The Glen Waverley Uniting Church PSALTER
FUTURE DIRECTIONS STEERING COMMITTEE
Agenda 5 Jun 2013
Apologies: MarkEaston, BronwynLowe
- Community of Love
- Spirituality – Psalm 46
- Some notes jotted down from the "WE'RE LISTENING" session on 2 Jun 2013:
- Why are we in this situation?
- Why 10 council lies?
- Problem with UCA strategies
- Problem with 2 ministers
- We want people to love each other
- Accept and Affirm
- Communications!
- More fellowship - is this the answer?
- Being more open and respectful
- 9am service changes start of breakdown
- Group size is a key issue
Comments from JitTan:
The role of the Ministry Team in the new structure for GWUC
I think it is important that the ministry team should also be included in the new structure. It may be understood that the team has a vital role but it has to be structured in.
In Acts 6:1-4 we have God's guidance in this matter. The twelve apostles found that the daily tasks of donations, distribution and complaints detracted them from prayer and the ministry of the word of God. Therefore they summoned their disciples to appoint others to do the work.
The new structure for GWUC seems to have addressed this second part of the Scripture lesson but have we articulated what the role the ministry team should be?
I believe that the ministry team sits with the church council and the various mission groups to overseer the spiritual life of the church. The team gives spiritual direction by listening with love, wisdom and insight Members of the team discern and identify church members with talents to serve and they will do this by encouraging members to attend bible studies and by visiting members in homes for meal and other fellowship.
To sustain this new lean structure of about 12 council members the ministry team must be on the constant look out for fresh talents and the only way to do this is through the above practices. Otherwise there will be burnt out in the new appointees of the new council.
Comments from MarkEaston:
I thought I would provide some feedback for tomorrow night mainly from Sunday.
One thing that I got from Sunday was an appreciation for Margaret's comments about how some in the church are currently feeling. I was hoping to go to 7pm but did not, but a comment of their feeling related to me was that in general they are very supportive of change and are used to being ignored. So again the difference between the different parts of the church and their attitudes was reinforced to me and makes me wonder if we can really move forward together. Lots of prayers for God's grace in this is needed, but I wonder if there is a point at which people should follow their own callings from God, which may take them in different directions even if it is the same God leading them. I saw the issues that came up on Sunday morning as:- 'Why have we lost two ministers? We did not get a straight answer from presbytery.' I think that us talking directly about the issues in the ministry team was helpful. What I have realised is that as church we often keep things confidential in a framework of pastoral care, which is often appropriate in one on one situations. However, when running an organisation the most important issue is transparency and openness. I wonder, if as a church, we tend to be individually pastoral but applying this to how we run our organisation breeds mistrust and dissonance.
- 'Worship'. People wanted to talk about the problems with worship. I am not sure that we can get over this issue as it is so divisive with such opposing views. Even with the Faith Development MG spending the vast proportion of last year trying to deal with it seems to have made no difference. However, I think that the discussion may have helped to some extent.
- 'Structures'. There is still a lot of explaining needed and there is some struggling with it, including using an inverted structure which focuses on servant leadership and being focused on God's mission. Some seemed to think that strong council leadership is what is required and hence should be at the top. However, I think that we made significant progress with helping people understand what we are trying to do. Some expressed concerns about our governance structures, particularly about the regulations and constitution. Andrew Adams went and found them and basically worked out that what we are doing is correct.
- One thing that concerned me was that at one stage the feeling of the conversation seemed to be such that there were some suggesting that the longer you had been at GWUC then the more say that you should have. This is what I was concerned about with the JNC voting as well. The question is how can we move from that to being a community that finds joy in newbies, children, youth and young adults even if they don't always behave the 'right' way (please notice the highlights). I wonder if we have a case of older son syndrome, aka the prodigal son's older brother, i.e. God, we have been faithful for such a long time, why are you preparing a party for the outsiders and not for us? (By the way, Alanee's sermon on Sunday morning was fantastic)
- I started talking about dissonance as behaviours that I am a part of and maybe this helped. For example, issues that the families have had in terms of finding programs that satisfy everyone is an example of dissonance, i.e. pulling in different directions. There is no doubt that the issues with worship being brought up again and again is another example of dissonance. The behaviour that we want to encourage is open and honest discussion and the willingness to support God's mission as we collectively discern even if it is not our preference. This is why Carolyn Kitto could not get into issues such as worship as until we deal with the dissonance we cannot move forward on the other things. I think that this really needs to be said sometime as it seems that this is a real issue for people.
- The Forum
- What date: Wednesday or Thursday?
- Brace – Community of Faith and Spirituality
- Warren Bartlett – Loving Behaviours. What is dissonance?
- John Hurst – what the new church will do and processes of change
- Margaret Fraser – Pathways to the Future Church – helping each other to find our best Forms of service
- Warren Bartlett – Closing Worship
- What date: Wednesday or Thursday?
- The Congregational Meeting on 1 July
- Agreement of new structure. Acceptance of as many groups as possible starting their meetings with Community of Love and Spirituality. If the discussion/debate is going against the Steering Committees proposal, do we need a Fallback position? Like 14 people on Council instead of 10.
- After 1 July -
- The calling for Nominations for the ten – perhaps 7 and 14 July. Voting on 21 July.
- Feedback we received from the “Listening” on Sunday 2 June
- Task and Mission Group Matrix Presentation – Margaret
- Shall we say something about how the Mission Groups will operate and find leadership?
- What further do we need to do as the Steering Group?
The Church's new Council Chambers - only big enough for 12 people!
