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The spot for the good news, the good word, the quick reports of the many, many wonderful news items I hear all the time and want to share with the rest of you. Expect to find the good news when you come to check out "what’s the good word?"

Friday, October 1, 2010

Day-dreaming

I recently participated in a workshop where we were invited to day-dream about our ideal church congregation. We were encouraged to visualize a church community, not as it is but as it could become in ten to twenty years. We were told not to worry about whether it was an actual congregation or an imaginary one; we were simply invited to picture the highest ideal of what that congregation might look like that we could possibly imagine.

Accordingly, in response to this instruction, some began to converse together, some began to think silently, and others began to write. I was in the latter group, and here is what I wrote.

¨ Congregation = Community
¨ Open 24/7 maybe?¨
Ideal – a centre of active, swirling energy
o Community based
§ Feeding the hungry
§ Counseling
§ Comforting, loving, accepting
§ Safe for children and youth
§ Fellowship for seniors
§ Sharing and being Jesus

I studied my list for a few moments, and came to a startling realization about what was missing. Was this an oversight? No, it simply wasn't there! I reflected on this for a few moments and then wrote in brackets at the bottom,
(note: Does not necessarily involve Sunday a.m. worship!)

It was an interesting and somewhat surprising exercise.
So let me invite you, dear reader, to do a little day-dreaming of your own. What would your ideal congregation look like? If you could start from scratch and grow a church over 20 years, what would you see? I have posted my thoughts here for all to see. Are you willing to share your ideal with the rest of us?

Posted by Carman

2 comments:

  1. I really like this "ideal" congregation plan Carman. I thinks its perfect. I think your #6 -comforting ,loving and accepting should be the number 1 priority. I also think following these 3 things IS sharing and being Jesus.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Paula,

    I sometimes feel like I am so busy doing church work that I never get around to doing the work of the church. Does that makes sense to anyone else?

    ReplyDelete

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