On May 7 the congregation elected Lisa Johnson and Diane Hansen to join Session member Sue Hensel as our 2023 Nominating Committee.
Session reported on their retreat, where we articulated that the season we are in now, as a 18 month - 2 year period of intentional reflection and "recombobulating." Pastor Kara described this in a grant application for pastoral reflection titled ""Sailing School: Moving From Crisis Response to Responsive Trust," a summary of which can be read HERE.
The gist is that we weathered the pandemic with both a significant loss of folks and large influx people who came aboard during the storm, with Pastor Kara gripping the wheel, and the rest of us becoming experts at caring for the sick and bailing water. But now, not only are we in new, uncharted waters that we will need to navigate together, but we all need to learn how to be a crew (to hoist sails and swab decks!) We are great at being Church (capital C) but need to figure out our way of being church (lower-case c) together. We've already begun this fun recombobulation/crew orientation with hospitality teams, Swedish death cleaning, figuring out hybrid, practicing prayer and discernment, learning what worship is, etc.
To officially kick off a season of reflection (and because her sabbatical is now postponed to 2025, after the reflection period), session is supporting Kara in taking 3 weeks of banked vacation time in August to rest and reset. We are also looking forward to reading together When Church Stops Working, by Andy Root and Blair Bertrand, to feed ideas and conversation. (Book releases, and copies will be distributed May 21 and onward).
Session reported on their retreat, where we articulated that the season we are in now, as a 18 month - 2 year period of intentional reflection and "recombobulating." Pastor Kara described this in a grant application for pastoral reflection titled ""Sailing School: Moving From Crisis Response to Responsive Trust," a summary of which can be read HERE.
The gist is that we weathered the pandemic with both a significant loss of folks and large influx people who came aboard during the storm, with Pastor Kara gripping the wheel, and the rest of us becoming experts at caring for the sick and bailing water. But now, not only are we in new, uncharted waters that we will need to navigate together, but we all need to learn how to be a crew (to hoist sails and swab decks!) We are great at being Church (capital C) but need to figure out our way of being church (lower-case c) together. We've already begun this fun recombobulation/crew orientation with hospitality teams, Swedish death cleaning, figuring out hybrid, practicing prayer and discernment, learning what worship is, etc.
To officially kick off a season of reflection (and because her sabbatical is now postponed to 2025, after the reflection period), session is supporting Kara in taking 3 weeks of banked vacation time in August to rest and reset. We are also looking forward to reading together When Church Stops Working, by Andy Root and Blair Bertrand, to feed ideas and conversation. (Book releases, and copies will be distributed May 21 and onward).
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