A big thank you to all of you who participated in the fourth of our congregational meetings about the transition process! Led by Dan Wiseman, a facilitator from the Mid-America region, we engaged in a process to begin to describe our vision for our future.

Utilizing a multitude of post-it notes and chart paper, we responded to the question "What would we envision for ourselves in five years in the areas of worship, internal programs, social justice and congregational governance?" We then clustered the ideas, found themes, and ultimately prioritized our keys to success in order to become a vibrant and purposeful congregation. The top two priorities were having a strong worship life and engaging in meaningful social justice work. All the ideas are posted in the foyer of the fellowship; feel free to peruse them and engage in continued conversation!

At their spring retreat on May 31, the Board and Transition Team will be addressing all the ideas from the workshops held this year.

We're very pleased that the facilitator for this workshop will be Dan Wiseman, a professional consultant to non-profit organizations. He also has experience working with a great many religious communities. We're grateful to the Mid-America region for arranging for Dan to work with us!

Be sure to put Sunday, April 27, 12:30-2:00 p.m. on your calendar for the fourth of our four congregational meetings about the transition process. We will be considering the topic “How Do We Choose?: Setting Priorities for Our Future.” This will be a workshop in which we identify the values that are core to who we are and who we want to be so that we can establish our next steps to our future.

Lunch will be provided; please contact Norma Bailey (baile1nj@cmich.edu, 989-560-3952) if you need child care. A progress report of the third meeting is available here on our website.

Once again, a big thank you to all of you who were able to attend the third of our four congregational workshops about the transition process! There was great energy and lots of voices shared in discussing two questions about the four areas that we all agree are important in the life of our fellowship:

• Life span faith development
• Worship life
• Social justice activity
• Congregational life
• Caring for each other
• Social activities
  
  

The questions were:
            What do we appreciate about our _____________________?
            What other possibilities are there for our ________________________?

In our first three workshops, we have come to realize that we have a much clearer idea of who we are, both in our short-lived history and in the present, and that we have a multitude of ideas about what we appreciate and what we would like to see for our congregation. The input from so many members and friends of the congregation has been invaluable. Now the task is to come up with a way to make decisions about how to become the faith community that we aspire to be.

We will gather on Sunday, April 27, 12:30 - 2:00 pm, to consider the topic: “How Do We Choose?: Setting Priorities for Our Future.” This will be a workshop in which we identity the values that are core to who we are and who we want to be so that we can establish our next steps to our future.

Please come to help us think about these priorities!

Lunch will be provided, and child care will be available; please contact Norma Bailey (baile1nj@cmich,edu, 989-560-3952) if you need child care.

    In love and peace, Your Transition Team
    (Norma Bailey, Jim Dealing, Laura Frey, and Joyce Henricks)

Once again, a big thank you to all of you who were able to attend the second of our four congregational workshops about the transition process! There was great energy and lots of voices shared in discussing five areas that we all agree are important in the life of our fellowship:

• Life span faith development
  
• Worship life
  
• Social justice activity
  
• Caring for each other
  
• Social activities - (we added this one as so many of us enjoy the fellowship of activities such as Friday night potluck, sewing circle, Wednesday morning discussion group, movie night, Readers’ Theater, etc.)
  

In our small and large group discussions, we identified strengths that we already have and areas where we recognize we desire more. We are so thankful people who took part were willing to talk about their hopes for our fellowship as well as areas of disappointment where we could meet needs more fully.

We are now coming back to you with our next step in our transition process. Since we all agree that these are important areas, we now want to find ways to look fresh about them. To that end, we are going to take a look at a couple “breakthrough congregations,” congregations singled out by the UUA for having achieved significant and sustained numerical growth, and to share what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.          

The two congregations are Harmony, located in the small town of Landen, Ohio, and the second is the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden, Utah. We are sending you the link to each of these articles about these congregations, and, as well, we will have hard copies of each available at the fellowship on Sunday mornings. 

Harmony, the ‘un-church’ 
           http://www.uuworld.org/life/articles/290443.shtml

‘We know why we’re here’
            http://www.uuworld.org/life/articles/199638.shtml 

We encourage all of you to read these articles prior to the next (third) of our four congregational workshops about the transition process. We will gather on Sunday, March 23, 12:30 - 2:00 pm, to consider the topic: “Unchurching Church: Exploring New Ways to Think about Ourselves.” Please come to help us think fresh about our future!

Lunch will be provided, and child care will be available; please contact Norma Bailey (baile1nj@cmich,edu, 989-560-3952) if you need child care.

In love and peace, Your Transition Team
(Norma Bailey, Jim Dealing, Laura Frey, and Joyce Henricks)