From the Workshop

FROM THE WORKSHOP What a couple of weeks! We’ve been through snow, more snow, and the “deep freeze” with Arctic air tumbling down and the Gulf air coming up. While that’s catching our attention, we had our church survey interpretation with Elizabeth Hamilton, who was herself “a breath of fresh air.” As hoped, she delivered a solid report on our 81-member survey. Twenty six of us braved the cold to sit through the analysis. And thank you for your time and energy. What’s next?
 
Elizabeth will send us a summary report. The group who attended will pick out the highlights and report back to the congregation at an upcoming dinner sometime after February. Since the information comes from us, some of it will be familiar and comforting. Some of it may be surprising to some, and there’s a few “Wow’s.”  The next steps will be members gathering in listening sessions to flesh out some of the learnings. When the “soup” has time to simmer, we’ll pick out some “strategic actions.” Since I get lost in the language, this means we’re going to figure out what we need to do now to get us where we want to go later. With the information we have, we can choose some directions, and move forward. Not fast forward, more like slow forward.
 
As I said Sunday (at the end of the sermon), it’s going to take us a few years to get the plans, the people, and the energy moving the same direction. We want to work for a congregation that includes the long-timers, the mid-termers, the newly boarded, and those who’ve never been in a  church (or a loving church) before. 
 
In the meantime we’re not waiting. “Interim” time is still God’s time so we’re not just “starting now.” We’re already going!
 
PS, February is my first of three months “off” but our leadership team will be moving right on. 
 
 
See you this Sunday,

Pastor Tom