[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Jeannie Steger and Martha Fitzgerald have been institutions at Fellowship for the past two decades. Jeannie began on staff on March 3, 2004, serving for 14 of those years as the Caf\u00e9 Manager, and Martha started August 1, 2006, as the Events Director. Both retired late this year.<\/p>\n
I sat down with them to get their reflections on their respective roles, as well as their faith journeys and lessons they\u2019ve learned along the way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Q: How did you come to faith in Christ? Martha:<\/strong> \u201cMy mom started going to Immanuel when she was born, so my family went to Immanuel, and so I was raised in a Bible environment, in a Christian environment. \u2026I had biblical knowledge, and I had faith examples all around me. I will say I probably knew more in my head than I did in my heart. I went to college in Virginia, so I went far away, and just didn\u2019t really go to church. Some (not all) of my friends were Christian, but we didn\u2019t go to church or parachurch groups. And I think I was behaving very much on a moralistic level. I was \u2018pretty good.\u2019 \u2026But when I went to graduate school, and I don\u2019t even remember if it was just an awareness, I don\u2019t remember even if I know why, but I decided I needed to start going back to church again. So I found a church in Nashville\u2026 And I had this book, and it was in the 70s. It was called, \u2018How to be a Christian without Being Religious,\u2019 which hit me right where \u2014 I had seen all the hypocrisy in the church and had been frustrated by it. So I picked that up, and really, it\u2019s a paraphrase of Romans is what it is. The whole book. And so I think that is when I really got it. \u2026A lot of my priorities changed. Just in terms of, the import of different things, you know, like, relationships were more important than stuff, and it was real important to me that I married somebody who was like-minded about that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: What is your favorite attribute of God, and why? Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cI will say today it\u2019s His sovereignty. Because that\u2019s the one thing that pulls me back from the edge when I begin to worry about my life, my family, the world, just everything. My mind can get caught up with \u2018what if, what if, what if,\u2019 and I remind myself, \u2018Hold on. You know God is sovereign. He is in control of all things. And He will accomplish His will. And even if it\u2019s hard stuff, which a lot of it will be, that\u2019s okay. You don\u2019t have to fear the hard stuff. And you don\u2019t have to fear that somehow God\u2019s going to mess up, because He will accomplish His will.\u2019 And I can have peace in that reality.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: What is your favorite verse, passage, or book of the Bible, and why? Martha:<\/strong> \u201cI think right now, John 15, where Jesus is describing, \u2018I’m the vine, and you are the branches, abide in Me and you will bear much fruit.\u2019 I think the abiding in Him, like being still and listening, is really, kind of my marching orders right now. I guess because I tend to make plans and ask God to come alongside me instead of me coming alongside Him. And I\u2019m trying to not do that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: Can you describe what your responsibilities were on staff? Martha:<\/strong> \u201cI kept the calendar. So every event that happened on site, I was involved with at least knowing what rooms it was in, what the set up was going to be; the larger the event, the more I was involved with different details of that. If there was more to it than \u2018you just needed tables and a whiteboard,\u2019 if we needed tablecloths or decorations or things like that. And I helped with planning larger events. And then, as we\u2019ve grown, I kind of oversaw all of the calendars for all of the campuses, and we were watching to make sure we didn\u2019t have conflicts there of, you know, events and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: Many aspects of your roles required a lot collaboration, and thus you\u2019ve worked closely together and have gotten to know each other well over the years. What\u2019s something you admire about one another? Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cWell, I was going to say one of the biggest things I admire about Martha is her insight, her biblical insight. She has gone deeper in her study of the Bible than I have. She took Greek in college, and she studies from a Greek Bible. She will dig down deep into a word or a verse, and I\u2019m just amazed. We have been in Bible study together for many years. As full-time church staff, we haven\u2019t been able to attend the women\u2019s day-time Bible studies, so we started our own Bible study. Through the years, we\u2019ve had other staff women join with us for a while, but it\u2019s always been me and Martha. That has been a big part of my personal spiritual growth during my years on staff. Another quality I admire in Martha is she always has such a helpful, can-do attitude. Whatever the issue is, I feel like she has such a positive attitude about it and comes up with good solutions. She has been a collaborator with me and a problem solver. And so, even though we were not linked together on the org chart, I\u2019ve always felt like she was a partner with me in my job.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: Through your respective roles, what have you learned about hospitality? Martha:<\/strong> \u201cWhere I saw hospitality matter wasn\u2019t so much on the large events or on Sunday morning. Mine was more when someone needed to have their D-Group meet here because they\u2019d had a flood at their house, and we found them a room, and we made sure it was comfortable and the lighting was good. \u2026the thank-you notes I would get from people for something that we would just kind of take for granted, because the building\u2019s here, it was just the \u2014 it\u2019s just what I did all the time. It wasn\u2019t anything special. But to them, somebody taking the time to say, \u2018hey, you might want to use this room because you\u2019re serving coffee and that room\u2019s next door,\u2019 I mean, you would have thought you were doing something extraordinary just because you were listening \u2014 I guess it was listening to what they wanted to try to do and finding the right space that helped them do that the best. And that was just my job. But it seemed to really, really make a difference with a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: What was an aspect of your job, or working at a church, that you found challenging? Martha:<\/strong> \u201cThere were some times where we had staff changes that really impacted our teams, and that was always a little bit of a challenge to get used to, you know, if you get a new boss, they have a new way of doing things and you have to kind of adjust to that and learn each other. But that\u2019s not just here, that\u2019s anywhere. That\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: What was the most rewarding part of your role? Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s hard to it\u2019s hard to pick one thing, but I know something that has been very rewarding to me is getting to know my volunteers. I\u2019m just amazed at the people who serve in the cafe. They have such servant hearts, and they\u2019re so faithful. I mean, I ask them to do extra stuff all the time. And they\u2019re like, \u2018sure!\u2019 \u2026I just feel like, \u2018wow, how did I get such amazing volunteers? I would never have gotten to know these people if they weren\u2019t serving in the cafe. And I just count myself so blessed to have worked alongside them.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: Through each of your unique lenses, what has been something you\u2019ve seen from the body of Christ that has been an encouragement to you? Martha:<\/strong> \u201cWhat\u2019s amazed me is what people in the body quietly do. For instance: there\u2019s a group of people that pray every Sunday morning for the church and for the services that are going on. \u2026it\u2019s been going on for decades. And they are fastidious, they have a room every Sunday morning, and they pray for the church\u2026 To me, it\u2019s just the people in the body that are encouraging and serving and praying for other people in the body. And we get to see that because they use the building.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thank you, Jeannie and Martha, for your faithful years of service to our church body and staff!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeannie Steger and Martha Fitzgerald have been institutions at Fellowship for the past two decades. Jeannie began on staff on March 3, 2004, serving for 14 of those years as the Caf\u00e9 Manager, and Martha started August 1, 2006, as the Events Director. Both retired late this year. I sat down with them to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":16,"featured_media":31061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[494],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-written"],"acf":[],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>
Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cI was not raised in a Christian home. When I was in the ninth grade, a friend invited me to church. The pastor shared the gospel with me, and I prayed to receive Christ. And from that point on, the church was very much a part of my life. I felt like that\u2019s where my family was, because the people there were my brothers and sisters in Christ. God gave me a hunger to know Him for many years before I actually came to know Him. I knew that I was looking for God, and I just didn\u2019t know how to find Him. And I didn\u2019t really know what He offered me, but I was very much aware of my need for God. And so, my heart was just so ready. When someone finally, very plainly shared the gospel with me, there was no hesitation. I was like, \u2018Yes, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been looking for.\u2019 God had prepared my heart, and I jumped in with both feet and never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>
Martha:<\/strong> \u201cIt would probably change on the day, but right now, I\u2019m just aware of His patience with us, because we just constantly, I constantly mess up. I constantly miss, and He doesn\u2019t get mad, He doesn\u2019t turn His back on [me], He\u2019s just, He is there. So today, it would be His patience with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>
Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cOne verse that has meant a lot to me since I became a Christian is Psalm 16:11, \u2018You make known to me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.\u2019 And I carry that verse in my heart. If I\u2019m stressed, if I\u2019m worried, if I\u2019m unhappy, whatever, I just remind myself that being in His presence brings me joy. I want to seek to always be in His presence. I know that\u2019s where I need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>
Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cI have about 90 volunteers that serve in the cafe and, and we\u2019re open every Sunday morning serving cooked-to-order breakfasts. And we serve dinner when there are classes on Wednesday nights. We also help with most of the major events at Fellowship by providing coffee and refreshments. Running the Caf\u00e9 involves keeping up with inventory, maintaining and purchasing new equipment, and overseeing and training the volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>
Martha:<\/strong> \u201cJeannie truly, truly cares so much about people. She says she has 90 volunteers. She has 90 volunteers that she watches over and she knows what\u2019s going on with their families. She visits them in the hospital. She takes them food. They aren\u2019t just people that she sees on Sunday morning. And her heart for people and her sensitivity and compassion to people is, it\u2019s my example. And just through the years, we\u2019ve done Bible studies together, and she\u2019s always got great insight. That\u2019s what I love about you the most is just your heart. It\u2019s huge!\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>
Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cI think I\u2019m amazed at the impact that hospitality has on people. You know, we can take it for granted and think that it\u2019s not a big deal, to make somebody feel welcome and make them feel like we are glad that they\u2019re here. But it really does meet a need that people have. And coming into such a big place like Fellowship \u2014 most of the people you see when you walk in this building, you\u2019re not going to know. And anything we can do to make it feel warmer and more welcoming and inviting; I feel like that makes a huge impact on people. \u2026I feel like it really meets a need that they have that they may not even be aware of. I think of Jesus and how many meals He had with people in the Bible, and with people who were totally different from each other\u2026 to me, I feel like that\u2019s hospitality. Welcoming someone, showing love and concern for someone. And just making them feel like they\u2019re important and like they belong somewhere.\u00a0 \u2018We\u2019re glad you\u2019re here. You\u2019re important to us. You matter.\u2019 That\u2019s really my heart in hospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>
Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cI am exhausted on Sundays, because I get to work at 5:30 a.m., and I\u2019m on my feet for hours. I usually get to go to the 11:00 worship service, and it is sometimes hard for me to mentally move from my Caf\u00e9 responsibilities to be fully engaged in worship. Because we work where we worship, that is just the reality of working on a church staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>
Martha:<\/strong> \u201cI was able to work with every ministry and everyone on staff. And it was such a holistic picture\u2026 It was like, I didn\u2019t have a piece of the puzzle, I got the view of the whole thing. \u2026 I liked being involved in knowing what ministry was going on everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong>
Jeannie:<\/strong> \u201cWell, one thing that kind of blows me away is when we do a big event, like the prison packing or the gift wrapping, and you walk in the church and you see thousands of people who just jump in and are so happy to be there. And just to see that many people respond, that quickly, that\u2019s amazing to me that people are that willing to serve and to do something extra; that\u2019s another thing in their schedule, but they\u2019re willing to do it. You know, we\u2019ve seen that happen every year in all the big things, big projects that we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n