Filled with the joy of a truly wonderful Christmas, it
is time to look ahead to a new year at St. Luke’s. The other day I was asked
about my vision for St. Luke’s for 2024 and the years moving ahead. In 2024, I hope to work with you and discern
the answer to that question together.
The materials St. Luke’s sent to prospective clergy included this summary of work you have already done: In 2019, a 2030 Vision /Strategic Planning Committee was formed to discern God’s hope for our congregation, and the power of the Holy Spirit. The committee was charged with identifying St. Luke’s five core values, and constructing a tactical plan to live up to those values with specific, achievable short-term goals. The committee members participated in various focus groups comprised of congregants, each of which discussed topics such as “what drew you to St. Luke’s” and “what are our five strengths and five weaknesses.” Based on this input, the committee established the following as our core values: Worship, Faith Formation, Fellowship, Outreach and Stewardship. The report was intended to also guide us and our new Rector with the forthcoming transition. The pandemic has caused us to re-think what kind of community we can or need to be in new and challenging ways. We are looking to discern and define with our new rector what St. Luke’s and “church” will be in the future.
As part of this plan, we established that we must consider the needs of, and outreach to, an increasingly diverse population in East Hampton’s unique and ever-changing combination of full-time and weekend residents. The fullest sense of diversity includes race, gender, sexual orientation, background, socioeconomic status, and prior religious experience. Also, we must keep pace with technological change and apply lessons learned during Covid-19 to pursue the church’s mission and meet people where they are through a range of physical and virtual methods. It will be important to make progress on both objectives without leaving behind or alienating parish members whose experiences have been accustomed to tradition.
Now, having called a new priest, St. Luke’s is entering a new phase of vision discernment and strategic planning which builds on this work by taking a deep look at our local community using something called the Mission Discernment Process or MAP. Participation in a MAP process is required for all congregations with new clergy. Though it sounds like “one more thing,” the beauty is that the MAP represents work that the rector and others are already doing. The difference is that it includes members of the congregation and wider community in the process.
From the diocesan description of the MAP process: The Mission Action Plan (MAP) process helps congregations discern God’s plan as it emerges in community exploration. It is an important tool for congregations with a newly called clergy partner and for congregations seeking to realign their mission and ministry with God’s will. The MAP process helps congregations discern God’s plan as it emerges during five activities of discernment and exploration: Living History; Prayer Walk or Neighborhood Conversations; Community Panel; World Cafe; and Parish Summit. Each event builds on the previous one and understanding and inspiration grows throughout the process!
First Activity: Congregational Living History
During the Living History activity, members and clergy explore their roots and history. As the stories of your life in the parish are told, you will discover Holy Spirit led places of power and revisit places of difficulty. This activity calls us to look and listen for the ways God’s vision for the parish was accomplished, detoured, triumphant, and frustrated over the years. The Living History activity allows congregations to build a comprehensive group understanding of the collective story of the parish and connect individual stories with the world and God. The Living History event is not meant to solve anything or identify everything. It begins the process of awareness of your stories, builds capacity to make decisions based in the present, and finds sources of identity and spiritual empowerment in the parish’s communal story. This activity builds the capacity of the clergy, vestry, and members to discern and respond to God’s call now by building God’s Kingdom in our community today.
Second Activity: Neighborhood Exploration through Prayer and Conversations
These activities help to identify the current context of your church – your local neighborhoods. Walking in groups (of 2 to 4 members with no more than 1 vestry per group) and prayerfully observing through the church’s neighborhoods and local gathering places, the group asks God to bring to their attention to what God desires them to see. Pictures are taken to memorialize what is observed and captions are generated for each picture. The group pauses for prayer at each location God draws them to. Afterwards, the vestry gathers for a debriefing session to share stories of what was seen and to talk about what the church can learn from the observations
Third Activity: Community Panel
The third activity expands the mission discernment process to incorporate and engage with neighbors. This can be done in person or via Zoom. The priest and vestry identify potential panelists of community leaders and stakeholders. They are invited to share what their challenges are, where they are seeing health in the community, and what they are building on. During their presentations, listen (without comment) for alignment and connections to previous discernment/insights that emerged during Living History and Prayer Walk or Neighborhood Conversations. Listen for the relationships, mutual blessings, and shared mission possibility among local community partners and with your congregation.
Fourth Activity: World Cafe
During this discernment activity (as with the Living History) the whole parish is gathered along with neighbors. It is important to identify and invite neighbors who live or work in the communities surrounding the church, especially those not represented in the membership. Another classification of neighbors to invite are community leaders. During this activity members and neighbors will explore the key questions identified during the Community Panel debriefing. These questions should be about mutual blessings and ways forward in service.
Fifth Activity: Parish Summit
Using focused conversations, the congregation gathers to create a basic ten-year plan from the year of exploration and conversations. The plan will be defined by realistic goals and objectives. The plan envisioned will grow as you (clergy, congregation, and neighbors) live into and refine the call from the Holy Spirit to ministry in the church and community.
The Vestry has engaged the Rev. Cecily Broderick, the priest from Christ Church, Sag Harbor, to guide us in this work, which will take most of 2024. Watch the e-news and bulletin for more information about the MAP Process, the five activities, and how you can get involved. Please join in discerning together where God is leading us for this year and the years to come.
Father Ben