What Kind of Animal Are We? Sept. NOTES

Attendance: Jim, Matt, Sammie, Jane, Christie, Mary, Carolyn, Rosanne, Doris, Mario (graphic artist), Doug and Bonnie M (consultant)

Doug offered some historical stories and resources and prayer to ground us as we look toward the future.

Bonnie introduced the Circle Process and invited input from the group on several questions. Her goal was to elicit the groups input and thoughts about how to manage this work.

Question One: What do you cherish about this church?

Responses: welcoming, felt quickly at home, youth group, lots of children, people know each other, anonymity isn’t possible, open, all accepted, love and caring, praying church, acceptance, prayer warriors, taught me to deal with change and go to church, walk in and be yourself, total acceptance can be fleeting- cherish it, beautiful space –visually stunning, anything is possible, no nay-sayers

Question Two: What is our task and our challenge?

Responses: Discerning God’s will and moving toward that in the next 5-10 years, need to offer my input, envision future ideas and how we get there, don’t need to know it all – it will come together, feeling excitement about what might be available for my children, we are diverse-discern God’s will knowing that God speaks to us in different ways, psyched to be part of a group actively seeking God’s will, God calls prophets to hard things – how will we be stretched?, we are hard workers for God, how share what we learn?, hope to be a participant and able to speak honestly and openly.

Question Three: What type of animal are we like and what might we strive to become?

Responses:

Chameleon - different at different times, new challenges and multiple passions

Kangaroo – comfort and bouncing

Phoenix – something rising again

Mother tiger – fierce, protective, responsive to crisis

Human – communicating with God so we can make a difference

Large cat – beautiful, independent, draws others closer, follows God

Colony of ants - can we take flight and become a hive of bees?

Zebra - daring to be different, stand for what we believe in

Sand plover – darting to and fro, coming back, opportunities, constant movement, fragile

Flamingo – balanced, centered, pink reflecting what is eaten (who we are/what we are)

Bird – going where needed, working and playing

Question Four: Name an outrageous thing God may be calling us to do

Responses

Become like Harvest Café – connected and reflective of the community

Expand ways we help people in need and in the community, change government

Be instruments of God’s grace – strengthen connections with the community

Move beyond this space (sell?) and build/find space to meet human needs (daycare, meals, feeding program) and also worship

Explore ways to assist with skills training and employment

Be a clothesline connecting the community churches – ecumenicalism

Become a table where gathering and “feeding” happens

Offer a spark of enthusiasm and faith

Show community who we are

Bonnie also shared a visual of the lifecycle of a congregation which demonstrates the need to revision during the prime of ministry to discover the next new call and to avoid going into ministry boredom and decline.

The group offered these hopes for their work.

God’s work can be big and scary, don’t cower, accept, let go and run with it

Avoid being irrelevant, be active on the fringes

Effectively discern next call like the last vision and building groups did

Create actionable goals

Don’t fear action

God leads us to be open to change

We drafted the following criteria for this visioning work.

Ø Balance creative exploration with concrete tasks

Ø Conduct both internal and external data collection

Ø Communicate, communicate, communicate….

We created a letter to the congregation sharing words of affirmation, challenge, hope and promise. Rosanne collected the cards and will create the letter. The group can review the letter and use is as a communication piece to the congregation at any time.

The group agreed to try the blog again, with assurance of coaching from Doug.

Bonnie agreed to send a summary of tonight’s input along with some samples for congregational and community input. Her recommendations for next steps are noted below.

Next meeting: October 28, 2008

Carolyn will serve as the Convener