Setting Priorities
I love the fall. The return to a regular schedule after the unpredictable summer season has always come as a comfort to me. I have also found it a time of the year when I take a look at our household priorities and work to make sure our schedule, budget, and celebrations are focussed around the things we most long to see in our lives. Fall has often been a good season to revisit, tweak, and set priorities.
We have been doing some of this work to examine priorities around our church as well. In 2015, key leaders in the church helped identify 3 strategic priorities to help us at VAC move toward our vision and mission. The plan was to focus on leader identification and development, to simplify and focus our missions partnerships, and to create a communications plan that was consistent, effective, and rooted in our vision and mission.
These strategies have served us well. In the five years following their implementation we identified and renewed our relationship with 4 key missions, we have worked to adopt clarity around leadership roles, hosted regular leadership training at all levels of our organization, and we moved primary communications to be email and website based. The results of setting these priorities was a huge gift to us through the 2020 - 2021 season, maintaining connection and care through the upheaval caused by a global pandemic.
In late 2021 our Pastoral staff, along with input from some key leaders, have been discerning a new articulation of the priorities we believe will help serve us well for the next distance as a faith community. You have likely already noticed some of the work we have embarked upon with these strategies in mind.
- Discipleship Culture - As followers of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we will continually be formed to embody the Gospel of Jesus. We intentionally work to develop a culture where, in Jesus, everyone is a disciple and everyone is a discipler. This priority will extend the previous leadership identification and development strategy.
- Radical Care - We will make Jesus known among us, around us, and beyond us by extending to others the same radial care Jesus has extended to us. This priority will also build upon the care we offer through our 4 key missions partners.
- Creative Communication - We follow Jesus, who did not spare any effort to make Himself known to the world. As we partner to make Jesus known, we will bring all the creativity, clarity, and fearless experimentation we can to the task.
As you engage with our faith community, our hope is that you will participate strategically in a way that moves us toward our shared desire, to glorify God by becoming a Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered church on mission making Jesus known among us, around us, beyond us. We encourage you to be praying with this in mind, and ask God to reveal to you how you might lean into this next season with intention and a willingness to be part of something bigger than yourself.