Good people of St. John’s,
My thanks to the clergy, vestry, staff, and members of St. John’s for such a warm welcome as we begin our journey together of curiosity, innovation, and planning for the future of St. John’s.
It is the goal of our time together to renew and realign our mission with our financial funding streams for a sustainable future. Our Rector Lisa has assembled and team to help guide and lead this effort—please meet the St. John’s Sustainable Mission Team: Hillary Clayburgh, Michael Morrow, Arun Caspram, Lynnell Mickelsen, Stacy Walters, Rie Gilsdorf, Rex McKee, and Lisa Wiens Heinsohn.
My role as St. John’s Minister for Sustainable Mission is to lead and facilitate this team, and ‘project manage’ our efforts, under Lisa’s supervision.
We had our first team meeting on April 17th. Team members were asked to share why they belong to St. John’s and why the future of St. John’s is important to them, the congregation, and beyond. It was a wonderful experience for me to hear what being part of this faith community means to some of our members. You all have something special here, and that’s a wonderful place to begin. There is much to honor and celebrate about the past. We can be grateful for the foundation laid by the generations who came before us, and the current generation of elders of this community!
We are in the early stages of creating our process and timeline for our work together. Everyone will have a chance to participate at various points in our process. Your participation (and your imagination!) is key to our success.
Currently, the team is pouring over historical church documents and artifacts, and previous congregational discernment work.
Please look for the team to be commissioned soon (date TBD) during Sunday worship. And please join me for the adult forum on June 11th at 9am to learn more about what we’re up to.
In the meantime, I ask for your prayers for our team during our time together. I offer up this prayer of Good Courage, as shared with us by Good Courage Farm’s Executive Director, the Rev. Kerri Meyer, who was with us last Sunday:
Lord God, You have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In love and hope,
Rena Turnham
Minister for Sustainable Mission
