Vision 2014

Last night our first fall Transitional Transparency Meeting was held which lasted 2 hours. The first hour was used to review summaries of the morning Sunday School discussions. There were five or six classes that reported. The morning sermon by our transitional pastor was the basis for the discussions. The sermon included a summary of a number of our previous meetings and then he left us with the question: What are we going to do about it? This referred back to one of the core questions of why the church is losing so many members.

The five sessions titled in the next paragraph are an attempt to work at the answer from the transitional pastor's point of view.

The second hour we had to choose to be a part of one of five groups. The five group or vision steps named were: "Healing of Congregational Wounds and Brokenness," "Creating A Pastor-Congregation Partnership," "Finding a Way to Attract and Hold People," "Find a Way to Renew Our Spiritual Vitality" and "Find an Answer to the Incredible Conundrum of Worship and Music Styles." The pastor had also included additional questions and sub thoughts for discussion well beyond the title of the group session.

Since only one of us was participating that evening, the vision step chosen was "Finding a Way to Attract and Hold People." The sub thought included the need for evangelism and that is what was shared from this point of view.

There were many other ideas of how to go about attracting and holding persons such as: building relationships with people outside the church, the need for community outreach activities and getting the churches name out and creating ways for establishing contacts.

A few in the group volunteered to get together again in several weeks to cement some of the ideas and thoughts to bring to the October TTM. The other 4 groups will also be reporting to the larger group.

It will be interesting to hear and see where the church is headed after the next meeting.

Please keep our church in your prayers