Our Bold Faithfulness Lead Team has continued to be hard at work over the past couple of months. As you will recall, this team did an enormous amount of work in the fall to help us center on a clear sense of calling in the main areas of our church ministries and to recommend potential initiatives that could be continued or begun to help us live into that calling. In December those statements of call were brought to the church and overwhelmingly received the blessing of the congregation as an affirmation of God’s call on us at this time in our history.
The work that now continues is to process through the congregational feedback on the potential initiatives, make modifications as necessary, and begin to place those initiatives into the hands of appropriate committees and teams to carry them forward within the framework of our organizational structure. This important work is beginning with the initiatives that pertain to the facilities because we need to move that work forward as soon as possible.
The facilities work is of such importance that back in December, the Church Council, who formed the Bold Faithfulness Lead Team, urged the team to move forward in the following manner. The Lead Team would pull in a few members of the original Facilities Task Force, and this combined group would work together to bring all of our facilities work into a final plan for the church to vote on. The work of the Facilities Task Force in 2022-23 gave us a great overarching framework and handled many of the major needs facing our facilities. The work of the Bold Faithfulness Lead Team handled several of the unanswered questions about excess space and offered new uses of our facilities to help us live into our newly discerned sense of call. The plans are largely compatible, but will require some give and take from both groups to make it all work. Also, there is congregational feedback from the Bold Faithfulness sessions that is to be taken into account. And finally, there is the hard work of prioritization that will need to be accomplished, too. Both of these groups have done great work, and having voices from both groups at the table will make sure we don’t lose something from each one.
This work by the combined Bold Faithfulness Lead Team and the Facilities Task Force, lovingly referred to as the BFF (Bold Faithfulness and Facilities), has begun in full force. The BFF has identified the major areas where concrete decisions are yet to be made—such as whether we will sell, lease, or utilize property across York Street, whether we will keep pews or use new seating in our sanctuary, etc. The group is doing good research to weigh the various possibilities at this stage. In late February, Bill Wilson will meet in person with this group to help them land these difficult but vital decisions. Once decisions have been made, they will, of course, be brought to the congregation for conversation and a vote.
It is also important for you to know that the church council is actively preparing for when we will have these decisions in hand and voted on by the church. They are working with building and capital campaign experts to determine what assistance we will need and are working on the slate for a building committee to be brought to the church for consideration at the appropriate time.
Once the BFF has completed its work on facility decisions, brought those to the church, and handed finalized recommendations off to a building committee, the Bold Faithfulness Lead Team will then turn its attention to the non-facility initiatives. They will continue to consider feedback from the church at that time, make appropriate adjustments, and place those initiatives into the hands of appropriate committees and teams.
With great leaders working diligently in so many areas of our church life, we have great reason to hope for what is ahead as we radically pursue loving like Jesus!!!
Grace and Peace,
John
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