areas of operations as listed above, please feel free to contact her directly at (503) 312-8626. Please join me in welcoming Rhonda to the team!
