What is our COMMON VISION?

Vision Casting at St. Paul’s: What is our COMMON VISION?

Back on March 3^rd, during the session where I shared the results and some thoughts about our special General Conference session in February, I shared the results of our Vision Casting sessions.  Over several meetings and Epistle articles spanning several months, we identified five CORE VALUES (inclusiveness, faith, inspiration, serving, hope) and several sketches of a potential COMMON VISION.  On March 3^rd, I invited the participants to rank the sketches of our COMMON VISION and suggest edits.  These were the top three vision sketches:

First Ranked

We are an INCLUSIVE church which invites everyone into fellowship with us.  Our focus is on helping everyone to grow a living FAITH in Jesus Christ.  We accomplish this by creating INSPIRATIONAL worship and learning opportunities, and actively SERVING God and our neighbors to reveal God’s hands working in the world and share HOPE. 

Second Ranked

St. Paul’s is an inclusive church, loving everyone and inviting all to celebrate faith; find inspiration; and actively serve God and neighbor to share hope.

Third Ranked

A loving, inclusive community where we can grow in faith, find hope, and work with others to share hope.

After looking at the results and comments, the first ranked vision was preferred because it included all of our CORE VALUES and helped to clarify why we uphold these values.  Its disadvantage was its length and wordiness.  Those who preferred the second ranked, liked the brevity and active uplifting wording, such as loving, inviting, and celebrate.  The third ranked was chosen for reasons similar to the second ranked.  Using this information, I reworked the first ranked into the following:

We are an INCLUSIVE church: loving everyone and inviting all;
celebrating, growing, and living FAITH in Jesus Christ by
finding INSPIRATION through worship, study,
and actively SERVING God and neighbors to share HOPE. 

          I am planning on bringing all four options before the Church Council next Tuesday April 9^th at 7:00PM to ask their approval of one of the sketches as our new COMMON VISION.  I’ll follow up with an article in the Mid-week Epistle to let everyone know of the result and then announce it in church. 

          I am so enthusiastic about our shared core values and common vision!  As our denomination enters a very uncertain time, we at St. Paul’s can be assured that we stand together, linked arm in arm by our core values.  AND that we have a clear way forward, defined by and enlightened by our common vision of how we at St. Paul’s chooses to live by our faith in Jesus Christ.  We are entering a very exciting time in the life of our church!

In Christ’s Love,

Jason