Recently, we met for our first Board Retreat at the Community House in Hopedale. This was an opportunity to meet as a board to officially discuss our needs as a church community. Reverend Steve led sessions about leadership styles, challenges, and a review of our congregational goals.
We developed 3 goals last year. Since the beginning of this church year, we moved as a board to support the healing needs of our church;
‘On both congregational and individual levels, we will seek to understand, reconcile, and heal from conflict related to our Covenant. We will continue to support this congregational goal by exploring and processing our experiences of loss, grief, and what happened over the past few years that illuminated the need for this work.’
This, we hope, will reestablish a foundation of trust in our church community.
We also discussed both technical problems and adaptive challenges at our church. Technical challenges are a bit easier to resolve like the repair and upgrade of our sound system, replacing sanctuary lights for increased efficiencies while also supporting our Green Sanctuary certification, and managing our budget, to name a few. Adaptive challenges at the church can be a bit more complex, and at times, can be difficult to identify. These include; continue research around our evolving values and needs, our roles as parishioners, and the approach we will take to work on our goals. An example of an adaptive challenge will be the way we will approach our Life Span religious education program. How should we align ourselves to meet the ever-changing needs of our church, our local communities, and global challenges that we face today?
All in all, it was time well-spent learning about our common call, love, and need to serve and lead our church in these changing times. We concluded the best way forward is to co-create with you and invite you to let us know how we’re doing. How is the church year going for you? What type of programming would you like to see? Reach out to Rev. Steve or any of the Board members.
May Peace Be with You,
Your Board
