Discernment Process

This past Sunday our parish leadership team gathered to connect, dream, pray, play, and imagine.  From this work we are inviting the whole parish into a discernment process around what is God calling us to in this moment.  Part of this discernment will involve using some of the resources bequeathed to us by Carolyn Clapp.

Starting in September we will be collecting ideas of what God is calling us to using post-it notes in our worship spaces. After collecting ideas we will categorize them. Maybe a bunch are about the SFC house or about ministry with children.  We want to make sure we are putting our resources to use in a variety of ways. Then we will take care of low hanging fruit. An example of this came up during our retreat on Sunday when while making lunch it was discovered that we do not have a functional can opener in the Trinity Building! So God calling us to get a working can opener is a pretty easy job to take on. All the other more complex ideas generated will go through a second discernment process Mid-October through Mid-November where folks will pick the ideas that are either compelling to them or that they want to work on. Everyone will receive six dot stickers and you can place those next to the ideas you find most compelling.  People will be able to place dots virtually and through the mail as well as in our worship spaces. We want to include everyone in this work. From there the leadership team will make a priority list and by December we will have some decided direction for what is next!

So our work now is to dream and pray. What is God calling us to and what is God asking you to do about it? We already have a bunch of ideas listed below.  Maybe seeing these will inspire you to add to the list.  Send your ideas to me or get ready to add them in our worship spaces in September!

This is an exciting moment in our life as a parish and it is so wonderful to have the financial and leadership resources to dream big!!

-Eilidh

Ideas: