Does that phrase feel strange to you, too? The older I get, the quicker the years pass. In some ways it feels like I was just “hitting my 2019 stride.” Part of me is longing for another month of last year, but that won’t do me any good. It’s a bit of a trip to see that date written, but there’s no use pretending that a new year hasn’t just begun. So let’s step forward into 2020 together as a church, dreaming about what God is calling us toward.
This process has already begun in a couple of different ways. First, your church Board and Staff have been working behind the scenes to develop a set of guidelines for how we live in relationship with one another here at Shoreline Covenant Church. This document will provide the framework for a 5-week preaching series that begins January 12th, entitled “commUNITY”. These guidelines are a communally discerned set of Biblical principles for how we will treat one another in both our normal, day-to-day, shared life together, as well as in times of conflict and disagreement. Copies will be available for you at the start of the preaching series and it will be the topic of our first “Community Conversation” on February 9. Keep reading for more on these “Community Conversations.”
The second way we have already begun this process of living into the future is that we embarked upon a self-discovery process with Eagle’s Flight. Through 4 discovery sessions we took a look at who we are and what we feel God is calling us toward in this next season of life together at Shoreline Covenant. Thank you to the 75+ people who participated in those Discovery Sessions! I am receiving the results from these sessions today and will be sharing them with the Board and Staff over the next few weeks. You will be hearing more about this soon, leading up to our second Community Conversation on March 15 and our third installment on April 19.
You’ve hopefully heard at least a little bit about the upcoming Community Conversations. If you haven’t, or you have but you just don’t know much of what they are about then you’ve come to the right place! These Community Conversations are a way for us as a church body to gather for a potluck and have meaningful conversations around important processes and our shared life together. They will create a space for us as a Board and Staff to share God’s vision for us, what we’ve been up to on certain projects as we work toward that vision, and how God is calling us to be discipled in the pursuit of that vision.
We currently have three Community Conversations scheduled for the Winter/Spring season:
February 9 – Focusing on the “commUNITY” sermon series and relational guidelines document
March 15 – Eagle’s Flight Discovery Session findings and first steps
April 19 – God’s vision for Shoreline Covenant Church
I am excited for these ongoing processes and the opportunity to discern together God’s vision for Shoreline Covenant in the months and years to come!
God is good! God is at work! And we get to be a part of it!
What good news this is! Please keep praying for me, your church staff and board, and one another. 2020 is off to a great start. Let’s push on and keep pursuing the Kingdom of God here at the corner of 185th and Ashworth!
In Christ’s Love Together,
Pastor Ben