Visioning Team Update
November 1, 2021 Meeting
Dear Church Family,
Our first Vision Team meeting with Rene Wilt opened with a discussion of Philippians 2, The Mind of Christ, leading the group to think about being self-less, putting the needs of others above our own interests, and doing nothing out of self-ambition. This discussion emphasized the need to move forward as like-minded Christians, being one in the Spirit as we serve God, seeking His will to discern His path for our church.
Early in our meeting, we rediscovered that the work ahead of us is a process. We asked ourselves a series of questions concerning our church, including:
- Who are we?
- What beliefs and values are non-negotiable for us?
- What do we need?
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Where are we now - really?
This discussion led us to realize that it is necessary to know who we are before we move towards God wants to become. That discussion was framed by the concept: HAVE - DO - BE vs. BE - DO - HAVE.
Simplistically, this is the idea that if we HAVE more (fill in the blank), then we could DO more (fill in the blank), then we would BE (fill in the blank). For example, if we had more young families, then we would have more participation and programming, then we would be a growing church. What we learned is that we have to first BE aware of who we are and whose we are, then DO the work that fulfills our identified needs before we HAVE the opportunity to go where God is leading us in making disciples of Christ.
Our book discussion, Leadership and Self-Deception, led us to focus on our Vision Team and how we will continue to relate to each other. Building trust and upholding our commitment to this process are most important to our success. We will travel through the process of defining the context in which we now exist, discovering the vision, mission and values of our church, developing a strategy to accomplish our vision, and then determining how to implement this strategy. The Team was asked to think about and discuss what we know/assume about our church to recognize our strengths and challenges. At the same time we begin to determine what else we want to know and how to gather that information. We will be focusing on internal, who we are as a church, and external, the condition and needs of the community outside our church.
We invite the congregation to join us in our next reading assignment, Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger. As our monthly meetings continue, we will be seeking input from the congregation. Your input and your prayers are vital to the success of this process.
As we concluded our meeting, we discussed why it is that these visioning processes sometimes fail - why the process falls apart. As we recognized the pitfalls of the hard work and the long journey to finding God’s will for our church, we recommitted ourselves to the work that is ahead, with optimism and excitement about where God is leading us.
To the Glory of God,
Marshall Morgan, Co-Chair of Church Council
