 The first United Methodist crumb is located in a community that has been just growing rapidly for the last 20 years, but at the same time we had a United Methodist church there that had been declining for the last 20 years and it had reached a point where it was unable to make payments on its mortgage, it wasn't able to pay apportionments, it wasn't able to pay a full-time salary for a pastor. And there were some issues that had happened in the school there that had really damaged the reputation of the church. And so after a few meetings with the leaders, we entered into an agreement where the congregation would go dark for a season. A new opportunity was given to the church, a huge weight was lifted off them financially and a new opportunity to rebrand themselves and to relaunch emerged during the season that we called going dark. So we arrived here in July 1, starting essentially from scratch with a few folks to help with support. We started doing interest events here. So out of the interest group we got a lot of good ideas on what people are looking for. People want a place to connect with their neighbors. People want to feel like they belong and that they are included. People want an inclusive community where all kinds of people are welcome and we're very passionate about that already. People want to have an opportunity to study and ask deep questions. People want to build a deeper relationship with their faith. When this was crime first United Methodist, I did attend. I left that church several years before it had closed. I attended church at another town, United Methodist Church. And then when COVID hit, obviously the churches were closed and then there was a pastor change. I didn't like the church as well. So I haven't attended anything since COVID hit. So I'm excited to have a Methodist church here in my community. I'm looking for in a church a home, a place that I'm welcome, that I'm part of, that I can come as I am and they're going to love me and accept me and no judgment and just be welcomed. So we knew coming here that we were going to have to rename the church. That was just part of the mandate. If you build something new it's got to have a new name. We just kept circling around the word community. It's a place to build community, to gather community, to have a space where the community can meet. Not just for church stuff but for other gatherings. And so for us this idea of getting people together, going in one direction, it's community for us. We want to build something sustainable from the ground up and that requires a relationship first approach, getting the community connected with the community, getting us in the community as well, doing the parades and doing the service projects, helping out with the food pantry, like building relationships. For Christmas we had, the city did a Christmas parade. So we had a float in the parade. So we helped, I came here and helped decorate the float and watch the community. We passed out hot chocolate to the community. We had 400 packets of hot chocolate and that was not near enough. So that was gone before we even halfway through the parade. So our first worship service, November the 1st was an All Saints service. We had 40 folks there that night, which was awesome. Christmas we had 52. So we did our Christmas service a week early, December the 17th. For our communion service we just did kind of a casual Wednesday night communion. A week and a half, well mid January. We had 25 folks here that night. For brunch church we had I think 42 folks on January the 27th and a lot of good breakfast food as well. I had the blessing of worshiping with them just shortly before Christmas. There was an energy of children that they had not had children for quite a long time in the congregation. And there is a new energy with this new identity and a new name of community UMC. Right now our focus is on building a launch team of 30 plus adults who are committed essentially to being the church to support community UMC with their prayers, presents, gifts, service and witness and to be here in worship when we launch weekly worship every Sunday unless they are sick or out of town. Every Sunday for six months, which is a real commitment for a lot of folks. The average church goer goes 1.75 times per month and then within that a core team of 8 to 12 who will help with steering the community to stay on message that we are here to build disciples of Jesus Christ in the community and for the community. And then a group alongside that that will be my support team to help with administration. So those are next steps. In addition to doing, like we're going to do an Easter egg hunt, we're going to do Easter Sunday worship. We've got other fun things. We're going to do a Lantan Wednesday night Bible study with kids stuff, we're going to do Ash Wednesday. Like we're going to observe those really holy and important experiences as a community as a United Methodist pastor. I'm grateful and I know that I couldn't do this work without the help of the connection. The prayers of the connection over my family and over this church and the people that are gathering have been like so felt. It's just amazing to know that we are not alone while we're trying to tell everybody else that you're not alone. Like we're not alone either. And so I'm grateful for our siblings and the North Texas annual conference that have been so amazingly present during a very interesting and anxiety producing and wonderful season of building a new church.