Letter from Session

Dear Desert Hills Family,

As we begin an exciting new year with a full slate of existing and new ministry possibilities for Desert Hills, we would be remiss if we did not take a moment to reflect upon God’s faithfulness to our church family in the extraordinary year now behind us. And if we had to capture 2022 in a succinct phrase, it would be “dream bigger.” For while we as your Session thought the ministry and operational plans we had for the year were ambitious, the Lord seemed to show us why He is the God of “immeasurably mores.” The breadth and scope of ministry that took place at the church was beyond our wildest expectations. Here are just a few of the areas where God took our ideas and challenged us to dream bigger:

The Lord brought a “new song” to our campus: What began as a dream for one of our families to offer world-class instruction in piano, guitar, and other instruments to our community as a means of evangelistic outreach has now become a reality in the formation of the Desert Hills Community School of Music. With inaugural classes kicking off in 2022, the school’s conservatory and community divisions, both under the leadership of Heather Baldwin as Director of Administration, are already expanding in both students and instrumental offerings.

The Lord “stretched” us with healthier lifestyle habits: What began in 2021 with a few offerings of BrainSavers to meet an identified need in our community and to provide an intentional evangelistic outreach to the community, exploded into a full slate of health and wellness offerings in 2022 under the confident and energetic leadership of Kara Thomas. This past year brought stretching classes, fun dance/exercise classes, healthy cooking and eating classes, and even a full-fledged luncheon and fashion show.

The Lord added faces to the “family album”: With the addition of 36 new members in 2022, church membership climbed over 500 for the first time in several years. More importantly however, many of these new members have faithfully connected to “DHPC life” in a deeper capacity through the discipleship, fellowship, and service ministries of our church and have even provided a healthy infusion of volunteers where they were needed most. Somewhat related was the critical need for more staff resourcing to adequately handle the increase in ministry offerings and to support envisioned growth in key areas like technology usage and children’s ministries. To that end, the Lord blessed our congregation greatly in 2022 with the addition of five gifted staff members: Brittany Crawford (Office Manager), Kara Thomas (Director of Operations), Bill Williamsen (A/V and Technology Manager), Heather Baldwin (Music School Director of Administration), and Helen Varga (Children’s Ministry Coordinator) as well as three interns working with our children and youth ministries.

The Lord opened the “floodgates” of financial blessing: One of the ways which the Lord demonstrated His faithfulness to us over this past year was in the area of generosity. The operating budget for the year was ambitious, but the Lord provided the means and “the increase” through the generosity of a giving congregation who gave “above and beyond.” Good stewardship combined with faithful giving enabled the church to finish the year financially healthy and “in the black” with $150,463 excess over expenses. In addition, a handful of extremely generous and directed gifts enabled the church to significantly expand ministry offerings, update and maintain campus infrastructure, and financially support more local and global missions. The first grants from the DHPC Foundation provided a healthy infusion of funds that enabled some A/V improvements as well as two very creative outreach opportunities to the community in our July 4th “Faith and Fuel” event and our October Legacy Grandparenting Summit.