We are thrilled to introduce the Rev. Carolina Trevino as our designated associate pastor for children, youth, and mission.   She will officially begin at CPC on April 8, and we hope you will join us Sunday, April 14, to welcome Carolina and her son, Thomas.  While Carolina is new to this staff position, she is not new to our church.  She served as our beloved children’s ministry director before being ordained.  What a joy it is to say, “welcome back to our staff!”  May God bless Carolina and our church as we begin a new chapter in ministry together.

REV. CAROLINA TREVIÑO

Carolina is a life-long Presbyterian and native Texan.  The youngest child of two Presbyterian ministers, she grew up mostly in Austin, graduated from McCallum High School and St. Edward’s University, and received her Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 2009. She was ordained in 2017. 

Carolina loves Christian education.  She also loves getting her hands dirty with sidewalk chalk, acrylic paint, bubbles, and glitter. Recently, she’s been working with an older demographic, co-coordinating a house for Young Adult Volunteers serving local non-profits and working with seminary students…and there’s still lots of glitter. Another passion is mission.  She especially loves conducting Bible study for Central Mission. Carolina enjoys Dolly Parton songs, science fiction, a good protest march, practicing Spanish, and John Knox Ranch.  She will eventually fulfill her life-long desire to learn the fiddle.  She lives in Austin with her son Thomas, who loves Minecraft and cats.

On behalf of the Session, I am eager to present the operating budget for 2019 and to point out several key items.   Please hold in your heart this question as you hear about the budget — What speaks to me?  Is there a place I feel called to engage.  I say this with all earnestness and enthusiasm: a church is bound by faith, while powered by US … we are this church, and we all together make all this happen!

This is an ambitious budget, reflecting investments in operations to move forward together in stronger ministries for you, the congregation, and for those we serve through mission.  This is like any organization emerging from a leadership transition — often revenues are down, and therefore the Session decided that this is the time to invest … not the time to retreat and retract.  Therefore this budget shows an investment of funds from savings so that we can:

• provide some much needed maintenance for the organ from the “organ fund”.  

• deepen our educational offerings for adults of all ages, which could include engaging external speakers

• (most significantly) hire a designated associate pastor to provide hands on leadership of our work with children and youth, as well as to focus on expanding our work in mission in a way that could also attract financial support from beyond our congregation — grants and other possible revenue sources.  The Marion Woods fund – some dedicated funds from a generous parishioner – will also be able to support this work with children.

• invest in building out key programs called for by our congregation and so that we have the capacity to serve many more new members over the coming few years.

In addition, various members are working together on plans for expanding outreach to Austin’s ever expanding population of downtown and near downtown residents

Sarah de la Fuente is also developing plans to expand the use of our beautiful sanctuary for weddings, and as an ordained associate pastor, she is also able to offer the pre marriage couples counseling so valued by engaged couples.

Others are exploring how the church space may help generate more revenue as a downtown location.

Each of these projects welcome your gifts of time, talent and treasure….energy and involvement and, if you feel moved, your gifts to specific aspects of our work in this coming year.

To: Pastor Katheryn and the CPC Session
From: The CPC Personnel Team
Re: Sept. 9, 16, 23, 2018—Listening Sessions led by the CPC Personnel Team

The goal of the sessions was to gather feedback from members regarding areas of ministry and how their dreams for the future might inform decisions about staffing.

At each session, we posed two questions:

• Wouldn’t it be great if …?
• How can we make that happen?

Participants responded by making their comments on Post-it Notes and placing them on posters under five categories: Fellowship, Worship, Spiritual Formation, Mission, and Other Comments. We then led discussions based on those statements and any other comments participants wished to add.

This is a detailed summary of the comments from those sessions. A major emphasis from participants at each session was to look forward, not backward Read more…

Brianna Smith, interim office manager. You know Brianna as a choir member with a fabulous soprano voice. She began working at CPC this week so that Win could welcome her to the office and show her the ropes. In addition to being extraordinarily creative and musically talented, Briana has a wealth of experience in administration. She is already familiar with many of the computer programs we use, and perhaps more importantly, she is a “people person” who cheerfully greets our visitors.

Katy Bedford interim youth director. Katy will continue to work with our youth and children until August 26 when she will begin as the Interim Youth Director. We are truly blessed by Katy’s love for our congregation and for our youth. Her continued service offers a stable, loving presence for our teens during this time of transition.

Rita Odom interim director of children’s ministry, beginning Aug. 26. Rita is an elder and member of First Presbyterian Church in Kerrville, but is often in Austin visiting her daughter’s family who happen to be beloved CPC members, Christine and Declan McManus. Before retiring, Rita served churches in the Dallas area including First, Westminster, Preston Hollow and NorthPark. In addition, she has written curriculum for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for Grace Presbytery, and Mo Ranch summer camps. Rita has two other children and eight grandchildren.

Win Bent, special events manager. We are thrilled that Win will continue to manage SXSW and other special events at the church.

Please note that until we find permanent staff, Win and and Pastor Katheryn will continue on Central Mission, and Brianna and Pastor Katheryn lead the Tuesday Women’s Group. Also, Pastor Katheryn will be the staff liaison to the Deacons.

If you wish to contact any member of the personnel team, their names and emails are listed below:

Tom Clemons, Co-Chair
Gary Gibbs, Co-Chair
Kevin Cruser 
Martha Collins 
Rita Livingston
Christine McManus

(Rita Livingston’s announcement on Sunday, July 22)

Good Morning, Friends.

I stand before you today with a profound sense of gratitude and excitement, coupled with sadness. We are experiencing a change in staff unlike anything I have experienced in my 25 years as a member here at Central. Fortunately, all the people resigning are leaving their current positions for a positive reason: Kim to become the Pastor of Round Rock PC; Win to retirement; and Katy to full-time employment at the Attorney General’s Office with Victim Services. I am personally excited for each of them.

Read more…