Last month I invited you to hold our property decision “up to the light” and to approach the decision from the perspective of faith. I encouraged us to trust in God’s guidance as we made our decision. 

On Sunday, September 17, our congregation took the “leap of faith” to remain in our Blue Bell location versus moving to a new location. The congregational vote was 71% to stay and 29% to move. 29% is a significant number, not quite 1/3 of our congregation. As Tamra said to me in the days following the vote, “It will be important to connect with and listen to those who saw a different future for our congregation than remaining in Blue Bell.” If you were one of those voices, please reach out to Tamra and me and share your thoughts with us. What appealed to you about a future in a new location? What are your thoughts now? 

We’ve had our vote and so the question is “What’s Next?” In the words of my favor-ite singer songwriter, David Wilcox, “But now as soon as I’m moving, this choice feels good.” Last month I wrote it will be important after making our decision to keep moving forward together. 

It’s easy for any system, for example, our bodies, a family, a business, or a church to seek “homeostasis.” Homeostasis is defined as a state of balance where things continue relatively as they are. Having voted, it would be easy to stay in that state of balance. This may be comfortable for all of us. But is it God’s preferred future for our congregation? 

Thankfully, the “leap of faith” we took will not allow this. As things continue to move forward, we will need to come to an agreement with the developer over their re-quests. The developer has until November to finish their due diligence. We will also need to begin rethinking our physical space usage and ministry. 

Such decisions are best made not in a vacuum, in isolation, but in light of our overall vision for ministry. Our moderator, Tamra Philips, has just begun a process of leading our church Executive Committee through a process that will help us see the picture of where God is taking us. I’m so excited for Tamra’s leadership and desire to lead our congrega-tion into a yet to be determined future. During the coming months the Executive Commit-tee will be seeking to “frame” our vision. 

The four frames of our vision include the following: 

? Our Mission: What are we doing? 

? Our Values: Why are we doing that mission? 

? Our Strategy: How are we achieving that mission? 

? Our Measures: When will we know we’ve completed our mission? 

There will be many opportunities to engage in these conversations. I look forward to having these conversations and discerning further what it means for us to be a “Christ-Centered Community Sharing God’s Love with the World.” 

Pastor David