Vision and Leadership Q#1: At your tables, share one way that God has used this church to be a blessing. 1. Hospitality, being accepted 2. Participation in everyone's lives 3. Helping food bank, outside missions 4. Supporting others, outreaching to others 5. We worship and reach others in our way, demonstrate our faith 6. We make a good first impression 7. We are comforting, welcoming others 8. Close linked church family 9. Cadets, gems, VBS, also as a leader 10. Woods lee home, Alzheimer's Society 11. Blessing to ourselves 12. Sunday worship and welcome and coffee social 13. Blessing of being a community 14. Easy acceptance of different styles 15. Christ centred church 16. Community of people to connect with 17. Leadership of Financial Peace seminar 18. Support each other in causes 19. Youth are blessed from each other 20. Blessed by preached word 21. Essex food bank 22. Gems and Cadets 23. Pastoral visiting 24. Gathering place for like-minded immigrants 25. Developing relationships 26. VBS 27. Gems and Cadets 28. Big families 29. Supportive when sick 30. Drawn together spread out people, commitment 31. Blended worship 32. Good to strangers, hospitality 33. Active programs for young families 34. Singing, praising God in power 35. Cadets and Gems 36. Family centred but open and appreciative 37. Close social community 38. People are more important than doctrine or discipline 39. Any-o-grams ________________________________________________________________________ Q#2: Discuss in your groups: Is there a Bible passage or story or image that captures the strengths you have, and the passion for sharing faith and serving the community 1. Fire - Holy Spirit 2. No lonely, no hungry, no "needy", people sold their positions 3. Genuinely excited about faith around non-Christians 4. Boldly Proclaim Your Faith 5. Bible Study, devotions a priority 6. Feeding the 5000 with fish and bread 7. Christ welcomes the children 8. The lamp of the body (Luke 11: 33) 9. Dancing David before the ark (free in faith and belief, no shame) 10. Story of lives starting over again - "believe in me and you will be saved" 11. Jesus came to save, not to condemn 12. Lazy comes, lazy goes - faith is constant - the Lord is always there 13. James 1: 17 we can always depend on God 14. Food and Family 15. Ancient and Future 16. Miracle of food - feeding 5000 - food bank 17. Paul's when I am weak, then I am strong, thorn in the flesh, in weakness made strong 18. Romans 12: focus on love and gifts 19. Prophecy prophet 20. The Lord has compassion on all who are weak or downtrodden or oppressed 21. Amos? 22. Phil: strength is Christ who is in us 23. Share your faith 24. Men washed cadets' feet during storm up north - servant leaders 25. Cup of living water 26. John 15: vine and branches 27. Open up and invite Essex's "finest" into the church events 28. Windsor is getting a new jail - prison ministry 29. Friendship group with community living 30. VBS programs to pull the community in 31. Good Samaritan 32. Ark of old (flood) to new (in community) 33. Servant 34. Widow gave her life to service, seek ye first 35. Esther - here for a reason 36. Border line leaders 37. Committee for community services 38. Need to be asked 39. Be a Jonah 40. Have to be intentional of our ideas ________________________________________________________________________ Q#3: The leaders of this church include the elders, deacons, pastor and the leaders of the various ministries of the church. What needs to change in the way leadership leads in order to lead this congregation into its vision? Write this as a goal, etc. 1. Prison Ministry a. Contacting prison chaplains b. Exploring needs of prisoners 2. Preach the Gospel to all people, to bring people to Christ, fully understand God and Salvation in Christ a. Live what we preach b. What we do, missions, giving c. Selection of leaders d. Openness to ideas from everyone e. Encouragement and support to those in the church and in the community f. Cooperation with other churches and community organizations g. Pray for guidance 3. Be on the look-out for potential leaders. Find people with leadership gifts. a. Use simple events as starting points b. Build trust and interest over time c. Get them excited about particular group 4. Be more intentional about reaching out and about translating vision into action a. Understand our vision b. Different steps to understand it c. Accountability d. Create a story or choose a bible story which explains our vision. Reveals it in real time. 5. Build a culture of discipline a. To keep this healthy church alive b. To follow through c. To keep spirit of HCG alive d. By communicating and committing to our vision Rough notes for Q#3: These are the rough notes for Q#3 handed in. 1. More people need to be positively encouraged to new roles instead of being guilted into it, before the act of desperation brings us to coercion. (Be proactive before it is too late.) 2. Willingness to express new ideas. Willingness to be open and accept new ideas. 3. Openness to change in the service. 4. Able to listen to everyone, encourage others to talk. Every member should be encouraged to participate and express opinions. 5. Preach the Word. Use the Word as reason to bring people to church. 6. Being able to relate to others. 7. Reach out to those who need Christ and who could use God. 8. Approach new members. 9. More intentional mentoring into leadership. 10. Constantly in prayer - time? Is the issue. 11. Communicate more intentionally shared clarity of vision a. Facebook b. Amoung ourselves and also to others c. Change name - cost 12. As a leader understand the importance of my calling. Make it more of a desire/ make better. 13. Leadership more relational - listen to one another so we can understand another's needs. 14. Understand that leadership is serving one another. 15. Listen, try, engage a. Accountability b. Leadership c. Prayer 16. We are too busy doing what we are doing to look to the future. 17. What is the vision for this church? 18. One common goal - everything we do works towards that goal. 19. We need discipline to keep this alive, to follow through and to keep the spirit of it alive. 20. Develop testimony with our church before going out to the community. 21. To be a light in the world. 22. We don't know our vision. 23. Be more intentional. 24. Add 10 more families to our membership a. Identify host family to pair with new people, to invite them into homes and programs b. Phone follow up c. Information package d. Workshop the structure the process 25. More dedicated effort - encourage more people to be leaders - tap into their gifts. a. Build relationships b. Ask people - just do it c. Trust God 26. Choose a unique tangible goal 27. Grow as a church by getting involved, giving up free time and bringing back people who have left a. Need specific goals to work on b. Need Motivation c. Include every age group