The church council met on July 17 in a retreat to reflect on the past year and discern a vision and open questions for the rest of 2021 and beginning of 2022. The Council established a vision for our church:
This vision should not be confused with our mission as a church. Our mission statement has not changed and guides us in what we want to do as a church internally and in the community always. The vision the council came up with, is what the council saw that we as a church should focus on in the next 6 months.
We invite all members to share their ideas and feedback about this vision and participate in accomplishing it. Please speak with me about how you’d like to help in working on this vision. At the same retreat, the council discerned open questions. As a congregation, we want to go about this in three steps: From now until the beginning of 2022 we want to focus inward to understand who we are as PVLC and as part of the Graceful Hills Parish now after the changes through the pandemic. The next step will be from the beginning of 2022 to the summer of 2022 where we focus outward to our neighborhood and community, having gained an understanding of who we are now and what is important to us. Hopefully, the third step is going to be that we become a new, refreshed church.
You are invited to be engaged in these questions through-out the year:
There will be many opportunities to talk about these important questions as a congregation throughout the upcoming year. The idea is that these are questions which the council does not have the answers too, we want to hear your thoughts and reflections on each question so we can discover the answers together. This is an exciting time for our church and I am looking forward to exploring with you who we are and who we want to be in our neighborhood and community.
Blessings, Pastor Sonja Pilman