Congregational Discernment Results
You may remember earlier in the year when our congregation spent some time discerning the missional priorities we believe God has set before us. In both an online poll and in a Sunday worship service, we listened, prayed, and shared where we each felt God calling Good Shepherd to move towards. Since then our Church Council has used the results to help guide our decision making process, but we realized that outside of the leadership team and my annual report to the congregation, we never really shared the results. The results were heartening!
The priorities that each person voted for were the result of the Church Council selecting 15 categories of emphasis. The categories were not meant to include everything that we do or care about at Good Shepherd, but the top directions that God may be calling on us to grow in. As such, the lower ranked items in the results aren’t necessarily bad or unimportant things; the initial categories already represented our most important areas. But I believe the items at the top of the list say a lot.
Here are the top five areas:
- improve hospitality, welcome, and follow up to visitors (#1)
- increase emphasis on invitation to new folks (tied #2)
- increase ministry with folks aged 18–64 (tied #2)
- improve stewardship and financial sustainability (tied #2)
- increase frequency and quality of contemporary worship (#3)
In other words, three out of the top four emphases had to do with inviting and welcoming folks who aren’t yet here. (The “ministry with 18–64 year old” category was controversial; it was not meant to exclude, but rather increase ministry with the age demographic least represented among our current membership.)
Many churches struggle with being too inwardly focused, but the people of Good Shepherd have prayerfully discerned that our ministry should look outward! We’ve already taken some steps to move in this direction. We’ve replaced signage – and look for an addition to our main sign with the Sunday worship time coming soon. We have (re)established greeters as a role for every Sunday. Next month Assistant to the Bishop Derek Hoven will join us to practice sharing our faith stories with others. And coming up is our annual pumpkin patch: the perfect opportunity to practice welcoming and talking with folks from outside our congregation!
Perhaps you have noticed, as I have, a spirit of rejuvenation blowing through our fellowship times recently. God is already helping us reach out. I trust there is more to come.
Pastor Keith