That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Romans 8:28, The Message
At our State of the Church forum on Sunday, April 24, we shared with you what we see as emerging priorities, and the following discussions served as terrific input to our vestry retreat at the end of that month. My last article in the Three Crowns covered some aspects of our vestry retreat, and this one continues that thread.
As a quick recap, our priorities for 2022 have been reconnecting with each other, increasing our staffing capacity, and expanding our digital ministries. While those priorities continue, our emerging priorities are:
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Supporting a renewed culture of welcome and invitation to newcomers
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Creating capacity and resources to enable small groups to help connect us to God and one another
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Building awareness and commitment to grow our endowment so that its interest funds all our property needs, and 100% of our annual pledge dollars are directed toward growing our ministries.
During our retreat and in the ensuing time, the vestry has been engaged in a visioning exercise to create “Provocative Proposals” for each of these emerging priorities. Adapted by Rev. Nick from materials and techniques developed by The David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry, Provocative Proposals is an effective technique to stretch us to think beyond our current constraints and to imagine what could be. The proposals we created are available for you to read here.
Rev. Nick, Nelia, and I discussed these proposals earlier in the week. While on the surface, they may appear to be separate, they are interconnected. I volunteered to create a first-pass graphic to illustrate the interconnected aspects of the proposals.
We’re attempting to show that if we can (1) create and sustain a renewed culture of welcome, enable staffing to improve marketing and communications, and (2) provide support resources, technology, and training to enable small groups that deepen spirituality, serve the community, and strengthen fellowship, we’ll (3) grow our giving capacity to sustain our campus and expand our ministries.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our visioning efforts. They are helping to ground us as we look ahead. And we hope to engage with you in further conversation around these efforts in the coming months as we launch our 2023 stewardship campaign.
With blessings to you all and continued gratitude for your support,
Dave McSweeney, warden
