Since the June decision 
authorizing the selection of a broker and the enter into a listing agreement for the sale of all real property belonging to the Ginter Park Baptist Church, our Board of Managers has been hard at work. From a pool of interested real estate firms, they selected Joe Marchetti with CBRE. The property listing was posted at the end of September. Since that time, there have been showings to interested purchasers with regularity. Now, we wait.
Meanwhile, we continue to prepare and plan for the transition as we dream about what will come next for us. These days it may seem like the church is moving ahead with “business as normal.” Our community life – our worship, our study, our missions – continue largely as they did before the June decision. However, behind the scenes our staff, our elected church leaders, and the teams we have formed to help lead the way during this transition (the Transition Team and the Future Ministry Team) are hard at work.
We continue to explore the possibilities for where we will gather once a sale transfer is complete. We also continue to discern how God is at work in all of this – how God is inviting us to be transformed by this change. As those entrusted leaders and teams work unfolds, more information and opportunities to join them in shaping our future will come.
With the start of a new year, and, as we live into our unfolding future, the words Pastor Mandy speaks as a blessing of benediction each Sunday sound a helpful refrain of grounding for our community:
By the goodness of God, we were created in God’s image.
By the grace of God, we are being re-created and renewed this day, and each of our days.
May the peace of Christ, the peace which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds. Amen.
**The artwork above is by Suzanne Stovall Vinson and was commissioned as part of Ginter Park Baptist Church’s 100th Anniversary Commemoration.