September 12, 2024
Dear siblings in Christ,
It’s time for an update about our ongoing work clarifying what God is calling us to be and do. Why is our congregation here?
We began with the foundational work of our Discernment Team. With input from both the congregation and our neighbors, we discerned that St. Simon’s is called to ensure that everyone experiences the abundant life Jesus came to bring. Toward that overarching result, we are specifically called to ensure that everyone experiences delight, has their basic needs met, and is connected to community.
One of the Vestry’s roles is to work with the Rector to guide our congregation as we carry out our mission and ministry, so their leadership in this ongoing work is appropriate. Last month, the Vestry chose to use an innovative and forward-looking program called The Good Futures Accelerator. Check it out at https://www.rootedgood.org/good-futures. We received a generous scholarship grant from Trinity Wall Street to offset the cost of the program. This is a seven-session course that builds on the foundations already laid by the Discernment Team, and will help us explore how we can act on that call. It will take us between seven and nine months to complete and there will be two important times the whole congregation will be asked to participate. (Save the date for October 19, which we think will be the first one…) Good Futures introduces the program this way:
We are in the midst of a significant season of change. Across the nation, congregations of all kinds are experiencing changing patterns of attendance, membership, and giving, all while many of their local communities and neighborhoods are also undergoing significant change.
This context leads to significant theological questions and economic challenges. How do we best serve our wider community, when our wider community has changed so much? How do we stay rooted in our tradition but also adapt to be able to respond to a changing context? In this post-pandemic world, how do we rediscover our identity and purpose? These are all questions we have heard time and time again, and have asked ourselves.
At the same time, another set of questions and challenges is becoming ever more urgent. How can we generate enough income to survive the next five years? How can we best use our buildings and land, now that we aren’t using them as much as we once were? Our space was designed for the congregation we used to be. What does it mean to redesign it for who we will be tomorrow?
We believe that these two sets of questions are profoundly related. Both sets of questions need to be asked together, not separately. This moment offers an opportunity to explore new, creative ways of fulfilling your congregation’s mission and purpose that also generate new forms of income and find new, sustainable ways to use your land and buildings.
We don’t think social enterprise is the “silver bullet” that will solve all the problems that the church faces. However, it is an important tool in the toolkit that can help your congregation become both resilient and impactful, becoming more and more the church that the world needs.
Much of this sounds very familiar. These are questions we have been batting about for nearly four years now, and ones to which we are beginning to hear some answers. I am so very curious to see where God leads us on the next leg of our discernment journey together.
With love and in faith,
Jenny+
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