We are a different church today than we were eight years ago when I first came to Battle Creek. Some familiar faces are no longer present when we gather. Beloved members and staff have died, moved away, become infirmed or have left our faith community. Other new faces have come into our church life, some at our 10:00 service and lots at our Koinonia celebration (which only began meeting in 2011).
For the last six years, we have been guided by the recommendations of Paul Nixon, the church consultant and author of the book, “I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church.” Nixon met with us, studied our demographics, financial trends, membership data and helped us identify the most urgent priorities for our life together.
His consultation helped us recognize that as a downtown church with an aging membership, we had a limited window of opportunity to reach out to expand our congregation by attracting younger and more diverse people. His recommendations included:
· Hire an outstanding associate to help us reach the young adults who are not currently in our congregation.
· Reduce the debt burden by at least half
· Market our Open and Affirming status to intentionally create a more diverse church
· Grow the number of small groups until at least half of the worship attendance is engaged in small groups.
· Think families with kids in all things
· Pay close attention to worship growth.
The good news is that we’ve made significant progress on each of these priorities. That is why we are a different church today then we were when I first came. And because of the progress we have made and the growth that we have experienced, we have lots of new questions and issues to faithfully discern today.
That is why our church council has decided to engage the entire congregation in a ninety day discernment process called, “ReVision.” The purpose of the ReVision process to clarify our understanding of the desired future that God is calling us to embody in our life together. Through a series of six small group conversations, we will work at discerning God’s vision, mission and core values for our faith community.
We will begin the ReVision process in September of this year by inviting everyone to share a daily prayer discipline. In our worship life we will focus on the sacred texts and songs that speak to the purpose and mission of the church. And during September, October and November, we will invite everyone to join a small group that will share six guided conversations to help us listen closely to God’s claim on our lives.
At the heart of the ReVision process is the assumption that vision is discerned in community. It comes to us from God but requires us to listen intently as God speaks through every voice to articulate God’s desired future for First Congregational Church of Battle Creek.
Having greater clarity about our shared vision, mission and core values will help us navigate all of the perplexing challenges and choices we will face as we move forward together in faith. I look forward to engaging in this community wide discernment process with you throughout the months ahead.
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