Whos been on staff the longest?

This weekend marks the anniversary date of when Joan joined the staff at Grace Church. She holds the distinction of having been on staff the longest of all active staff. Her role has transformed dramatically during her years of service – from running the mimeograph machine which evolved into an offset printing press to the digital photocopiers of today. Her early introductions to computers featured a blue screen (back when a blue screen was a good sign, unlike today’s blue screens of death) and multiple key strokes using function keys combined with SHIFT, ALT, and CTRL. Today she is versed in Microsoft Publisher and Word. With the church growth rate of the past year-and-a-half, most of Joan’s time during the week is invested in the church database: keeping address information up-to-date and tracking Sunday and Wednesday night attendance. It’s easy to capsulate in a sentence, but when you’re managing over 1,300 people (when you include children), there’s a lot of information to manage.

What amazes me most about Joan is her intuitive knowledge about the families in our church. Want to know the family tree of a family, Joan’s likely to know the family connections. She and I actually make a good team, Joan remembers the family connections, and I have the unmarketable skill of remembering what vehicles they drive.

Joan is a huge asset to our staff and to the entire church. I congratulate and thank her for her years of service.