[printprofilepic]Last month Reverend John asked the question: Who are we at our best, when the congregation is most alive, engaged and committed? (And who do we want to be?) I have been thinking about this and find I have a hard time answering it, but I think part of the answer is actually found in the question. It is when we are most engaged and committed that we are at our best. A work party at the church is a good example. A group of people is present with purpose and goals in mind. We work at our assigned tasks, we visit, we solve problems, and we have fun. We are in communion, and when we leave we feel we have accomplished something important whether the task was small or large. We enjoyed ourselves and often feel a deeper relationship with at least one other person. I’m sure many of you have better examples of who we have been and who we want to be in the community, but this is a start for me. Please think about this question in the coming months as we prepare for the “Searching for the Future” workshop in January to construct a vision of who we want to be and a mission to help us achieve our vision.
…
I recently met with Rick Bolton, chairperson of the Building Plans Steering Committee. Some of the committee took a bit of a break this summer after their hard work on getting the Charge to the Architect ready for presentation to the congregation. It is expected that the charge will be revised after our visioning workshop and then presented again to the congregation. I am confident that we will have a good idea of some of the details we were missing and this should pave the way to the next step of choosing an architect. The Architect Selection Committee has been hard at work and will be ready to move again once the congregation approves the charge. The project is going forward, but right now some other details are being attended to.
…
As the year is spinning up, the board is getting to know each other and is starting to understand the tasks we must do and the tasks we want to do. We realize that we need to establish and write policies to guide us. Last year the communications committee wrote a privacy policy that was approved by the board. Several years ago the van use committee wrote a policy to guide the use of the church van. Policies help to guide us and keep us safe. As situations arise that require making decisions, it is helpful to have written policy to look to make good consistent decisions. At this point, I am not 100% sure exactly what needs to be done. It has been requested that a comprehensive safety policy be drafted. That’s a good place to start. I have a feeling there are a number of policies already written that need to be collected, looked over and edited as needed and put in a place accessible to everyone. The board will be working on this project throughout the year.
Rebecca Howard
2009-2010 Church President
