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Conway United Methodist Church began a ReFocusing process
in October 2007 to align its church with God's will and purpose for His church .
Three Leadership Summits were held to assist the church in "Assessing,"
"Discovery," and "Implementing."
In January 2008, the ReFocusing Team
presented their report and recommendations to the Church Council. Here is
the Report and Recommendations, the end result of the ReFocusing process.
ReFocusing Report Submitted to Church Council
January 2008
1. INTRODUCTION
Why Refocusing? Over 80% of the existing churches in North America have either
plateaued or are in decline in attendance. In today’s fast-changing world,
churches are realizing that they need to change their methods in order to reach
out with the unchanging message of the Holy Bible, God’s Word. The methods that
worked in the past are not reaching a large part of our community.
In this century, people have grown weary of
established religions and more open to “spiritualism” or “feel-good” methods of
teaching, which may or may not be founded in the Bible. People’s lifestyles
have become hectic with little time for families. Some have cut church out of
their already burdened schedules since they feel that church no longer meets
their needs.
In the past, it was customary for people to
attend church; it was a basic part of living; it is what families did on
Sunday. But then life was less complicated with more focus on the family. More
often than not, families stayed together—father worked and mother took care of
the family—living a traditional lifestyle. Church was for worshipping God,
learning about Christ, and nurturing the congregation while supporting
missionaries afar.
Today the population includes a large segment of
non-traditional families as the divorce rate increases and the children become
multi-family oriented, living between two sets of parents and step parents.
Other households include single parents with the children either going back and
forth between two households and two separate rules, or have an absentee parent
altogether. The cost of living forces both parents to work outside the home and
many children are raised in daycares. In later years, they will become
latch-key children. The crime rate continues to rise and is a concern to
everyone. Most companies expect more work out of fewer employees, therefore,
less time is spent with the family. With a large segment of the population not
attending church, the mission field moves closer to the church and stands right
outside its front doors. And yet churches continue with the same methods used
long ago and have failed to make the necessary changes to connect with an
ever-changing world.
To that end, our District has enjoined Conway
United Methodist Church with other Central Florida churches to seek out and
receive this renewal experience from God. Some of the church leadership
has already participated in Phase 1, a personal refocusing, in order to
prepare them for the Phase 2, refocusing the church.
What is
ReFocusing? It is a spiritual discovery process that brings renewal, a
passion for Christ, back to local churches. Churches that align themselves and
their ministries with the sovereign purpose and plan of God experience the
restoration of hope.
The Leadership Summits were held on the last
Saturday of three consecutive months from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with
fifty-five of our leaders and congregation in attendance on the following dates:
Summit #1 (September 29, 2007) Assessing:
Where Has Our Church Been?
Summit
#2 (October 27, 2007) Discovering:
Where Is Our Church Going?
Summit #3 (December 1, 2007)
Implementation: How Are We Going To Get There?
Each Summit began with praise, worship, and
prayer as we surrendered our burdens to the Lord. We opened ourselves up to
receive the Holy Spirit in order to discern God’s desires from our own. The
participants worked diligently individually, in table groups, and, finally, as a
whole through exercises designed to help us find God’s direction for our
church.
Through it all, the participants discovered
CUMC’s unique purpose why God put our church in this particular location today
and to whom we should serve. Through prayer and hard work, we searched and
found His desire for us to become a missional church. A Ministry Model Process
was developed to walk one through his/her relationship with Christ, thereby
growing in knowledge, service, leadership, and discipleship. Additionally,
strategic initiatives were created to intentionally reach out to the local
community, specifically to young starter families, children and youth, and
single parents as determined in Summit #2. Task groups were formed within each
Strategic Initiative with leaders in place to take that Initiative through its
goals to action and into the surrounding communities.
We thank all of the participants who gave up
their Saturdays and worked so hard to discover God’s vision for Conway United
Methodist Church. We recognize the hard work each participant put into this
process. We saw them put their hearts into ReFocusing and open themselves up to
the Holy Spirit. We also want to give special thanks to Jay Gebhard for
stepping in as a table coach and leader when our number of participants
continued to grow and to Lawrence McCamy for setting up and maintaining the
sound system at each Summit. We also give thanks to Paula Cason and Wanda
Whittington for all of their clerical assistance with this process. Finally,
thank you to the women who helped set up in the kitchen and serve all the
participants and to the prayer groups who surrounded this process in prayer. We
are indebted to you all.
The ReFocusing Team is honored to have served in
this spiritual discovery as we humbly led His church forward through the
ReFocusing Process. We give God all the praise and all the glory. In the name
of His precious Son, Jesus Christ, we proclaim Him as our Lord and Savior, King
of all Kings.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has
been give to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to
the very end of the age.” Mt 28:18b-20.
Respectfully submitted by CUMC ReFocusing Team:
Facilitator, Doris Fry
Administrator, Sharon Fisher
Communications Coordinator, Phil Stapp
Prayer Coordinator, Bill Viehman
Congregational & Ministry Representative, Wayne
Hudson
Pastors Randy Strickland and Ken Davison
2. BIBLICAL PURPOSE
One of the first goals for the ReFocusing Team
was to determine our church’s Biblical Purpose. The Biblical Purpose
reflects the mandates that define the biblical reasons for our existence. It
lays the foundation (or anchor) for our vision and ministry. The Biblical
Purpose answers the questions, “Why does our church exist?” It defines who we
are called to be. Vision is a picture of what God wants us to
accomplish; mission is the work of doing ministry as a result of our
vision; but purpose is the reason the church exists. It is
a “being” statement that reflects the Heart of God.
The Refocusing Team read through many verses in
the Bible to see which scriptures best spoke to the purpose of the church. We
came together in prayer and asked ourselves many questions to think through
God’s purpose for our church and to determine what themes emerged from our
review and reflections on scripture. After prayerfully discussing it, we agreed
upon CUMC’s Biblical Purpose Statement, as follows:
“A
gathering of God's people that reflects our devotion to Him as we experience and
spread His love, mercy, and saving grace.”
Summit
#1 Assessing: Where Has Our Church Been?
During Summit #I, much discussion occurred on
the preparation of us, as a church, to hear and receive God’s guidance for our
future. The Conway UMC Biblical Purpose Statement was presented to
the group in preparation of that morning’s event. There was a show of hands
from the participants that they could and would get behind the Biblical Purpose
Statement, which will be the anchor for our vision and missions.
3. MINISTRY MILESTONES – JOURNEY WALL
The Journey Wall, or Ministry Milestones, was
created to show how God has always been at work in our church.
The group was asked what events in our history
have shaped us into the church we are today. First as individuals, then as
table groups, we brainstormed to gather information on significant people,
circumstances, or events that affected our church. Each table narrowed down
their list to six-to-eight items, listing each on 8 ½ x 11” paper—pink
signifying painful moments or yellow for all other—and posted them on the Wall.
The group as a whole then put chapters or phases (titles) on blue paper and
placed them on the Wall. As we discussed the Journey Wall, the group looked for
lessons that God had taught us within each chapter and put those on green paper
and posted them on the Wall. Finally, everyone was asked to look at the Wall
again and determine what behaviors, or actual values, we displayed to
others. Lastly, each table group listed five to six individual actual values
individually on gray paper and placed them in columns on a separate wall.
In all there were over forty-two actual values listed.
The best vision for the future is seeded in the
past. The Journey Wall exercise helped all participants reflect together on the
journey of the church. The journey wall reveals the fingerprints of God on the
church. It also points to struggles and possible divergence from what God has
intended the church to “be” or “do”. The Journey Wall provides the seedbed for
discerning the future direction of the church.
We determined and established, as best we could,
the following church milestones:
1874 –
1940 Genesis Years
1941 –
1980 Building Years
1981 –
1990 Unity & Prosperity Years
1991 –
2000 Change & Chaos Years
2001
–Present Refocusing Years
Conclusions:
After reviewing the separate phases of the life
of Conway United Methodist Church, we saw in the early years (Genesis Years),
the establishment of a rural community church that reached out to the existing
surrounding people. They were determined to meet the needs of the community as
they saw it. A new building went up and they followed Gods vision, learning to
trust by faith and relying on God as their provider.
The years from 1940 – 1980 (Building Years), saw
an explosion of growth into the Conway Florida area. So, too, the church grew
by leaps and bounds. New missions started up from youth sports programs; the
new Education building was completed; preschool started; there was active
mission support; a greater more dynamic music ministry. Also, signs of turmoil
were beginning to grow and manifest in different ways: a loss of pastor
effectiveness; conflict among membership over pastor leadership; youth group
conflicts; and, decline in visitation ministry.
In the years from 1991 – 2000 (Change & Chaos),
we saw the decline of attendance as people began to seek out other places of
worship. We did welcome and receive new members, but the loss of established
church goers outpaced the arrival of new people. There was the loss of a strong
children’s music program; weak special services and programs; a lack of young
married couples; real drop in children’s attendance; a focus shift from one of
reaching out to our Conway area to reaching in trying to fix
matters that cropped up internal to our church.
We also saw some really God-inspired activities
blossom during these tumultuous years: the Soul café was a real alternative for
young and old for weekend entertainment; the building of the Family Life Center;
remodeling of Callaway Hall; establishment of the homebound ministry; creation
of a signing choir; and creating a Deaf ministry, as some examples.
Finally, the years from 2001 – Present
(Refocusing years), we continue to see both positive and negative issues that
either add to or plague the church. We see the early seed of a community
outreach program. The following activities were identified as positive results of hearing God‘s calling:
creation of Step Out Wednesday dinner ministry; creation of a Stephens Ministry;
start up of ALPHA; the beginning of a church Food Pantry; purchase of new
church sign; installation of sanctuary multimedia equipment; two new pastors;
formation of ministry teams; and, creation of the Memorial Garden. We continued
to feel the pull of problems and church issues. We saw the loss of Arturo’s
ministry; Sunday school distractions; elimination of a Sunday service; dealt
with constant change in youth directors; destruction from Hurricane Charley;
witnessed discord among church staff; and, saw the results of church wide
apathy. The need to return to God’s vision for the church became clear
after evaluating what happens when turning to our own devises to take control of
our church’s destiny. It was all there before us in the Journey Wall.
Each person at the first Summit was directed to
vote for the three most prominent actual values, or behaviors, they saw within
the Journey Wall by placing a tally mark on their choices. After the votes were
tallied, the top prominent behavior, or actual value, selected by an
overwhelming lead was that of: “self-centered/inward focused church.”
The other five top behaviors we actually displayed to others were: Obedience;
weak church wide focus on children and youth; that we were traditional; over
extending ourselves and resources by attempting to offer something for everyone;
sharing God’s love and grace.
With heavy hearts all were sent out on a
Prayer Walk for thirty minutes. They were sent out alone to converse with
God. Bible verses were read in order to determine what God was asking of us.
Now participants went out in silence to surrender their hearts to God. When
they returned they were instructed to write letters from Jesus’s perspective to
our church. What would He say to us? Each person read their letter out loud to
their table group, many in tears. It was a real surrendering moment. It
appeared that every person there felt the Holy Spirit at work.
Finally with surrender deeply embedded in
their hearts, we looked at the Cultural Path vs. The Kingdom’s Path. In
the Cultural Path when a problem arises we seek understanding of the
problem, gather information on the problem, come up with a “plan”
to handle the problem and then devise a program(s) that should solve the
problem. At that point we feel we are back in control. The only problem
with this is that by time we think we have everything under control, life
changes and another new challenge is before us. More importantly,
self-enthronement (or being in charge) is OUR taking control, which shows our
sinful nature. God cannot honor that path. The Kingdom’s Path is about
seeking God (not a plan) for repentance, revelation, direction, and the courage
to follow His path, not our own.
Summit
#2 Discovery: Where Are We Going?
At Summit #2, a quick review of Summit #1 was
given. Attendees were asked what top value from Summit #1needed to change and
what top value needed to be put in its place. All agreed that we needed to
change from our prominent actual value to a preferred value,
as follows:
“Self-Centered/Inward Focus” to “Outward
Focus”
In order to focus outward, a survey was gathered
to discover who resides in our local community so that we could connect with
them. Our community diversity covers many areas from race to income, education,
age and employment, as a few examples. The Conway community is growing and
changing in all these areas.
4. UNDERSTANDING OUR COMMUNITY:
A census was obtained on zip codes 32822,
32812, 32809, 32807, and 32806˗̶ our surrounding communities. What we learned
is that we live in a community that is highly educated, mostly Caucasian
(50.9%), socially traditional (married), with an average income of $53,850.
Their internal family stress level is very high and their faith receptivity is
very low. The statistics, however, say more.
Over the next five years, the Caucasian
population in our area is projected to decrease from 50.9% to 42.2%. The
African American population is projected to increase from 9.1% to 11.4% and the
Hispanic/Latino population is projected to increase from 34.4% to 39.9%. The
Asian/Other population is projected to increase from 5.7% to 6.5%.
Although the average income is $53,850, there
was a tie with19.7% in the $50,000 - $74,999 while19.7% ranged from $35,000 to
$49,999. With the cost of living continuing to rise, things are expected to get
worse before they get better and families will be even more pressed to make ends
meet. Only 57% of the population owns a home and 43% are renters. With all the
apartment complexes continuing to grow and the uncertainty of the housing market
in this economy, the number of rentals is continuing to rise.
Let’s look at all the households by type, or
family structure. “Married” represent 45.5%; single female – 14.9%; single male
11.9%; “other family” female head of household 12.9%; “other family” male head
of household 5.6%; non-family male head of household – 5.6%; and non-family
female head of household is 3.8%. [“Other family” is a family member male or
female with no spousal member present in the household; “non family” means a
household with two or more unrelated persons living together.]
Let’s look at another breakdown within the
community by the children living in households types. If we want to look at
children between 0-18 years of age, 61.6% live in a married couple household
while 27.8% live in a household considered “other family” female, and 9.1% live
in a household considered “other family” male; and, finally, 1.6% who live in a
non-family household. There are large numbers of children living in a
non-traditional household.
If we look at the community age breakdown we’ll
find 13.3% of the children are of the age 0-9 years old. The 10-17 years old
comprise 10.4% of the population. We have 9.9% between the ages of 18 and 24
years old; while the age group 25 – 34 falls into the 16.6% range; 17.3% of the
community includes ages 35 to 44. The 45-54 year olds come in at 12.7%; 55 - 64
year olds are at 8%; 65 – 74 at 6.8%; and, finally, over 74 stands at 4.99%. In
other words, 23.7% of our community is children under the age of 17. The young
adults between 18 and 34 years old make up 26.5% of the population. Per the
census, the largest age group in terms of numbers is 25 – 45 consisting of 34.1%
of the total population.
Some other statistics: In the community, 52.5%
are married; 29.1% are single; and 18.7% are divorced or widowed. The
employment status is that 63.1% are employed; 3.2% are unemployed, with 33.7%
are not in the Labor Force.
In looking at church worship preference, our
community breakdown is as follows: 19.1% like traditional/formal services; 24.7%
prefer a contemporary/informal service; 27.1% prefer both traditional and
contemporary; and 28.8% had no preference or were not interested (N/I).
As far as church music: 21.8% prefer
traditional; 20.5% contemporary or praise; 31.2% prefer both, 26.5% no
preference or N/I.
Preference for church involvement and mission
emphasis: 22.1% want involvement in the community; 14.5% on personal spiritual
development; 35.6% on both; 27.6% no preference or N/I). As far as missions:
6.8% prefer global missions; 30.9% prefer local missions focus; 29.3% wanted
focus on both; 32.8%, no preference or N/I.
The barriers facing the community as to why
they did not attend church were: Too busy, found it too difficult to balance
everything in their family life; pressure to give and participate; felt that
churches were unfriendly, can’t connect with other people; or that the services
did not apply to them. Many mentioned having a mistrust of “Christians” as
being hypocritical, too judgmental.
The top needs and the concerns of the community
are: cost of living/affordable housing; day care – caring for sick children
and/or sick parents; want more teen and family recreation services (crime is a
big concern); marriage enrichment and, on the other hand, divorce recovery;
loneliness and isolation to name a few.
After brainstorming individually and then at
the tables, the participants looked at the community and discussed the profiles
of those in the community in comparison to those at the church. There are large
segments of the community missing from our church or barely at our church.
5. Mission Focus Groups
We then moved into the three Mission Groups,
which are defined as follows:
-
MFG-1: Those who are in our church in
large numbers and in the community in significant numbers (for
example, empty nesters, retired couples, married couples, Caucasians).
-
MFG-2: Those who are in our church,
but not in the majority and are in the community in large numbers
(example children, young adults, young starter families from all racial
and ethnic backgrounds; diversity). We may already have a bridge to
Group-2, but have not done anything with it.
-
MFG-3: Those who are in the community
in significant numbers and are almost or completely nonexistent
in our church and we would not reach at all without very deliberate and
intentional efforts.
Missional churches are more effective when they
intentionally focus on who they are committed to reach. We must first be
effective to MFG 1 & 2 before we can seek MFG 3. In looking at “The Great
Commission” the tables discussed ways that they could more effectively serve
MFG-1 and ways to intentionally reach MFG-2.
At this point, the participants were asked to
prepare Vision Drawings: If God has his way, what impact
will our church have on the community in 3 to 5 years? Whom will it minister?
How will their lives be changed? From each drawing, the similarities or common
themes that best reflected God’s heart were pulled from each drawing. It was
then put into a Vision Statement by the Refocusing Team, as follows:
6. VISION STATEMENT:
“As a unified body of believers, we are
reaching up to God through
prayer and worship and reaching out to the
community through
invitation and service. In three years,
CUMC will more accurately
reflect the diversity, ethnicity, and age of
the greater Conway area”.
The group then began to work on “Preferred
Values, or Core Values. If we are going to become a missionally
effective church, be influential in our community and reach the people of our
Mission Focus what values need to define us? The values have to be true to our
Biblical Purpose and realize the vision captured in the vision
drawings.
7. CORE VALUES:
These are the Core Values, or preferred values
that we will need to move our church into the future: we remain God-Centered;
that we focus on outreach; that we pray in all things; that we
become unified; and, that we will be receptive.
Summit #3 Implementing: How
We Will Get There?
At Summit #3, the emphasis was to tackle the
challenges of implementing our vision and values. We opened with a brief review
of the previous two summits and how we have progressed through the
process.
8. MINISTRY STRUCTURE.
Ministry structure supports the implementation
of vision. A missional ministry structure requires a shift in thinking
in two critical areas: from Programs to Process (making disciples) and
from Attraction to Engagement (going)
Programs are activities,
curriculum or events, often borrowed and adapted from other churches designed to
meet a particular need and asks, “What is the need?” “How will we meet that
need?” The Methodist churches have been operating this way for quite
some time. There are many programs that attract people inside but are not
moving them through a process of discipleship.
Process, on the other hand,
is a movement of people through steps or stages to arrive at a destination; for
example, achieving vision; making disciples.
We must then ask, “Where do we want people (visitors, new members
and existing congregation) to be?” “How will we reach out to our Conway
community?” “What is our method to assimilate new quests?” “What channels do
we use for Discipling new believers/new members?” “How do we
determine ministry fits for our people?” “How can we develop and deploy
ministry leaders?” And, finally, “How do we develop outreach that flows through
the process?” This is how the church must change in order to become effective.
This challenging task will require a church-wide
process to “align” all activities to match the initiatives deemed important to
the church and that fit within the process, or Ministry Model that we put in
place.
We then studied Ministries of
Attraction: to get people to come to us, to like what we like, to value
what we value, and to approve what we approve. The focus is on us! This is how
a church with programs ministers. It has programs in place that draw people to
them. We looked at Ministries of Engagement: to go and serve
people where they are with love, generosity, and grace. Out there, we build
relationships with them and between them and Jesus Christ. The focus is taking
Christ to them (discipling)! This is a church that uses a process as a means of
discipling and becoming missional.
9. MINISTRY MODEL - PROCESS
Ministry models do three things:
·
They reflect how a church will
accomplish its purpose and vision
·
It is a conceptual diagram of how
people flow through the life of the church
·
It Is a big-picture overview of
the ministries of the church
We determined this by looking at five different
models of the church functioning based on reaching our Mission Group 1 (for
example, those in our church and in our community in large numbers) and Mission
Group 2 (those in the community in large numbers, but not in our church in large
numbers): young starter families, children and youth, and singles.
The table groups were asked to create a process
for fulfilling our vision, which engages the community and makes disciples. The
process had to connect with the community, assimilate guests, disciple new
believers/new members, determine ministry fits for our people, and develop and
deploy ministry leaders.
When we had completed that task each table group
shared their model with the entire Summit #3 group. As each group put their
model up and explained it to the others in the room it was interesting to note
that many of the proposals had covered the same needs.
To validate the model the ReFocusing team
evaluated each proposal again and combined the like concepts into a master
diagram.
10. MINISTRY GOALS – STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
Strategic Initiatives are major ministry
developments or endeavors that require the commitment and effort of the entire
church if we are to live out that which God has shown us through the ReFocusing
Process. It is the act of “going” out into the local community and aligns with
our Ministry Model Process. The Strategic Initiatives replace “programs” that
do not fall within the Process developed by the participants. As mentioned
previously, programs fulfill a need but do not move one through the process of
discipling. Programs actually delete the resources of the church—time, funds,
people—creating a situation where church members have become overextended in
their service and “burn out,” no longer willing to serve.
Out of the entire process, the following
church-wide Initiatives were derived from all of the sessions and were
selected by the participants. The titles of the Initiatives were placed at five
separate tables. The participants then chose which initiative they were willing
to serve and sat at the appropriate table. These are the initiatives and the
leaders:
Initiative Chairperson – Pam
Lattin
Initiative Chairperson – Jim Pate
Initiative Chairperson – Mort
McKenna
Initiative Chairperson – Jay Gebhard
Initiative Chairperson – Betty
Lappalainen
Each church-wide initiative had an associated
Mission Plan Worksheet. It is the responsibility of the Conway United Methodist
Church Council to determine which church-wide initiative will be implemented and
when. It is recommended that no more than one (two) per year be attempted. We
do not want to dilute our people assets any further, which will inhibit or slow
down the progress toward completion.
11. STRATEGIC MINISTRY PLAN
The end result of the entire ReFocusing Process
is that a Biblical Purpose Statement of who we are as a church has been
identified; our Vision Statement of where we want to be three-to-five years from
now emerged clearly; a process has been developed to move people in our church
through steps of discipling, ministry, and leadership; and specific church-wide
initiatives have been realized, with leaders and members of those initiatives in
place already. This plan was developed by the leadership, congregation, and
staff members of the church and brought before the entire congregation through
every media outlet at CUMC. It has been finalized by the ReFocusing Team.
Additionally, we were witnesses to the
participants’s recognition that not only was change needed, they welcomed it.
We saw the excitement as we heard positive feedback from the participants and
shared in a real coming together of the church. They were ready to move the
ReFocusing Process forward, knowing that this would bring about a positive
change and move people closer to Christ. Many felt the Holy Spirit at work. To
God we give all praise and Glory.
We, the ReFocusing Team, now turn the ReFocusing
Strategic Ministry Plan over to the Church Council for its approval. Upon
approval of the Plan, it is now the full responsibility of the Council to
oversee it in its entirety. The Council is to vote on implementation of the
Plan and to put the Ministry Model Process in place and to select which
Strategic Initiatives are rolled out when. And, finally, the Council will see
to it that an evaluation system is in place for the Process and the Initiatives
as a way to measure success. Every process should be evaluated on a regular and
consistent basis.
The Refocusing Team at the end of its
presentation today, January 26, 2008, has fulfilled its obligations to the
Refocusing Process and is to be disbanded pursuant to the ReFocusing Process
guidelines.
RECOMMENDATIONS of the
ReFocusing Team
The ReFocusing Team is recommending that the
Biblical Purpose Statement and the Vision Statement be put in or on every medium
available to us: Bulletin, The Carillon, the Website, the screens at church,
any future printed materials representing CUMC. It is something that every
Sunday school class, orientation, large or small study group within the church
or a part of the church should teach its members and embrace as we unite and
move forward.
We strongly recommend to the Council that no
more than two initiatives per year be rolled out and, in some cases, one
initiative may be enough in that year. We recognize that the participants are
excited and ready to move forward with their initiatives. But the goal is to be
successful. Anymore than two initiatives per year will overburden the already
“burned-out congregation” and overload the process. We strongly urge against
this. We also recommend that every initiative rolled out should have an
evaluation plan submitted along with the goals as a means of measuring success.
Initiatives deemed unsuccessful over time should be eliminated and new
Initiatives put in its place. The evaluations should be regular and consistent
with the details approved by the Council.
Along that line, the Refocusing Team is
unanimous that two “initiatives” be acted on immediately for this year, 2008.
The first should be the “Ministry Model Process” itself (Appendix D), even
though it is not a true initiative. This Process is critical to the success of
all future initiatives and to the discipling of those who walk through our
doors. It is the basis for which we are to align all initiatives. Once it is
in place, it will only need to be evaluated annually, at a minimum, to make the
appropriate adjustments. This process will require a training program, as well
as require an effective communication system to ensure its success between all
members, groups, committees and others that come together in the church. It
will require a proactive group to bring this Model to completion. We are in
agreement this should start in February 2008 and be completed no longer than six
months from now.
Because the Ministry Model Process itself is
internal, we are recommending that a true Strategic Initiative be voted on and
rolled out at the same time, beginning February 2008 and completed within six
months. It is the Strategic Initiative, developed as a result of our Vision
Statement and the actual act of “outreach,” that will show the congregation that
we are making changes and their efforts are producing results. It will build
excitement within the church and should be brought before the church in a
festive way to be inclusive of all members. This is when the balloons should
come out, banners are flying, flyers going out into the community—this is an
event to be celebrated. The church needs to be united as we move forward. It
will be this event that marks the beginning of change and moves us into the
future. These two initiatives are the only ones the ReFocusing Team is
recommending that Council should roll out in 2008.
The Council may have specific issues within the
ReFocusing Strategic Ministry Plan that require a Task Force or Task Forces. It
will be up to Council to appoint the people necessary to accomplish the task at
hand. We believe that a good place to start is with those who attended all
three Summits and are interested in the success of the Ministry Model Process
and the Strategic Initiatives. With regard to the Initiatives, it is the
responsibility of the Council to contact the leaders of the Initiatives in a
timely manner so that they can get their committees together and prepare their
goals, strategy, and evaluation plan to Council for review and approval. You
have the list of both.
The ReFocusing Team states clearly for the
record that not all Initiatives selected by the participants in Summit #3 met
the requirements of an initiative or goal. The directive given to the
participants at the Summit was that the Strategic Initiative is about “going”
out into the community—taking Christ to the local community where they are. We
are going from a church of “Attraction” to a church of “Engagement.” There were
two Strategic Initiatives that did not meet those requirements at this time.
The first is the “Communication” Initiative.
This is clearly an internal issue and not an event to be taken out into the
local community. We are also in agreement, however, that it is extremely
important to the church and needs to be acted on immediately. The ReFocusing
Team recognizes that in order for the “Ministry Model Process” to become
successful, communication is crucial to its development and operation. We are
recommending, therefore, that you have the “Communications Initiative” group
become your special task force in this area. They are set up, with a leader in
place, and ready to go. We believe that they are passionate about communication
and have the heart to make the “Ministry Model Process” successful. It is
crucial to this entire process.
The second group that we feel does not qualify
as a true Strategic Initiative, at this time, is the “Youth Initiative.” We do
feel, however, that at some point in the future, they will have an Initiative to
present to Council and that it will be vital to the Youth Program and to the
discipling process and should be reviewed at this time.
We recognize that the Youth Program is in dire
need of revamping and that a lot of internal issues need to be handled and in
place first before they are ready to move out into the community. We applaud
the hard work and diligence displayed by the active Youth Initiative group,
which has been meeting regularly since Summit #3 to finalize their goals and
objectives. We strongly urge the Church Council to get behind them and allow
them to work on this very important issue for the entire church. We can think
of no other issue that is more urgently thought of by the entire church and you
have the best task force in place making great strides already.
The Refocusing Team, in looking ahead at the
Strategic Initiatives and the future of the Youth Program, strongly suggests
that when it comes time to hire a Youth Director, this person should have a
strong background in local outreach thereby fulfilling the need of refocusing
and becoming a missional church. Once the internal issues are in place and a
Youth Director hired, we know with certainly that a Strategic Initiative will
come from this special group.
We are recommending, therefore, that the Council
select from one of the other three Initiatives that will provide a church-wide
endeavor out into the community, as the first kick-off Strategic Initiative and
one that fulfills the goals of taking Christ to where they are. This will take
us from a church of attraction to a church of engagement.
ReFocusing is about discipling and going out
into the community. The Ministry Model Process and the Strategic Initiatives
were created with that in mind. Any programs that are “churchwide” and use the
church’s resources whether through funds, people, time, and services must be
evaluated by the Council. If it does not meet the criteria of the “Process”, it
should be eliminated at this juncture to allow all church-wide efforts be
directed to the approved Strategic Initiatives.
Lastly, it is our recommendation that the
congregation needs to see action. We have heard from participants in the
beginning of the ReFocusing Process that they were concerned this was just
another program that would go nowhere. After Summit #1, the people were excited
in the process and in the hope that comes from renewal. We ask that the
Kingdom’s Path is the path that CUMC takes and that we follow the end result of
the Refocusing Process: we become a missional church, who goal is to move
people through steps of discipling and taking them out into the local
community. The Vision Statement created through their vision drawings is how
CUMC should look in three to five years.
To God we give all the praise and all the Glory!
Note: All Appendices to the report were
given to Church Council and are also filed with the report given to the Office
for their records. They were not included here due to the size of the
files involved. If you want to see those, please call the church office
and make an appointment to view those documents.
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