The Board of Trustees was so excited to be joined by Rev. Sasha at our annual Board Retreat in August. It was her first Board retreat as our Settled Minister! We reviewed our strategic plan and last year’s Board goals, which included our Ministerial Search, our New Addition, our Policy Governance journey, and Communication Flow.

As Board Secretary Jeanne Craft shared from the pulpit on October 13th, we were energized by the major work of this year’s Board Retreat on two important topics: our Vision of Ministry (VoM) and our Open Questions (OQ) for the Fellowship year ahead.

Our 2024-2025 Vision of Ministry was crafted and proposed by Rev. Sasha and reviewed and approved by the Board. The VoM is centered on our Interim Mission Statement:

To nurture a spiritual home where all are welcome and encouraged to participate in a universal search for truth and meaning while working together to build a fair and peaceful world.

Our VoM contains three elements which we have already started to experience this fall.

“Nurturing our Spiritual Home” and furthering our “search for truth and meaning” through the worship and religious education including use of the Soul Matters Thematic Ministry,
Working to ensure “all are welcome and encouraged to participate” by fostering deeper community connections through relationship-building and enhanced communication via a 1-on-1 listening tour throughout the year, and
“Working to build a fair and peaceful world” via working with our existing and new social justice teams.

The Board then brainstormed and selected our “Open Questions” for the year ahead. Open Questions don’t have simple “Yes” or “No” answers, but rather require congregational discernment and discussion. Open Questions are very important as they will be used at next year’s Board Retreat to create our Vision of Ministry for that year. With this in mind, we picked three Open Questions which we believe are key for our Fellowship this year:

What does it mean to be Welcoming?
How do we thoughtfully use our expanded space and facilities?, and
What is our Mission?

In order to get the input of the entire Fellowship, we have asked our Committee on Ministry to lead the Fellowship in exploring our Open Questions. The Committee on Ministry has graciously agreed. We are excited to see what our collective answers are to these Open Questions, and then to use them to build our next Vision of Ministry for the 2025-2026 Fellowship year.

This fall, the Vision of Ministry has already been strongly launched by Rev. Sasha, our Staff and Committees. With the recent opening of our beautiful Gateways Center and campus improvements on November 17th, it will be exciting to see how our Ministry continues to grow and flourish. As we start to explore our Open Questions together, imagine what the future holds!

Watch our Newsletter for announcements from The Committee on Ministry as we start to explore our first Open Question: What does it mean to be Welcoming?

Thanks to each and every one of you for the part you play in building our community with Love at its center.

Your Board of Trustees