From the Pastor : What Next, Union Church!?

What Next, Union Church!?
In March we voted on a listening and planning process to answer the question, “What Next!?” Where is God calling us into action? What are we being invited to take up, and what might we need to lay down? How do we faithfully and effectively plan our service and support? These questions are specifically about taking our core values into concrete actions and plans that can be our goals for the next 3-5 years.
Nine years ago we challenged ourselves to grow and become the church most of you know today: rehabilitated building, vigorous worship and spiritual offerings, and staff to help us enact our ministry boldly and creatively. Thanks to God and the loving work of many of you, we accomplished nearly all of the challenges we set ourselves in 2009. Now it’s time to refresh our thinking and look to “What’s Next!?”
To do that a great team of people have been working to help us plan: Members Grace McKenzie, Betty Hibler, Ellen Mink, and Betsy Whaley all have professional expertise in the area of strategic planning. They are inviting us all to center on questions of our purpose and value: to our church family, and to the community we serve beyond the walls.
The first step is to gather all the insight and wisdom of those of us who worship here. In the next weeks we will be asking for volunteers to help us hold listening sessions in homes, at the church, and even online! This will be a chance to get to know some people you may not have met AND gain your insight on what we already do well, and what the church could undertake to be the sustainable, relevant, generous, and risk-taking, disciple-making community of God’s vision.
What can you do?
So glad you asked!
Help Gather Info: We will need one facilitator and one recorder for each of our house listening sessions. Interested? Call the church office and have Joan, our secretary, put you on the list. There will be a training for both roles so we can take seriously everyone’s comments and thoughts.
Pray and Focus on “What Next!?” Questions: We want to focus on issues and service worthy of the time and spiritual energy everyone here brings. Think big! Dream compassionate dreams! Where are there unmet needs? What inspiration has come from reading “Another Kingdom,” our all-church read for Lent? How do you think we can and should focus and sustain our ministry financially? All ideas are welcome and needed! We’ll be sharing more thought provoking questions in the weeks to come. Pray about them, discuss them, and bring your insights forward.
Share Your Questions and Dreams: Make sure to attend one of the listening sessions! There will some in homes, some at church, some online. Some will be more conversational (for the extroverts) and some gathering written responses (for the introverts among us). The team will share the questions all around, so even if you can’t make it to a session, you can still participate.
And then what?
Then we will share what have learned. Church Council will be seeking interested persons to help us distill the insights gained into ministry goals. That in turn will help us know what staff to hire, or what training to engage, to help us all achieve those goals. It will also help focus our time and talent so we can all contribute in ways that move us personally, spiritually, and collectively to better embody the life and ministry of Jesus.
As the world turns, needs evolve, and Christ’s people respond. The values, the foundations, the love and justice we cherish never change. But the expression of these deep imprints shift to be heard in new ways, relevant to new ears, inspiration to new generations. We have set our lamp on lampstand. We have kindled the fire, and set our hearts on Jesus’ path. What next, Union Church!?
I say, “Come, Holy Spirit, and show us all!”

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