The Vision
In the fall of 2006, a Vision
2020 team was formed to explore how we might do better as a
congregation to reach the goals stated in our mission statement:
worship, nurture, education, evangelism and outreach. The team led two
church-wide brainstorming sessions, the first attended by over sixty
members and the second having about
fifty members participating. These intensive church-wide events
produced a comprehensive set of suggestions for change.
In January 2007, the team
presented its recommendations to Church
Council, and at the February meeting, the Council adopted them and
assumed responsibility for their implementation. The Vision 2020 team
members are now a resource group to the Council and its committees.
Recommendations
Children
and Youth
- Establish a special Creative Family
and Youth Ministries
Task Group
- Identify issues and programs of
interest to growing
families and determine facilities, staffing, and church support
required to put a plan into action.
- Look into forming a cluster or
partnership with Church of
the Palms and St. Luke’s to achieve its goals.
- Investigate weeknight suppers
partnered with Christian
Education and small group fellowships.
Christian Education
- The Education Committee should
conduct a full review of our
Christian Education program to:
- add new Sunday school groups
- start “church school” classes at
various times on Sunday
and weekdays
- create small Bible study groups
- offer
regular confirmation classes
Evangelism/Outreach
- The Evangelism Committee should
review and compile a list
of our
members (active members, constituent members and inactive members) in
order to:
- Determine the actual size of our
active membership
- Determine the number of children and youth
- Compare these statistics to those
from 2003 through 2006
- Provide suggestions for reaching
out to under-represented
groups
- Evangelism should follow up on
members not currently
attending by sending letters, making phone calls and visits
- Changes to the church membership
should be reported to
the church staff
- Evangelism should follow up on
all visitors
- Evangelism should implement a
plan for serving Holy
Communion to shut-ins with support from lay persons
- Evangelism should implement New
Member classes
Worship
- The Worship Committee should
investigate an alternative
service on Saturday evenings along the lines of a casual, contemporary
or praise service.
- The Worship Committee and Trustees
should conduct a study
and bring a plan to Church Council for re-designing the pulpit/choir
loft area.
The
Vision 2020 team:
Kathy Allen 757-4006
Celia and Chad
Beauchamp 757-7485
Diane Davis 384-9150
Elizabeth Duncan 757-3352
Marshall and Paula Kremers 837-2225
Al Litster 705-6221
Rev. Larry
Rodeffer 757-2566
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Here is the next step!
Look to Church Council to take
the lead in making "20/20 Vision" a reality
at Bluffton United Methodist Church.
There has been overwhelming
enthusiasm for the visioning process but to
keep the momentum, we need every member and every church leader to be
in prayer and identify their roles and responsibilities in helping to
achieve God’s plan for our church.
The Vision 2020 team
made these
general recommendations:
- The Council should review our
present mission statement to
see if it reflects the long-term vision for our church and, if
appropriate, develop a new mission statement to be approved by the
Church Council.
- The Council should work to
improve the flow of information
within the church through more open and consistent communication. A
copy of the Vision 2020 report should be made available to all church
members.
- We encourage the Council to:
- Recruit new members to all
church committees to strengthen
and support them.
- Provide guidance to our
church leaders to help them
motivate committee members more effectively and reach goals more
successfully.
- Take an active role in the
Natural Church Development
process offered by the conference and convince members to participate
as well.
- Form a task group to
gather data and study the three
options presented by Rev. Etheredge at the special 11/6/06 Council
meeting.
Our self-study process also
took into account two important visits to
BUMC in the fall of 2006:
- Rev. Dr. Ernest Etheredge, Walterboro District
Superintendent, explained the Conference’s intention to build a new
church in our area and to appoint a pastor by June 2007. Three options
were offered: (1) let the Conference start this church from scratch by
itself, (2) involve an existing Bluffton-area church to partner with
this new congregation while keeping its present facilities, and (3)
completely relocate an existing church in our area to the new site.
- Mrs. June Willson, Conference Congregational Specialist for
Charleston and Walterboro districts, challenged us to look within our
own congregation to find people who can build ministries for family,
youth and children. She emphasized the need to develop Christian
Education for all members in order to attract families with children.
.Areas examined in the first
session were
- Youth and Children
- Evangelism/Outreach
- Christian Education
- Worship
The second session produced a
detailed set of suggestions for
- Youth ministries
- Saturday night (alternative) worship
- Christian education (Sunday school)
- New members classes
- Outreach to area churches
- Follow-up on members not attending
- Wednesday night (family) suppers
- Small groups
- Dinner groups
- Bible study
- Prayer groups
- Couples ministry
- Singles/singles again
- Parenting Teen and United Methodist Youth Fellowship
(UMYF)
- United Methodist Men (BUMMS) and United Methodist Women
(UMW)
- Grief circles
- Special needs groups
- Special music (choir, bells, instruments)
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