Weekly News | 6.6.25
Hey y’all,
Happy last week of Eastertide and almost Pentecost Sunday! We can’t wait to celebrate with y’all through worship and a potluck on June 9th. If you haven’t signed up to bring a dish to share, you can do so below. The potluck will begin after the 11am service.
This week our new Director of Operations, Bryson Owen, officially joined the team. I had the opportunity to spend time with Bryson this week as we began the onboarding process, and I can't wait for y'all to get to know him. I'm excited for this new season and the gifts that Bryson brings to COTC. Since he is part-time, he won't be around as much on Sundays, so stay tuned for some future opportunities to connect with Bryson. He will be around for events and special services, so be on the lookout for him at the Pentecost Potluck. In the meantime, read below to learn more about our newest staff team member and be sure to say hello if you haven't met him yet.
The peace of Christ,
Kimberly+
Hi COTC Family,
I’m Bryson Owen, new addition to the church staff as the Director of Operations. I’m looking forward to getting to know each of you, but in the meantime, why not start with an awkward photo from my childhood? What could go wrong?
That’s me in the polka-dot camp collar shirt and cardigan sweater circa 1991. I no longer subscribe to the camp collar look but you will still catch me in cardigans when the weather turns cool. I’ve been reflecting this week that you are inviting me into your COTC family! I’m so grateful for this opportunity to join you and, by way of introduction, wanted to share a few things going on in my life.
First, I had the privilege of celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary last weekend. I’m so thankful for them and for the ways they have shaped me. Like any family, we carry our scars, some from each other, but the decades of my parents’ faithful following of the Spirit have been a gift to me.
Second, I am being confirmed on Sunday into the Anglican Family! I’ve participated deeply in the Anglican community for ten years now and recently felt the Spirit inviting me to continue to follow this Anglican Way for the rest of my life. While there are many genuine ways to follow Christ, I’ve been formed through seasons of joy, grief and a lot of very ordinary life by the shape of the Anglican faith. I am expectant to see how the Spirit continues to move over this next season.
Third, Marisa and I are celebrating 17 years of marriage this weekend! I am so grateful to God for her. She is a fun and fiercely dedicated friend and partner. In the photo above are my son Parker, daughter Violet and father-in-law Marc. These are my favorite people on the planet and I’m excited for you all to get to know them as well.
Many call Pentecost the “birthday of the church” as we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, empowering his people to minister to the World with the Good News. This year I am more attuned than usual that God’s “strategy” for the redemption of the world is through a family - His Family.
I also wanted to share a bit of my professional background and perspective on church operations. Over the past 15+ years, I’ve worked primarily at the intersection of vision, strategy, and organizational resources as a commercial property manager overseeing a large staff, as Director of Operations at another Anglican church, as a staff member at an arts non-profit, and as a Chief Operating Officer of a residential real estate company. One thing I’ve learned along the way is that any time you bring people together in daily relationship and mission, culture is created. One of the reasons I am excited about this new role at COTC is simply to join with you in stewarding the opportunities and resources God provides in a cruciform way. I have a background in visual arts and often draw imagery from that work. My perspective is that the best artworks cannot be separated into meaning and material, disembodied. To divorce the imagery from the medium is to destroy the work. This, too, is my perspective on church operations, whether a community of 5 or 500: our communal habits and practices, our shared rule of life, are intrinsic features of who we are; we’re embodied! As a big family of Jesus-followers, we get the opportunity to allow our procedures, financial policies, personnel development, parish communications, facilities, and volunteer coordination to be shaped by the Spirit. I am really looking forward to this work and seeing what God does amongst us.
P.S. - What’s more “family” than a good ole’ church potluck!? We hope you’ll join us after the 11am service to celebrate Pentecost!
Bryson,
Church of the Cross Director of Operations