COVID or no COVID, we’re forging ahead! Many us expected that, at this time of the year in 2020, we would be finalizing our “Season of Visioning” in the Priest-in-Charge process. None of us could have expected what would ended up coming down the road in March! But, as spring transitioned into summer, we began to see a couple of things.
First, “return to normal” probably wasn’t going to happen — not just any time soon, but probably never. That didn’t mean, of course, that we wouldn’t be back in our building with a full range of programmatic and worship offerings. But we’ve learned a lot in the meantime . . . and what we’ve learned will affect how we move forward. (Who knew what effect ZOOM would have on our common life.)
Second, recognizing that the post-COVID world would look a lot different from the pre-COVID world suggested that the ways we thought about our “Vision” for the future would change. We would need to take into account what we learned from our experiments with “broadcast” liturgies. We would need to exploit the opportunities ZOOM has offered for different kinds of Christian formation. We began to see that there were needs in our neighborhood that were amplified by the rigors of COVID-land. And so, the Transition Team took advantage of the Faith Forum “time slot” after our Sunday worship to engage the congregation in some “visioning conversations”, centered around the larger theme: "How does Good Shepherd see itself in a post-COVID landscape?”
The questions that were discussed were:
What is Good Shepherd’s purpose now on the corner of Dry Creek & Yosemite? Into what are we leaning? Does our local community cry out for something other than what we are providing? What are we providing? Why does Good Shepherd even exist? Who are the people we serve?
What are Good Shepherd’s strengths? What brings you back to Good Shepherd time and time again? What are the stories we love to tell about Good Shepherd? What are the commonalities in these stories, if any? If you had to move away and start a new church, what core values and strategies would you take from Good Shepherd to implement in the new church?
What does Good Shepherd “feel like” in a year, 5 years, 10 years, and beyond? Or imagine it is 2025. Of what are you proudest when you talk about Good Shepherd?
What breakthroughs have happened that have launched Good Shepherd into our new reality? What would we attempt for God if we knew we could not fail? What strategies should Good Shepherd implement so as to thrive during and post pandemic?
How do we teach people at Good Shepherd to live into their Baptismal Covenant? What does diversity look like at Good Shepherd? In what ways are we diverse? How can we become more diverse?
How do we define “outreach”? How do we want to be involved in it? Have we recognized all of the allies that we should? What allies do we need to recognize in carrying out our greater mission?
On Youth Sunday (August 30), there were an additional set of questions focused primarily on youth and family ministries: What is the purpose of our ministry with children/youth? What is our big-picture goal for ministry with children/youth? What are the spiritual needs of the children in our church and/or our community? How can we best identify and meet those needs? When our kids graduate from high school, they “are able to” . . . .
My favorite part of attending church as a family is . . . . If we knew we couldn’t fail, our ministry to families would . . . . It’s 2025. When we’re talking to new families, we are proud to tell them that Good Shepherd . . . .
The discussions were rich and provided great material for the Transition Team. And that Team will be working in September to hone what we’ve learned into a draft Vision/Mission for congregational input. This is an invigorating process—amplified by new possibilities that were created (or exposed) by the COVID crisis. But we will come out strong and vibrant.
If you missed the discussions (or any of the weeks), and would like to weigh in on any of the questions, please contact one of the members of the Team: Becky Beall Moore, Jim Wolfe, Deb Sampson, Randy Hubbard, Shane Jones, Carl Algermissen, Karin Elsen, Christina Blackburn, Sally VanWelden, or myself.
In the meantime, pray for our common wisdom and discernment . . . as the future’s coming at us fast and furious. God is giving us great opportunities, and is asking great things!