The Glen Waverley Uniting Church PSALTERLink to CouncilMinutes20140826 > VisioningProcess2014
Letter to Councillors from GraemeFrecker, August 2014
Councillors,
It was good to be able to join in the discussion at the focus groups on Future Directions and to receive the draft statement from the discussion. I’d like to offer a couple of comments. It’s not my intention here to critique the content of the doc.. However I am concerned that it doesn’t express any overall purpose or desired outcome. If we were in the secular world then I’d say the doc. contains the essence of a strategy plan i.e. a structured bunch of ideas that together should enable the council/congregation – all of us – to fulfill our mission. But our overall mission is not stated in this document. (See: http://assembly.uca.org.au/resources/papers/item/159-mission-an-inclusive-approach) Unless we express at the outset our/God’s mission in the strategy plan our actions and activities are not grounded or anchored. We need to understand and articulate clearly our raison d’etre, our reason for existing as a Christian community. (The focus document raises a very relevant question:
- How do we encourage the hub volunteers to share WHY they are helping those who come to the hub activities?)
I believe that all our behaviour and all our actions, individually and communally, done in the name of the Christ community should be actions deriving from our mission. The strategies of the Missional Groups can then be seen as the collective means to implement the community’s mission. (Matt 28:19-20, Mark 12:30-31, John 13:34-35) So for me it is important to articulate our/God’s mission in simple terms understood by all. For me, Jesus said I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (RSV). In simple terms a Mission Statement (why we exist) for us might be: to enable all people within our reach to experience the life of Christ. Something like this fits with our current Vision Statement (what we aim to be) that says: Glen Waverley Uniting Church is a faithful, Christ-centred community that meets God and shares that unconditional love We need to explore further our understanding of ‘mission’. The strategies then follow.
My second concern is that the focus doc. appears to be a strategy plan owned by the council and its constituent parts, rather than by the whole community/congregation. I draw this conclusion because the only fellowship groups listed in the doc. are those missional and service groups appointed by and accountable to the Council. So whose strategy plan is it? There are many other groups that are acknowledged by the Congregation to be a part of the whole, even though these groups owe no duty to the Council except in their use of resources. Nevertheless they are vital parts of our community, and contribute much in their own ways to the implementation of their understanding of the mission of our Congregation. So in my view any strategy plan (Future Directions) adopted by the congregation should embrace the missional intentions of all substantive fellowships within the congregation. The doc. as it stands describes mission strategies of the Council, but not of the Congregation. The Council may prefer to leave it that way, and just ask the Congregation to acknowledge what the Council intends to do. However for me ‘mission’ depends upon our personal understanding ansd so everyone in our community ought to have the opportunity to be involved.
Thank you for listening
Graeme Frecker