#acl All:read

Link to EldersPage, CouncilPage, [[CouncilMinutes20130123|Minutes of the meeting]]

= Collected comments from the joint Elders and Council meeting, January 2013 =
== Questions discussed, and answers received. ==
||'''You are talking to the new minister.  What would you tell her that your vision for the Glen Waverley Congregation is?''' || '''You are writing an article for the Monash Leader about the new vision for GWUC.  What is your opening line for the article?''' || '''You are Chair of Church Council.  What do you tell people about your hopes for the future?''' ||'''Someone calls the congregation to a Sunday of Prayer for this Church and calls upon you to lead us in prayer.  What ideas would you put into your prayer?''' ||'''You are the editor of NewView, writing about the outcomes of this meeting.  What do you hope to be able to say to the readers?''' ||'''The web page of GWUC is read around the world! What message due you want to put on the web?'''||
||My vision for GWUC is that GWUC will be a faith, not a belief based congregation, sharing faith stories and building faith.||Come and Learn and Share your Faith in Jesus Christ.||as above||Be True to your Call.  Be Love. ||Underlying all writing is a message of hope, love and joy.||Be Thou My Vision, O God.||
||Vision and mission statements need to be revisited.  We are in a unique position to do this.||Our hopes for the future need to be discussed in age groups and interest groups.|| ||We need ''all'' members to prayerfully consider questions 1 and 2 until 1 and 2 are set in concrete & then prayers and actions from all.|| ||Needs to be completely revamped and modernised.||
|| That our young people learn about the bible and why we worship our God|| || || || || ||
|| || ||We hope to identify the problems which caused the present dilemma and have many ideas & suggestions for ways to overcome these and move forward together as a loving Christ centred community.  How can we move forward if we don't know what needs to be fixed?|| || || ||
||Vision that there will be a viable worshipping community here in 25 years where my daughter will worship, and have ameaningful involvement as a young woman.  I believe this can be, but it might look different.|| || || || || ||
|| || || ||Love God.  Love one another.||Re-evaluating.  Rediscovering God's plan for GWUC.  Positive feedback.|| ||
||Someone (in consultation with the discussions & God led plans already in existence) constructs an actual plan to get to where God wants us to go, AND does it.  Not everyone will be happy, but not many are happy now. || || || || || ||
|| || ||Unifying the congregation by possibly reducing the number of services, eg combining 9:15 & 11 as one at 10.  This would encourage us to know each other rather than being segregated groups of people.|| || || ||
||We need better pastoral care from Elders and Ministers|| || || || || ||
|| || ||My hopes for the future are that we come together as a combined congregation.  Discuss having less services.|| || || ||
||The acceptance of unity beyond diversity.||The congregation & ministerial team of GWUC are thankful for the opportunity of addressing readers.|| N.A. ||Those that I had discerned over the two weeks notice received.||What were the outcomes of the meeting.||Are you as scared as I am? This blog is for you to say what scares you!||
||The congregation is ecumenical and filled with the Holy Spirit & his love.||GWUC leads the way for Christians in the 21st century.||That our members will grow in grace.||May God's spirit lead us into his way of love. ||We have a process to help us move forward.||Love one another.||
|| To grow.  Continue care of ''all'' members.  Asian congregation catered for.||GWUC enters the community.||Ask congregation what is their aspirations.||The spirit is to lead the people.||The process of discerning our future has begun tonight.  Will you join it?  Or criticise it anonymously?||GWUC is growing and learning.  God's message for the world.  Come and join us.||
||Greater pastoral care.||We strive to be an active, Christ centred group acting in the whole community.||To be able to be of service to the whole community||People caught up in disasters, for leaders of the community, and for members in need, spiritually and physically.||An initiative to assess where we are at the moment, and to identify what we need to do to get there.||Sharing of one's ongoing faith, and welcome their comment.||
||We are always having "New visions".  What is wrong with the Gospel vision? To be a united loving community.|| ||Nothing.  You listen and enable the people.|| || ||At this time I would clean up the website and present a Gospel message.||
||Congregation growing in faith, not necessarily just "bums on seats".  Worship is an experience of faith & God, not necessarily just Sunday.|| || || || || ||

== Other comments ==
 * Focus on "faithful '''Christ-centred community''' that meets God and shares that '''unconditional''' love".
  * This won't happen unless I make it happen.  All need to feel responsible for achieving the vision.
  * Need to learn how to challenge negativity, in a Christian way, and not just nod and say nothing.
 * Channel our energy and commitment to find a way through.  There is much to celebrate here to head into the future.
 * We used to be large and vibrant.  Looked at ways to best serve the community, grow in faith & meet/provide life of faith & fellowship.  Lots of great things have happened. Diversity in services, small groups, specified ministries, the list goes on.  We have so many great positive things in this community that we cannot list them all.  It is the glue that seems to be a difficulty.  Need to get some of the things that bind & hold us together.  The things we all share.  The heart of our faith, church & congregation.
 * Carolyn's consultation needs to be wide, not just with prominent people.

Collated and typed by DavidMorgan.  Please advise errors and corrections to councilsec@gwuc.org.au