This February, the Governing Board of Divine Savior Ministries met and discussed many aspects of our ministry. What follows is a summary of the meeting:
Doral Campus
We are making a few changes to our administrative structure in Doral. With the addition of an elementary principal (Amy Arguello), it is necessary to create a new position: Campus Principal. This person will ensure that all administrative duties pertaining to the entire campus, and not specific to an individual level, are managed effectively. Ryan Loberger will be serving in this role next school year, in addition to his role as middle school principal.
We are very excited to begin construction on our new Worship and Ministry Center. This new facility will enhance worship in both our church and academy as well as provide a much-improved space for the fine the arts. It will also feature a private chapel and dedicated church offices. We are working diligently to begin construction early this summer.
Divine Savior Church recently had two bilingual Ash Wednesday services that were well-attended in-person (225 total), which included numerous academy families that joined us. In February we held an outdoor Valentines’ Day worship at the cross service for the families and staff of Divine Savior School. We currently have 291 communicants | 415 total souls.
Delray Beach Campus
The Delray Beach campus has seen the most growth of any campus since the school year began, with the majority of this growth being at the PreK level. This is an incredible blessing and one that has been in our prayers for the past few years. We are working diligently to maintain this momentum and continued growth. We have placed several calls for a principal in the past few months, but this position has not yet been filled. If this principal call is not accepted this calling season, we will need to adjust our staffing plans so that we do have someone serving in the role of a full-time administrator who is available during the day for our staff, students, and families next school year.
It is incredible to see the campus family growing closer together. Several parents are interested in organizing events for the school, and we expect a formal PTO to begin next year. We have seen wonderful school family participation in the Family Friday Night events that DSC - Delray Beach has organized.
Divine Savior Church has grown to 91 Communicants and 117 Souls. God is good! We continue to see prospects and school families at our Family Friday Nights and being guests at our worship. We were also blessed to begin a new Starting Point class with eight people.
Sienna Campus
The Sienna campus continues to move forward with planning for their high school. A virtual Open House was held on February 4, and we had about 30 parents on that call. A presentation was given on the high school plan, and parents were given an opportunity to ask questions. The event went very well, and we have continued to give tours and field questions from prospective families about the high school. Jake Unke continues to take the lead on the majority of the planning needed to offer 9th grade for next school year.
Sienna has also experienced a tremendous amount of growth, just like our other campuses. It is clear that our DS families are engaged and supportive. The PTO has been especially active in Sienna during this COVID year, which is unique when compared to other campuses. They recently raised over $30,000 to make technology improvements on the campus for next year.
Divine Savior Church recently had 11 academy parents/families attended our first Family Bible Study session on Thursday, February 4th. A Starting Point class began on February 1st. There are five families enrolled. Church leadership continues to work on vision planning. Pastor Boushek desires to move evangelism to the forefront of our efforts, especially as we continue to improve and strengthen our Harvest Strategy for working with the academy families.
Santa Rita Ranch Campus
The Santa Rita Ranch campus continues to enjoy a blessed first year! In this re-enrollment season, our focus is on retaining our current student body and building on that foundation. The future plans for this campus were shared with current families at a Founding Families event in early December. This was a wonderful opportunity to create buy-in from our DSA family and excitement for what is to come in the future on this campus.
We are actively working on a Phase II addition. This is a few years ahead of schedule due to our fast start. If we continue to exceed our projections we will need to begin construction already this fall. This creates some challenges, but ones we feel blessed to tackle.
Divine Savior Church recently baptized two more children from the academy. That's a total of seven children baptized since November! We just went through a Vision Traction Organizer exercise that helped us set goals for the next six years. We are excited about where we are going as a church.
West Palm Beach Campus Updates
As we begin the Lenten season, our members and either first time or return visitors are making use of regular in person worship. We are averaging approximately 125 people (about 60-65% of pre-covid attendance) for in person worship between our two Sunday services, and our online worship opportunities are being utilized by members and guests via our website, Facebook page, or YouTube channel with between 200-300 total views per week.
The Lord has blessed our congregation with amazing financial blessings during the challenging past year, as God's people have responded to His goodness and grace. Our congregation has increased our CMO to Synod for 2021 by 10% in response to these immense blessings. Amidst all of the chaos in the world around us, our people are rejoicing in salvation by grace alone and looking to respond with thankful hearts toward this love.
Our sanctuary enhancement project is planned to be completed this Spring. New altar furniture is being constructed. In addition, two new projectors and screens, large seasonal wall banners for the church year, a new stucco finish to our walls, and possibly more will prayerfully be completed by Easter Sunday.
Divine Savior School Updates
Our inaugural school year continues to go well for DSS. The children that are being provided ABA services through DS Therapies have been making significant progress and we are getting more comfortable operating this new ministry everyday. We have released re-enrollment information for next year and are now actively giving tours for prospective students next year. Based on this, our goal for next year is to have up to 24 students.
We recently held an outdoor Valentine’s church service in conjunction with DSC to serve our families. That went well and we are planning on having two more special needs services this year. We continue to explore more ways to connect this community with Jesus through our Divine Savior Church.
Divine Savior Ministry Updates
On January 4, Priscilla Leal joined DSM as our Director of Human Resources. Priscilla has a bachelor’s degree in HR and business management with 15 years of experience in the field. She is a well-rounded professional with experience in all aspects of HR including recruitment, benefits, training, coaching, and counseling. She is very charismatic, and we feel confident that she is the right person to expand our HR support and services.
Great progress was made developing our new church app leading to its launch on all our campuses happening right now this month. If you haven’t downloaded the app yet, now is your chance! Simply go to your app store and search Divine Savior Church or text DIVINE SAVIOR CHURCH APP to 77977. Choose your campus. Create a profile. Enjoy exploring!
God continues to bless our multi-site ministry and it is becoming clearer all the time that we can do more ministry together.
COVID-19 Updates
Since December, we have seen many students return to campus for in-person instruction, especially on our Doral campus. We have been communicating our philosophy, that in-person education is best for students, whenever possible. Some families have continued to elect the online instruction option for their children on our Doral and Sienna campuses, and we are blessed that we can continue to serve them in this way as well. We will continue to adjust to this changing situation and provide the necessary support for our student body. There have been no further classroom or campus closures, which is a tremendous blessing.
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