A Community of Renewed Spirit
We’re Back! —
Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes for an enjoyable vacation and a safe return!
For an excellent update/summary of where we stand in the process of renewal at St. Paul’s, I invite you to click on the “latest epistle” at the top of this Weekly Newsletter for access to the August/September Epistle and the article written by Ross Fraser, our Senior Warden. If you still have questions, please contact one of the people mentioned in that article.
Expanding on the general concept of congregational renewal, the Partnership Ministries website shares a perspective I find interesting:
“Renewal is the stirring up of the people of God in a given area to the love and purpose of God with a fresh awareness of the activity of the Holy Spirit and a return to the seeking of God’s power in their lives. It is an empowering of the Holy Spirit and an enrichment of the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, often releasing a new discovery of praise and adoration and worship with a fresh understanding of God’s call in our lives.”
Sounds like something worth doing, doesnt’t it!?! Thanks for your patience as we continue taking one faithful step at a time.
Epistle Article - August/September 2022
For the last few months, the team of Saoirse Charis-Graves, Hank Head, James Buck, and I have been working on the follow-up to the many conversations some of our lay leaders have had with members of the congregation. We collected all of the comments made by YOU, the parish members, as we discussed the longings and losses all of us have felt as we are emerging from the last few years of challenges in our community. There were over 160 expressions of longings and losses. We took these with us when we met with Scott Cormode in Los Angeles in early June. He advised us to delve deeper into the feeling that underly these expressions and try to consolidate into a small number of longings and losses that represent these individual expressions. We are currently working on that consolidation and find that the task really takes a good amount of discussion and discernment. Our timing has also been affected by the impact of Covid cases and regular summer travel schedules.
We expect that the analysis and consolidation will take us through August. After Labor Day we will be inviting the participants in the Listening Discussion groups and other lay leaders who were not able to participate in the spring classes to meet with us to review the work we have done. These meetings will be an opportunity to test our analysis with a larger group of Lay Leaders, identify any additional work that needs to be done before we invite all the congregation to discuss our findings, and identify some action steps to keep our renewal process moving forward. Following the meetings with the Lay Leaders, we expect to invite the full congregation to meetings in October to share the information and discuss next steps.
Please keep a lookout for future announcements and invitations to participate in the process. If anyone would like to have a confidential conversation with one of our listeners, please contact Hank Head to arrange a time.
In gratitude for all who have participated in our renewal journey – class members, congregants who had individual conversations, congregants who offered comments or asked questions along the way, anyone who has taken an interest in any way. Thank you. We could not make progress without you. Stay tuned……
Ross Fraser, Senior Warden
The Future God is Inviting Us To — Week of July 6th
We, who find ourselves in the role of leadership in St. Paul’s renewal journey, appreciate your continued interest and commitment to discerning God’s will for our church and finding ways to act on God’s vision for us.
We have found there are deeper meanings in the stories you have shared with the lay leaders who participated in the learning sessions and the listening project. Our initial analysis of your input left us with only a surface understanding of what you were telling us. We continue to consult with Dr. Scott Cormode and pray for God’s guidance to ensure we really have heard what you are saying and fully understand what all of it means to our renewal. What we thought would lead to a series of “fix it” projects is revealing itself to be something potentially much more meaningful. Thanks for continuing with us on the journey to discover the future God is inviting us to.
We are still listening, so if you would like to share your stories with one of the lay leaders, please contact Hank Head at hwhead@gmail.com or (317) 750-1041.
We will get you connected with someone you can be comfortable with as you contribute to the renewal at St. Paul’s. We’re all in this together…let’s connect!
Meeting with Scott Cormode — Week of June 29th
On Monday we met with Scott Cormode who generously offered to continue to help us as we sort through the information gained through the congregant connections. His experience with over a hundred congregations shows through in his valuable insights and guidance.
We are in the later stages of analyzing and understanding the deeper longings indicated in the stories captured within the summaries of conversations provided by the lay leaders. As a group, we continue to develop deeper insights and understanding of what is weighing on the hearts of our congregation.
Our next faithful step is to take a final look at the deeper longings we have before us and discern if there is a primary longing (or possibly two or three) that encompasses the majority of the input. We will then begin to prepare the summary of the process and thinking so we can share it more broadly. We still intend to begin that sharing first with the lay leaders who participated in the learning sessions and the listening project.
We are still listening, so if you would like to share your stories with one of the lay leaders, please contact Hank Head at hwhead@gmail.com or (317) 750-1041. We will get you connected with someone whom you can be comfortable with as you contribute to the renewal at St. Paul’s. We’re all in this together … let’s connect!
What Future is God Inviting Us To? — Week of June 22nd
As shared with you last week, we came away from the Innovation Summit in Los Angeles with additional work to do. We committed to give more thought to the underlying longings/losses in the information gathered during the listening sessions with congregants. We learned from the discussions that longings or losses shared by those entrusted to our care are often coming from a deeper concern than is expressed directly. We will finish that work this week and schedule the follow-up visit with Scott Cormode. He has graciously offered his time to help us arrive at the “project” that will best serve our parish in its renewal journey. Discerning the future God is inviting us to is most important.
The gathering of the participants in the learning session has been postponed until after the visit with Scott Cormode. Again…we feel it is very important to have a solid understanding of the implications of your input to share with them. Please continue to watch this space as we continue to take the next faithful step on our renewal journey.
In the meantime we are adding new information to the results of the listening project as they come in. The more we learn…the better! Each addition keeps us anchored in what matters most to you. If you have not participated in a listening session with one of the learning session participants and would like to share what’s important to you…we’re listening. We have lay leaders who would love to engage with you and really listen to what’s on your mind. Please contact Hank Head at hwhead@gmail.com or (317) 750-1041 and get a connection scheduled with someone you can be comfortable with.
Latest Information — Week of June 15th
The Innovation Summit hosted by Scott Cormode was informative and confirmed we are on the right path in our journey of renewal. Dr. Cormode invested time with the representatives of each church in addition to facilitating a well- organized and productive general session.
We recognize a need to do a bit more work in the analysis and interpretation of the input received in the congregant connections summarized by the lay leader participants in our learning sessions. The anticipated outcome is that we will be able to identify a project that best supports the congregation in our renewal at St. Paul’s. The group will meet to share outcomes with the lay leader participants and decide on next steps. The scheduling of the meeting has been delayed by several positive tests for COVID recently. While the next steps are important, the health of our congregation is a priority.
We invite each of you to participate in the renewal by sharing your thoughts. If you have not been contacted and would like to have a conversation with one of us, please contact Hank Head at (317) 750-1041 or email to hwhead@gmail.com.