When I was on the school board, I was on the policy committee. When we were creating a new policy or majorly overhauling a policy that had big student or family impact we had a couple of different ways we would receive community input. Sometimes we would go out to the community and say tell us your ideas and experiences about a topic. Other times we would take what we already knew and write a policy and then take that out to the community for feedback. Sometimes we would do both, gathering input first, writing something, and then taking it back out for more input before we officially brought the new policy before the full board.
I tell you all this because I have been struggling with how best to lead us through our discernment phase. We have spent a lot of time talking about who we are and we have a wonderful why statement that helps us understand the purpose and reason we are here at the Southeast Portland Parish . Our why statement is we believe everyone needs a safe space to be loved for who they are already.
For the last year we have been focusing on our what. What is it that God is calling us to? Is it to care for children? To support our houseless neighbors? To be a place of community and connection? Is God calling us to close as a church and use our resources for something else? We have had several leadership meetings and retreats exploring our what and in someways we felt a little stuck. And we still have our how to develop. It is the plan or the steps that we need to take to fulfill what God is calling us to. So I decided to try option two of our policy process on the School board. We have a lot of information and I am taking all of that and writing a 5 year plan based on the what of community and connection.
I will be sharing this plan with the entire parish at the end of August. This is a draft plan, and our work this fall is to criticize it, question it, affirm it, rewrite it, and celebrate it until we get to the right what and how for the next phase of our ministry as a community. Sometimes it is easier to have some thing to push against and refine rather than create some thing out of nothing. I have no attachment to this plan, rather, it is my best attempt to write down what I think I’ve heard from you all and from God. I know that my attempts on my own always fall short, because God is only truly revealed when the community is together. I am excited for this next phase of our work and looking forward to sharing with you in developing hot, we will live out safe together!-Eilidh