Leadership and Vision

I had the true blessing of spending this past Saturday with the leadership of Grace United Methodist Church at our annual leadership retreat. I was so pleased that so many (I think we had around 50) of our leaders willingly gave up their Saturday and spent it considering the life, ministry and future of Grace United Methodist Church.

We spent the first half of the day working through a program called Developing Discipleship Systems, created by Dan Glover, Director of Discipleship at Greenville Evangelical United Methodist Church in, Greenville, Ohio. The program made it clear once again how important it is for us to be a place of radical hospitality. We must send a clear signal to everyone who even comes near our doors that they are welcome at Grace! Dan’s program also reminded us all about how, as a church, we need to be intentional about helping our members grow and develop in faith and spirituality. In order to truly help people to become disciples of Jesus Christ, we need to do more than simply get them busy doing the work of the church. We need to continue to provide opportunities for people to grow in their faith in small group ministries that attend to their educational and relational growth.

We spent the second half of our day thinking and praying about the future of Grace. Pastor John got us started by sharing a piece of his vision and then we all spent some time absorbing the beauty of creation at the Berry’s Lonesome Dove Ranch and listening for God’s gentle whisper of guidance.

Grace United Methodist Church is a vibrant, loving, dedicated community of faith. Churches like Grace can’t help but grow, but growth can be a difficult thing. If we are going to be truly open to the abundant possibilities that God may place before us, we will have to make plans that allow room for more ministries, more missions and a lot more people.

I hope you will ask some of our church leaders about what they learned and discovered in our time together. Their vision and excitement along with everyone’s faith, trust and hope will pave a future greater than even we can imagine.

peace,

will