Advancing at the Retreat
I led a church visioning retreat yesterday, the first step in a several month long process of the church discerning God's unique vision for a body of believers. The leadership community of Pender United Methodist Church has been implementing a well designed strategy developed using the Balanced Scorecard approach. As the progress of the strategy was evaluated using metrics developed in the development phase, the leadership council recognized the need for a clear vision of what "success" in making disciples will look like.
The Pender UMC leadership community
Camp Highroad - Pine Lodge
Every army runs on food - this one is no exception!
Food was only part of the day - we spent time developing a draft vision statement, then validating it with vision validation principles from Nehemiah. The final session was spent testing the vision using a technique called the "event waterfall". This breaks down the myth that once you have a God-given vision that everything else is smooth sailing!
The day wrapped up with an extended prayer time. Each council member paired up with a prayer partner that they will pray regularly with throughout the process. Next steps include a time of listening to what God is saying to the church. They are well on the way to discerning the future God has for them.
The Pender UMC leadership community
Camp Highroad - Pine Lodge
Every army runs on food - this one is no exception!
Food was only part of the day - we spent time developing a draft vision statement, then validating it with vision validation principles from Nehemiah. The final session was spent testing the vision using a technique called the "event waterfall". This breaks down the myth that once you have a God-given vision that everything else is smooth sailing!
The day wrapped up with an extended prayer time. Each council member paired up with a prayer partner that they will pray regularly with throughout the process. Next steps include a time of listening to what God is saying to the church. They are well on the way to discerning the future God has for them.
Couple of datapoints (FWIW)for your consideration and possible feedback to the Pender folk:
1 -- I've visited the church only once and that was several years ago to attend a wedding. I did not get the impression that Christ was really glorified by the ceremony.
2 -- The church has a nice facility and I get a very favorable impression of the church simply by their signage which clearly indicates their desire to reach out and be a service to the community.
3 -- My granddaughter attends Pender with her boyfriend and it is clear that the services have a positive impact on her and have resulted in life change.
Ron <
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Thanks Alan - for a great job of leadership in stuff that really matters for our church's life with Jesus. Your leadership helped us begin a process of talking through who we really want to be. It was interesting to see how a large group of people who haven't talked about this previously together, came to very similar conclusions! Hmmmm ... Thanks for opening the door to the Spirit and guiding us in a way to listen and respond together. -- Pastor Sandy
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