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May ePonderings
from Pastor Paul

VISION 20/20...You will be hearing this phrase a lot over the next several months

At our special congregational meeting, the Peace United Church of Christ congregation voted unanimously to move ahead with developing an intentional visioning process for our church.  To most effectively lead this process, the church voted to contract with Rev. Anthony Robinson to be our Vision Consultant.  Rev. Robinson has been receiving information about Peace UCC, and your VISION 20/20 Team is busy making the necessary arrangements for Rev. Robinson to spend a weekend with us in May (May 18-20).   Over this weekend, Rev. Robinson will spend time talking with people in the church and community about “WHO WE ARE” as Peace United Church of Christ in Rochester, MN.  Further, every member of Peace UCC will have an opportunity to provide input about Peace UCC (and what your future dreams are for the next 7-10 years) through a paper survey and an electronic survey.  The paper surveys are available at the church office.  We are, however, STRONGLY encouraging people who have on-line access to use the on-line evaluation process.  Using the on-line survey is much more efficient and effective and allows the answers to be tabulated immediately.  Specifics on LOG-IN information will be emailed to everyone on our list; the survey is being hosted via SurveyMonkey (an on-line survey application).   (Please note that only surveys that have names associated with them will be used.  If a survey is completed without a name, the information will not be included with our results.)

BOTH PAPER AND ON-LINE SURVEYS ARE DUE TO MAY 20!

The first phase of Rev. Robinson’s work will be to assimilate this information and help us create:

A Vision Statement for Peace United Church of Christ

A Mission Statement for Peace United Church of Christ

A set of “core values” that are essential to all of our ministries/programs at Peace UCC

The second phase of the VISION 20/20 initiative is to use the information from the development of the Vision, Mission, Core Values, and dreams for the future to develop a dynamic ministry plan for the next 7—10 years.  This work will allow us to discern what our future facility, staffing, and ministry needs are, and to create a structure to most effectively manage these emerging ministry/program needs.

The goal is to have all of this administrative/development work completed by the end of November 2012.  Over the next 6 months, the VISION 20/20 Team will be working with Rev. Robinson to develop this full-scope plan.  This work will be completed by the VISION 20/20 Team who will present the comprehensive plan to the Church Council, and finally to the entire Peace UCC congregation for approval at the January 2013 Annual Meeting.

As you can see, this process involves the input from the ENTIRE CONGREGATION.  It will also require the creative and committed work of our dynamic VISION 20/20 Team.  Most importantly it will require PRAYERS to be lifted up by all of you for discernment and direction as we minister together into the future.

May God guide us and direct us on this vital and important part of our journey!

Peace and Blessings,

Pastor Paul