Hello, my name is Stephen Shelton, and my wife, Chelsea, and I have been at Church on Mill for about 10 years. We met in the college group while we were attending ASU and were married in October 2014.

Up until very recently, we had been living in a live-in apartment at my parents’ house to focus on paying down our student loans for two years. Thus, over the past several months, we have not been able to attend the gathering as my father is particularly vulnerable to COVID, and we made the decision it would be best for us to attend virtually. We moved back to the Tempe area about a month ago. We are so excited to be back in Tempe and able to attend church again!

Over the past few years, my role as a deacon has been to oversee the team that counts the offering given during the service or mailed into the church office. The process entails two counters counting and recording the offering and then depositing it.

I have really enjoyed serving in this role, and I appreciate the counters that give up some of their time to complete this work.

Recently, the elders have asked me to step into a new role of overseeing the benevolence fund with Randy Hagler, which is contributed to by church members and is used to help members in need. As I have served as a deacon for four years, it is also time for the church to re-affirm me as a deacon. If re-affirmed by the church as a deacon, I’ll serve in the new role given by the elders. Dan Koury, who was affirmed in the previous Members Meeting as a deacon, will be taking over my role overseeing the counting team. I am grateful that Dan is willing to step into this ministry.

If affirmed again, I look forward to this new role, and I would also like to thank Pat Nickel who served faithfully as a deacon over this ministry for many years.