I recently met with the Disciple Team and we watched the sermon delivered by Bishop Taylor at the closing session of Annual Conference. In that sermon she suggested that the strength of the church lies in the fact that we are/have: “One Church. One Team. One Plan. One Goal.” She was talking about unity of mission and purpose. This, also, went along with the theme from the book we are studying .
One of the biggest obstacles that our church is going to have to overcome is that of unity. Not delving too deeply into our past troubles. I think that it is accurate to state that when issues with pastoral leadership arose, the church lost its primary source of vision. As a result, some very capable lay folk came forward and filled the leadership vacuum caused by pastoral problems.
Unfortunately, the pastoral problems were not a one time event and the church entered into a period of several years of strong lay leadership (nothing unfortunate about that). It is unfortunate that as a result, there did not seem to be any common vision or direction. Different groups and individuals simply stepped forward and took control of the ministries, activities, and events. However, there was no coordination of those things and, as a result, I think that the church lost its singular vision and purpose for existence.
Using a sports analogy, the players started running the team and calling the plays that they felt were best and due to a lack of coaching oversight, the team floundered and had some less than successful seasons.
The Disciple Team will be examining this lack of core vision and direction and will begin writing a playbook to help us all get on the same page. Working together with a common vision I don’t think there is anything that our church cannot accomplish.
Please pray for us as we undertake this effort.
One of the biggest obstacles that our church is going to have to overcome is that of unity. Not delving too deeply into our past troubles. I think that it is accurate to state that when issues with pastoral leadership arose, the church lost its primary source of vision. As a result, some very capable lay folk came forward and filled the leadership vacuum caused by pastoral problems.
Unfortunately, the pastoral problems were not a one time event and the church entered into a period of several years of strong lay leadership (nothing unfortunate about that). It is unfortunate that as a result, there did not seem to be any common vision or direction. Different groups and individuals simply stepped forward and took control of the ministries, activities, and events. However, there was no coordination of those things and, as a result, I think that the church lost its singular vision and purpose for existence.
Using a sports analogy, the players started running the team and calling the plays that they felt were best and due to a lack of coaching oversight, the team floundered and had some less than successful seasons.
The Disciple Team will be examining this lack of core vision and direction and will begin writing a playbook to help us all get on the same page. Working together with a common vision I don’t think there is anything that our church cannot accomplish.
Please pray for us as we undertake this effort.
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