On Monday night 13 of us gathered to dream, hope, and plan. We started the night off by talking about why we had decided to come to dinner on a Monday night. As we ate our enchiladas we shared the things that we most valued about SFC.
Then we took some time (turns out not enough for some people) to brainstorm about what we wondered if we could do or what we felt God might be calling us to or what we felt was missing in Southeast Portland. We collected all of these ideas in sticky note form.
From there Jayde did a lovely job of leading us through finding patterns and grouping our ideas. At the end of the time, we had four areas; Social Justice Activism, Spiritual Formation, New Gatherings, and Fundraising. Folks were asked to choose the one they were most passionate about and to talk about what we could do in the next 6 months in that area.
These conversations lead us to planning a 5th Anniversary Party in May to celebrate our 5th year of meals, drawing up a Prayer Station to put in the front yard of the SFC house, planning a new meal gathering and a Parish-wide monthly worship, and better organizing and focusing our service projects. To help us complete our work as a team one of our leaders set up a Slack workspace. We’ve already begun to use this online tool to continue our conversation and bring our plans into holy reality.
We ended our time with prayer. We lit a candle and named out loud what God was commissioning us to in this season, celebrating that each one’s gifts, abilities, ideas, and skills were necessary to this next phase of the life of the Sellwood Faith Community.
I am so excited to see how all of this unfolds and to witness the beautiful ways God is working through the leaders of this faith community. We’ll keep you updated on the party, service projects, new gatherings, and how you can continue to support this vibrant place of faith.
-Eilidh
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