Looking to a Future: Faithful, Vital, Sustainable
A Listening and Discerning Year
in
Mandate: Responding
to advice from the Planning and Administration Committee and from the
President’s Committee on the Future of the Conference, the Executive of Alberta
and Northwest Conference determined to delay the 83rd Meeting of the
Conference to 2012. The Executive
directed the Executive Secretary “to
initiate consultation that engages the Conference widely in a process to make
the future work of the Conference faithful, vital and sustainable; including,
but not limited to, the examination of Presbytery boundaries, Conference
committees, staff complement and frequency of Conference Meetings.”
The presenting issues that lead us into this
journey are: financial forecast;
challenges and crises in some Presbyteries with respect to achieving their mandates;
changing environments in congregational life; changes in the General Council
work and priorities; ministry demographics; a changing external culture
(secularism, technology); and emotional and symbolic responses to change.
Whatever path we take into the future, the key to a
faithful, vital and sustainable journey rests in the sure and certain knowledge
that we are all part of the Body of Christ and are called to journey together
in partnership and hope, with God and into God’s future. The partnership of which we speak in this
venture is one that includes all of the faithful in our congregations, presbyteries,
presbyterials, committees, and groups throughout
The Executive has identified the importance of
grounding all of the work undertaken in the listening process in theological
reflection. Therefore, the first phase
of our process is an invitation to Presbyteries, Congregations, Conference
Committees, and individuals to take some time to reflect on the theological basis
for our work together, in preparation for later discussion about structures and
resources.
We are asking you to set aside some time between January and April 2011 to consider what grounds us theologically in this reflection
process.
Scripture passages and questions are provided to
guide your discussion. Please record
responses and return to the Conference Office by e-mail to: lmaki@anwconf.com
by April 30, 2011.
We Begin Together in Faith:
Gather in your group/court/committee and
clear a space around you so that you are able to see each other and there are
no papers, cell phones, laptops, or other distractions.
Light a candle or place a symbol of God’s Presence in the
centre of your space.
Pause in silence
Pray together:
God
of all creation, we offer you our thanksgiving for a time rich with
connections, among each other and with you.
We thank you for moments when we have experienced what it is to be
united even in our differences. Help us
to grow as a listening, discerning, learning people. Help us to give up patterns and structures that
enslave us and others. Help us to
acknowledge our fear and lean into your hope and your courage. Help us to grow in our trust in each other
and in your Spirit. Fill us with your
grace and with your wisdom, with your patience and with your love. Propel us into your future, rooted in the
richness of our past. In Christ we pray. Amen.
(from
“A Call to Purpose”, GC39)
Pause
in silence. Remember as many people as you
can who are directly impacted by your work and ministry. See them in your mind and heart. Hear their voices. Think about each and all of them. (allow 5-7 minutes for this individual time
in silent reflection)
Read
the following Passage from Paul’s first recorded letter to the church in
“For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with
Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body ... and we are
all made to drink of the one Spirit. Indeed the body does not consist of one
member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not
belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body ... If
the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? ... The eye cannot say
to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the foot, ‘I have
no need of you.’ ... Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of
it.”
1 Cor 12:12ff
Questions for Reflection:
Provide ample time for individual
reflection and group discussion of each of the following questions.
1.
How
would you describe yourself or your group/court/committee as part of the Body
of the Church within
2.
What
does your part of the Body need in order to change and grow in ways responsive
to the calling of the Spirit?
3.
How
would you describe yourself or your group/court/committee as a partner in
4.
What
gives you hope for the journey?
Identify
responses that you wish to have recorded and sent to the Executive Secretary,
as a record of your reflection and discussion.
Send these responses to lmaki@anwconf.com
If individuals would like to share
their responses in a more personal manner, please contact
II “Do you not know that you are God’s
temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?... God’s temple is Holy and you are
that temple.” 1 Cor. 3:16
We trust that we will find
strength for the journey by answering the call to a disciplined spiritual
practice as we make our way into and through the discernment to which we are
called. AMEN
Pause in silence, then provide time for individual
reflection and group discussion of the following questions.
Questions for reflection:
1.
Think
about what spiritual practice will sustain you or your group/court/ committee
during this time of pilgrimage. What resources will you need to sustain a
spiritual discipline of discernment? What commitment will you make to a
spiritual discipline?
2.
How
might the Conference assist you in accessing and/or developing resources to
support your spiritual practice?
Identify
responses you wish to have recorded and sent to the Executive Secretary.
Similarly, more personal responses are also welcome as above.
III “And God so loved the WORLD ...”
John 3:16
The task in this journey toward a sustainable
future is to build a vessel that will carry us with vitality into the future
God hopes for us. We will both listen
and watch for signs along the way – signs of a new day dawning as we look to
the horizon. We will name the elements
of the work comprising the mandate of the Conference and discern the kinds of
resources that will offer flexibility to meet a changing terrain in the church and
the world within the means of grace and abundance among and around us.
Question for Reflection:
1.
What
vision do you imagine God has for the work and role of
Record
and send your group response to the Executive Secretary.
IV “In the beginning when God created the
heavens and the earth...God said ‘Let there be light; and there was light ...” Genesis 1:1ff
Creating a future is different from defining a
future, balancing gifts and possibility alongside defining needs and solving
problems. The challenge for planning in
faith communities is this: While visions,
plans and committed leadership are important – no clear vision, nor detailed
plan, nor committed group of leaders have the power to bring an image of the future into existence
without the openness of the members of the community, both ordered and lay to
the wisdom that resides in each heart and to the Holy mystery that is God at
work in creation.
Questions for Reflection:
1.
What
God Given Gifts reside in you or your group/court/committee?
2.
How
are these gifts identified and shared?
3.
How
may your God Given Gifts contribute to our visioning process in the Conference?
Please
forward your responses to the Executive Secretary.
V. “For surely I know the plans I have for
you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a
future with hope.” Jeremiah
29:11-13
We open our minds and
hearts to collective wisdom and to your hopes and possibilities, Abundant
God. AMEN
Questions for Reflection:
1.
What
opens your mind and heart to God’s wisdom and to the wisdom of the community?
2.
What
do you need to see in order to trust this process and your calling to be part
of it?
Send
recorded responses to the Executive Secretary.
Thank you for taking time
to engage this reflection and discussion process. We hope you have found this opportunity
valuable and look forward to receiving your input.
Please send your responses
by e-mail to: lmaki@anwconf.com
Responses can also be sent
by post to:
9911-48
Avenue NW
For those who wish to respond
confidentially, please send an e-mail address to which a SurveyMonkey
instrument may be sent for anonymous replies.
Appendix
Here
are the steps we will engage on our Journey through the Listening Year. We look forward to your continued participation
on the pilgrimage.
Steps on the Journey:
The Looking to the Future process will take
place in four phases over three blocks of time through this listening year: Theological
Grounding; Data Gathering; Conversation, Prayer and Study; and, Tooling and
Testing a Vessel.
Theological Grounding: (January – April 2011)
This
activity will provide opportunity to explore why we are taking this journey and
what grounds us in the work. From
January to April we will explore questions that will deepen our
understanding. We will establish a
discipline of spiritual practice to sustain us as we travel.
Data Gathering: (January – April 2011)
We will assemble varieties
of pieces of information that will help us to explore the terrain and to
discover possibilities. This work will include:
·
A
review of the Conference Assessments History over the Past Decade
·
A
Demographic and Psychographic review of
·
A
review of trends and contemporary approaches emanating from the General Council
with respect to Pastoral Relations,
Ministry Formation, Mission and Ministry Support and Development, Justice Ministries, Funding Mechanisms, and
Changing Roles in the Church Courts.
·
A
review of congregation types within the Conference
·
Review
of evaluation reports generated in the Conference over the past five years
Conversation Prayer and Study: (May - November 2011)
The profile resulting from
the Data Gathering Phase, combined with a deep engagement with the Theological
Principles, will provide a platform for conversations, prayerful reflection and
study in Presbyteries and Presbyterials, Conference Executive and Committees, the
Conference Staff Team, Youth, GC Commissioners, Varieties of Ministry
Personnel, both active and retired/retained; and congregations.
We
will engage the skills of a consultant to assist in identifying how to approach
different groups and individuals in, on the edge, and outside the church. Among the tools we will consider: surveys,
focus groups, social media.
Tooling and Testing a Vessel: (January – April 2012)
Either
a) a
draft plan or
b) a series of options
to be
presented to the Conference for decision at the 83rd Meeting of
Alberta and Northwest Conference in 2012.
A) or B) will be contingent on direction from the Conference Executive.