Grace has been going through a process initiated by the Northeast District of the North Alabama Conference called “Leveraged Church.” This has involved a series of workshops for both staff and lay leaders aimed at helping us clearly define what our unique identity is so that we might better leverage our strengths in making and growing disciples of Jesus Christ. Likewise, these workshops have emphasized how defining who we are tells us what we’re not. Collaboratively, we have come to discover that trying to do too much spreads our resources of all types too thin. Worse, it ignores discerning the unique gifts and talents that God has blessed Grace UMC with. It was out of this learning and process that Pastor Bryan, the staff, and lay leaders in the church put on paper our best understanding of who God is calling us to be. After many deliberations in many different settings, our new vision, core values, annual goals, and strategic plan were unanimously approved by the Church Council on April 10th. Now begins the work of embedding this unique calling into the DNA of our church.
A mission of any organization is its primary purpose. It answers the “what we do” question about our church. As a church, we’ve had a mission statement for some time. Most churches share a relatively similar mission to ours – it is something that unites us with the global body of Christ. Our mission is “Praising God, Proclaiming Christ, Serving Others.” During the Leveraged Church process, we’ve not tinkered with our mission, but rather thought about the unique ways in which we might accomplish that mission.
This search for our uniqueness has led to the formation of our vision and core values. A vision answers the question, “how do we do” what we do. While our church mission might be virtually the same as any church, our vision is unique to who we are at Grace UMC. In part, it describes who we are, but also calls us forward into the future – into who God is shaping us to be. After many conversations and much discernment, we’ve come to the conclusion that our church creates and hosts “points of connections” that cross all sorts of boundaries in ways that we feel is pretty unusual for churches. We’ve continued to discover how much intergenerational interaction there is, many have seen value in the diversity of theological and political opinion within our church, and we’ve how our congregation interacts with community groups. Moreover, these connections seem to be points of pride and even sacredness. It is our conviction that such connections can be avenues for taking next steps in our spiritual lives. These next steps could take many different forms. It might be simply knowing someone with in a church, even entering the physical doors of a church, it might be serving in a specific ministry, it might be healing past pain or abandoning guilt, it might be church membership. The phrase “next steps” is intentionally open so that it might be applicable to the first nudging of the Spirit in someone’s life or to whatever God might be up to in the heart of a seasoned saint. The vision – which you’ll be hearing over and over again, is: “We are passionate about creating and hosting points of connection leading to next steps in people’s lives for the transformation of our community.”
Like our vision, our core values are unique to who we are as a congregation, but also who we want to continue to become. An organization’s core values are the values for which they are willing to hold themselves accountable. They answer the question, “why do we do things the way we do?” In no particular order, we have discerned that we value “abundant hospitality,” “hosting various perspectives,” “mentoring the emerging generation,” and “engaging the arts.” In addition to leaning towards all of these values already, we hope that they might be embedded even deeper into who we are.
Mission, vision, core value statements are all nice, but unless they do more than exist on paper, they are of no value. So, we’ve set some very specific goals for ourselves as a church. Each year, our ministry team has had a history of setting goals for themselves. This year, we’ve taken another step in adopting three church-wide goals fueled by our mission, vision, and values. These goals will help guide us as we budget, make plans within ministry teams, and recruit leadership and servants within the church. The goals adopted by Church Council in April are intended to be for 2012-2013. We hope to have achieved them by the end of 2013. In 2013, discernment will begin over our 2014 goals. This way our church goals are set before nominations and the budget process. Our goals for 2012-2013 are:
Every member a ministry, every follower a fellowship – Our goal is to get our members and active visitors involved in at least one ongoing ministry initiative and one ongoing fellowship group.
Develop and implement a follow-up strategy to connect with Grace’s visitors and members – Our goal is to keep members and visitors from “falling through the cracks” by developing a system so that we might stay better connected and in ministry with all our members and visitors.
Build a house in the Upper Sand Mountain Parish – Involve 100 people at Grace in planning, funding, supporting and building a home for a family in the Upper Sand Mountain Parish.
Now that we’ve adopted our vision, core values, and goals – what we need is YOU. We’re hopeful that everything we do as a church advances our vision, is faithful to our core values, and considers how we might make progress in meeting our goals. If one or more of the goals already resonates with you, we hope you will let Pastor Bryan or Pastor Todd know so that we can make sure to enlist you as part of the leadership team helping the church accomplish these goals. Lastly, we hope you will take the time to wrestle with, internalize, learn and memorize our vision and values.
“Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:7-9)
A concise listing of our mission, vision, values, and goals are now listed on our “About Us” page.
