Vision – the next five years

Over the last three years+ we have had the privilege of ministering together.  Recently our family was thrilled to agree to a covenant with the congregation that extends the next five years.  As a part of this process, CMF Council has invited me to share with the congregation my vision for the next five years for the life of the congregation.  I’m please to be able to do this this Sunday after church, which will involve my sharing of my vision and provide opportunities for table discussions following to get a sense of congregational priorities.  Below is a condensed version of that vision I will be sharing with you on Sunday. With prayers and good hope for the years to come.  

 

Church life can be pictured as a set of three overlapping circles – Community, Worship, and Mission.  The place where all of these circles share space is where Formation/Transformation happens, which is at the heart of what we are about as the Body of Christ.  Below are ways that I envision formation and transformation happening among us at Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship over the next five years:

 

Community

In Community we will nurture one another and share our time, gifts, and resources for the good of all.

+ We will continue developing a culture of openness and honesty in discussing hard issues, extending grace toward each other, agreeing and disagreeing in love.  We will have opportunity for much practice on this as we respond to the Columbus Resolution which encourages us to have dialogue around how we welcome and relate with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, LGBT, persons.

+ Journey Groups could become a strong core of how we grow together spiritually.  These groups provide an opportunity to gather around a particular focus (telling spiritual journey stories, book study, Bible study, sharing and prayer) and go deeper in our walk with God and one another.  

+ Cincinnati Mennonite has great potential to grow numerically and this can be a good thing.  There are many people hungry for a spiritual home where peace, service, and authenticity before each other and God are valued.

+ We will develop a strong website with informative content and attractive images .
Worship

Through Worship, we will be centered on the love of God and formed into disciples of Jesus Christ.

+ We will continue to welcome and celebrate many gifts in worship and approach worship not only as a place for gifts to be shared, but for gifts to be discovered.  Willingness, not perfection, is the key to joyful worship. 

+ We have a regular order of service that works well for us.  We can also experiment with different worship forms and orders such as Taize style, services of primarily silence, services of song, etc. 

+ Given the overwhelming strength of mass culture in forming our values (values that often reflect the sins of materialism, violence, and individualism), I wonder whether we would be aided in the formative nature of worship if we allow particular symbols and rituals to become more frequent and pronounced – symbols that tell us who we are and who God is for us.  Examples include more frequent communion, more reference to the meaning of our baptism (having water visibly present in our worship and referring to it? – “Remember your baptism”), frequent remembering of our covenant which we sign, liturgy that gets repeated from week to week, more spaces for extended silence….    

Mission

Through Mission, we will discover where the Spirit is active among and around us and join in that work.

+ Cincinnati Mennonite will continue to minister at the margins even as we relate to the center.  We excel at ministering to those at the margins theologically and we have many opportunities to minister with those at the margins economically.  We relate to the center of our denomination and conferences and our places of work enable us to relate to the center of city institutions.

+ I would love to see us use our church properties for creative mission in a way that is economically sustainable.  Opening a Mennonite Voluntary Service unit is a strong option we should explore.  Orienting the volunteer positions toward involvement in the arts would be an extension of the mission of Mennonite Arts Weekend and a next step for how our congregation could become a leader in encouraging the flourishing of the arts.

+ We will continue to nurture relationships with the seminaries and work toward having Cincinnati be a place where ministry interns come to experience training in urban ministry. 

+ The opportunities for building relationships and ministering with neighbors in the Oakley community around our church are abundant.  In five years it would be wonderful if several CMF households are living in this neighborhood and sharing life with each other and neighbors.  We may also wish to consider opening a position of Neighborhood Minister – a staff person or volunteer whose job is to extend our presence in the neighborhood.