Consolidated Vision Session Notes—TIM CLARK’S GROUP
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TIM CLARK’S SESSIONS
MAY CLARK’S AND TOM BLODGETT’S SESSIONS
NOTES FROM VISION SESSION ONE: TIM'S GROUP
1. How would you describe our church to a stranger?
-- A small group of people who live here
-- friendly, concerned about each other
-- If anything happened, we'd help out
-- a community church
-- caring
-- a second family
-- diverse in age and religious heritage
-- a quintessential New England town church
-- a community church, but also a UCC church
-- representing continuity and tradition
-- appreciative
-- open to all
-- offering room to question
-- evolving
-- "Sally's church"
2. Why do we come here?
-- for the music
-- to center myself
-- to make sense of my life
-- for quiet
-- offering time for busy people
-- being invited to come
-- connection to parents, ties to the past
-- a place for funerals, weddings, AA meetings, line dancers, Historical
Society, service clubs: "We are the center of town"
-- "I always leave thinking something new"
-- awakening
-- you can get so much more done as a community to "feed my sheep"
-- justice
3. What's a church for?
-- worship
-- sharing
-- "I'm addicted. I can't go long without worship"
-- meeting needs (can we meet the needs of everyone?)
-- social contacts
-- to carry on
-- Jesus Christ
-- help the less fortunate
-- remaining aware
-- bringing all ages together
-- to strengthen families
-- for justice
4. Why don't more people want to come to church?
-- family time
-- they come, but without Dad
-- more distractions
-- they need to relax on Sunday mornings
-- other obligations
-- it's unfamiliar to them
-- churches have a bad image today, coercive, judging, critical
-- fear of intruding on something that belongs to other people
-- we don't meet the needs of fundamentalists
-- fear of taking risks (both in coming to church and in asking others to
come to our church)
5. What gifts do we have to share with the church?
-- money
-- talents, such as money management
-- time
-- music
-- leadership
-- empathy
-- selflessness
-- good cheer and hospitality
QUESTION: Do we have enough for ourselves? Do we have enough for others?
Especially the "hard cases" -- poor, lonely, desperate?
TIM'S SECOND SESSION
1. What do we want to look like in 2012?
-- filled up more often, so there's more people to help
-- lots of kids
-- people like we have now
-- more diversity, new ideas
-- a parsonage in use
-- a Mike-caliber minister
-- good with adults and kids
-- opens eyes
-- doesn't waste words
-- leaves us space
-- challenges us
-- preaches to me
-- no shoulds or should nots
-- he's a grownup
-- he finds connections to all of us
-- experienced
-- he's not trying to prove a point
-- unthreatened, unthreatening
-- not namby-pamby
-- keeps things fresh
-- deep understanding of other people's needs
-- doesn't get political
-- We need a minister who:
--gives you what you need
-- doesn't go through the motions
-- is prepared
2. Aside from the minister, who or what will we be in 2012?
-- leaders
-- highly respected in the community
-- people unafraid to invite others to come
-- welcoming people
-- people with "peripheral vision" (able to see all around us, not just
ourselves)
-- the community will feel a sense of ownership of our church
-- we will fight the image of the church as a divisive force
-- a church that offers things other than worship
-- We need to get better at advertising ourselves
-- outreach projects that make us better-known
-- Be a leader in social action, for example, be more "green"
-- find a technological way to help people stuck at home participate
-- reach out to Phoenix House, Dublin School, others
-- can we offer more and different options than Sunday a.m. for worship?
-- create an active children's choir that sings often, not just once a year
-- use technology to create a "virtual church" -- streaming video,
podcasting, videoconferencing
-- a more active adult education program, including book groups
-- be more of a leader in the town
-- create human chains for communication in emergencies
-- be a resource to the whole community, not just members
-- make the church an information center for new residents
-- how do we distinguish ourselves from the fundamentalists?
-- what can we learn from the success of the fundamentalists?
-- Caution about too much change: maintain our faith in our intrinsic
ability to grow and evolve
-- follow up on people who come for a while, work too hard, get burned out
and leave: teach self-care, or build it into our church structure, as for
example giving committee members breaks or respites
-- gather more information about what people are looking for in church.
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TIM CLARK’S SESSIONS
MAY CLARK’S AND TOM BLODGETT’S SESSIONS
