Redevelopment Moment
We had our first Redevelopment Team (RT) meeting today and it was wonderful! Our RT members are Barbara Artuso, Mary Pauley, Jim Barry, Jim Wee, and me (Pastor Katie Jacob). Each of these members brings a diversity of gifts and passions to the table and all of us are excited to be part of a team who likes to spend time with one another and has great respect for each other’s gifts!
In our first meeting we spent time discussing a series of prayers that we used over the last two weeks. These prayers are attached and we invite you to share them with us! We found that these prayers helped broaden our vision of the gifts and passions around us. They also drew our attention to needs and growing edges (things that we can improve). Prayer is and will continue to be a central part of what we do!
We then reviewed our Redevelopment Covenant. We felt that for our team the most important part of that Covenant was the first item in the RT’s purpose: “discovering God’s Vision for the congregation.” It is God’s vision for our congregation that we are discerning. Not our vision and not even the congregation’s vision, but God’s. And it is not God’s vision for us as individuals or for our RT but for our congregation. We’ve attached the Covenant too so that all our Grace members can review it.
We then spent a lot of time discussing how we want to communicate with all our Grace members. We discovered that a core value of our RT is transparency. We are committed to sharing a Redevelopment Moment on Sundays summarizing our meetings and to share the moment in written form electronically. We also want to emphasize that people are encouraged to come talk to us throughout our redevelopment journey! This is about discovering God’s vision for our congregation, so we know that healthy and transparent communication as a congregation is very important.
Today, we want to end our summary by asking for your prayers. Redevelopment is a journey unlike any other! There will be challenges and growing pains as we seek to follow God in new ways. We do not yet know where God is taking us but we do know that it is God who is leading the way. Please keep our RT in ceaseless prayer as we discover God’s Vision for our congregation!