On June 8th, leaders from the church's groups and committees gathered to form a vision of the future. Gary inspired us with this scenario and a series of questions to guide our reflection:
The year is 2016, three years in the future. First Unitarian Church has finished with interim ministry, completed a search for its next settled minister, and enjoyed two full annual cycles of growth and change under new leadership.Themes emerged during our discussions:
- Worship and Music
- Membership
- Lifespan Faith Development
- Social Justice
- Stewardship
- Human Concerns
We acknowledged that the coming year is a year of transition: we will be pouring our energies into welcoming a new interim minister, and our search for the 12th settled minister. Next, when we imagined how to reach our vision of 2016, we thought about what else we must do in the coming year to support our congregation. Here are some of the projects and initiatives that the leadership got excited about:
- Coming together as a caring community, trusting in one another, and supporting each other
- Continuing to give to local causes through our 50/50 plate collections
- Growing our adult faith development programming
- Raising the funds to support much needed improvements to our physical plant (NEW BATHROOMS)
- Leading a successful stewardship campaign to support the work of the church
- Exploring ways to become a more welcoming congregation
- Greeting visitors and building our membership
- Building our communications and growing our outreach
- Sustaining our strong musical ministry, youth and children's programming
In the fall we will hold the second part of our lay leadership workshop to set our objectives for the 2013-2014 church year. Please join us on Saturday September 7, from 9 AM to 12 PM in the Chapel to be inspired and to reconnect at the start the church year!
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