Visioning Workshop
The workshop on March 24 was fertile ground for ideas and honest exchanges. Led by Dwayne Hodgson, participants completed several small-group tasks. Here are Dwayne’s notes from "Task 1, Tell Me About Your Church."
2012 Visioning Process @ Church of the Ascension
Workshop #2 – March 24, 2012
Part C. Who Are We?
Task 1. Tell Me About Your Church…
In table groups of four, discuss:
How do you describe Ascension to people who say, “Tell me about your church...”
Write up to ten adjectives that you used to describe Ascension on a flip chart page.
Share your list with the large group. We’ll hear all.
Your Responses
Here is a list of your responses at the workshop clustered by theme and then in order of frequency (from multiple to single mentions). NB: We did not attempt to validate or prioritize these descriptors. Thus, the fact that something was mentioned only does not reflect its importance.
non-judgmental (x 3); validating, no guilt trips; open; open-minded inclusive – not just of minorities, but everyone; no strict rules/non-coercive; accepting; non-dogmatic; open-minded; inclusive; out of love/faith (not judgment)
social justice x 2; love for Jesus and justice (but not evangelical);
gospel in action; living Micah 6:8: seeking justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God; aware; environment / creation awareness;
intergenerational x2 (& thus, not particularly quiet); child-friendly x 2; lots of lively kids who are integral to the community;
diverse (x 2); a cross-section of people from various church backgrounds
non-denominational feel;
challenging sermons à spiritual growth;
sermons with a path forward
Christ-centred; grounded in God, in the Bible & in our day-to-day;
casual (x2); no dress code
loving, compassionate x2;
committed x2
authentic; real
community; feels like home (family)
warm / friendly kindly
enjoyable; fun
building – small, beautiful, stained-glass windows
Anglican Eucharist
intimate
flexible
questioning
creative
engaging
participatory
intentional
dedicated
stewarding
hard to find
outward looking,
not static
Ascension Visioning: Identifying Key Questions
Review the questions identified by the community at the Town Hall on January 29. Scroll to the bottom to add additional questions you think we need to discuss as a community during our visioning process. Additional questions may or may not fit into existing clusters.
Clergy/Leadership Transition
- How do we and the Bishop find the person God wants to follow Gary and Linda?
- What does Gary provide that we need as a community?
- What are our criteria for our next priest?
- How will we transition through Gary’s retirement?
- Leadership -à Transition? Capturing the Spirit
- “Is there life after Gary?”
- How do we maintain our strong sense of community during a period of changing leadership?
- How to transition successfully?
“Inreach” – Serving Each Other
- How do we help people to come forward and share their gifts?
- How do we match up our vision with our capacity to deliver? (volunteers)
- If the community isn’t motivated/inspired, are there activities we should let go?
- How to become a community that discovers and nurtures people’s true gifts.
- How to become a community where people can step back when stressed.
- How to explore our relationships with time so that people are comfortably sharing gifts
- What’s keeping us back from volunteering and deepening our engagement with the community? What will enable us to do this?
Pastoral Care
How can we involve members of the congregation in expanding our pastoral care?
Children and Youth
- How do we expand involvement in the children’s programs – beyond the people with kids?
- Would young adult programs be beneficial? How do we evolve our children/youth programs?
- How do we sustain quality children’s programming?
- What can we do to maintain our children’s interest and commitment as they move into
- their teen years? i.e. trips
- How to support teens
- The youth gap
- Children’s and teens’ needs
Outreach
- What is outreach to the community?
- Social justice?
- Spreading the Gospel message?
- Both intertwined?
- How as a community do we determine our outreach priorities over the next 5 years?
- How to nurture and support parishioner’s faithful work outside the church?
- What do we mean by outreach? What does it encompass? Where do we start?
Worship
- How do we reconcile tension between informal and formal worship styles?
- How to keep worship growing
Identity
- How do we nurture a diverse community with different wants and needs? What are we prepared to do?
- We think our church growth is through:
- Word of mouth
- East Africans
- Local geography
- Social justice types
- Is this agreed?
- Then how do we be church best for that “nich with soft edges” community?
- Balance: Local and diaspora
- Balance: Jesus, Justice, Knowledge, Mystery
- How important is this locale?
- How do our paln/hope/vision fit into diocesan plan/hope/vision?
Marketing
- Better communication – how to let people know who we are and where we are
- How do we relate to and get to know the wider communities?
Sustainability
- How can we continue to be sustainable?
- What are our priorities? Outreach, ministries and programs (only do what we can maintain)
- How can we grow/continue our commitment to a green and sustainable church/community?
Priorities:
- Identity
- Inreach
- Transistion
- Children and Youth
Opportunities to pray about these questions
Ascension Visioning: Initial Survey Results
View the starting point for our Visioning---the findings from our recent survey:
Ascension_2012_VIsioning_Data_v2.pdf
What other questions do we need to discuss as a community? Add your comments here.
How can we better welcome and relate to them?
What is our relationship to the Romanian community that rents the church? Can we do more to integrate with them?
How do the larger changes in the Deanery (e.g. St. Alban's, All Saint's Sandy Hill) and the Diocese (e.g. funding, sustainability) frame our decisions at Ascension?