tbc Discernment 2021, Reports and Documents

Business Meeting: May 16, 2021

We have many important items to discuss at our business meeting! Please join us to vote on the Personnel Manual, hear recommendations about urgent and future staffing, and discuss the direction our congregation is heading.

Final Q&A Session for Personnel Manual

The updated Manual was approved by both the Administrative Board and Board of Deacons, and there were two listening sessions provided for Q&A just prior to the start of the pandemic. This session is to bring your final questions and concerns to the table before we vote on this manual on May 16.

Final Q&A Session for Personnel Manual
Wednesday, May 12 6pm on Zoom

Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 889 9093 1363
Passcode: 324191
Join on Mobile: +16468769923,,88990931363#

view Personnel manual
Join May 12 Q&A Zoom

May 16 Business Meeting

At 2pm on Sunday, May 16 we will hold an important business meeting. This meeting will be a hybrid of online and in-person. Please RSVP if you plan to join us in person, as we’re observing our safety protocol whenever we enter the building.

To prepare for this meeting, please consider watching the first parts of the series New Life, posted below.

We will be voting on the Personnel Manual and the Quarterly Report in this meeting.

Business Meeting
Sunday, May 16 2pm on Zoom and in person

Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 879 5769 3945
Passcode: 247910
Join on Mobile: +16465588656,,87957693945#,,,,*247910#

RSVP for in-person
join on zoom

New Life, New Beginnings Series

These videos provide some background for the new season we as a church are entering into. Pastor Sterling will reference these messages in the business meeting as we discuss moving forward as a congregation into a season celebrating new life.

New Life, New Beginnings: Part 1 (Sermon from May 9, 2021)

tbc Going Deeper

Going Deeper: Communal Grief Part 1

Rev. Jacque Green reflects on communal grief in light of a world dealing with Covid-19.

Articles and Books Mentioned in this Podcast:

  1. Doehring, Carrie. (2019). Searching for Wholeness Amidst Traumatic Grief: The Role of Spiritual Practices that Reveal Compassion in Embodied, Relational, and Transcendent Ways. Pastoral Psychology. 68. 
  2. Healing Our Hurts: Coping with Difficult Emotions, Daniel G. Bagby, 2013
  3. Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief, David Kessler, 2019

Scripture References

  • When worried: Is 43:1–13; Mt 6:25–34; Php 4:4–7; 1 Pe 5:7
  • When lonely: Ps 73:23–24; Is 41:10; Is 49:14–16; Jn 14:15–21
  • When tired or weary: Is 40:28–31; Mt 11:28–30; 2 Co 4:16–18; Php 4:12–13
  • When discouraged: Ps 34:18; Ps 42:5; La 3:20–23; Ro 8:28–39

Spiritual Practices (not mentioned)

Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us. Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, 2015

tbc Going Deeper

Going Deeper: The Change Cycle

Christy Foldenauer talks to us today about the change cycle, and how we process change, from loss to integration. This podcast is a supplement to Tabernacle’s ongoing discernment dialogue, exploring what God has in store for the little church at Grove and Meadow and also the universal Church. 

What do you think?

How does understanding this change model understand yourself and others?

What part does discipleship play in helping the congregation work through this cycle?

Where are you prone to get stuck in this cycle?

If this cycle is a map, where are you right now?

Comment below or add your thoughts to the Communal Journal.

tbc Discernment 2021, Going Deeper

Going Deeper: Life Cycles of a Congregation

Where do you think our little church falls on the life cycle?

We all know that churches tend to move through cycles, inevitable and natural for us to do so. Our willingness to look into the mirror and share what we’re seeing is important. Are we all seeing the same image of our little church when we look into the mirror? We are indebted to Dr. Tracy Hartman, one of our beloved members, for introducing us to “Life Cycles of a Congregation”

“Savy churches will constantly engage in the ongoing work of renewal….. and move with courage into the risks involved in living into. “

-Dr Tracy Hartman
Tracy-Hartman-lifecycles-

1. Where is Tabernale in the life cycle? Do you see us in the prime stage? Maturity Stage? or do you see us as slipping downhill?

2. What will it take for us as a congregation to (re)vision and (re)new? What are you willing to do/sacrifice to make that happen?

3. What are the barriers you/we face as we look into the mirror? What walls need to come down so that we can draw closer to God and discern together?

4. What do we pray for?

Comment below or add your thoughts to our Communal Journal.

tbc Discernment 2021, Going Deeper

Does Church Size Matter?

Pastor Meg Lacy Vega talks to us about how congregations function differently depending on their size.

This podcast is a supplement to our ongoing discernment dialogue as we explore what God has in store for our congregation and the universal church. We invite you to listen each week as we share thoughts, articles, questions, and ideas about our discernment process.

You can read more about church size dynamics in the article Leadership and Church Size Dynamics: How Strategy Changes with Growth by Time Keller.

tbc Discernment 2021, Going Deeper

Going Deeper: Leading Beyond the Blizzard

Spencer Law reads and reflects on the article Leading Beyond the Blizzard: Why Every Organization Is Now a Startup by Andy Crouch, Kurt Keilhacker, and Dave Blanchard.

A brief summary (pulled from the article) is provided here:

  1. The novel coronavirus is not just something for leaders to “get through” for a few days or weeks. Instead, we need to treat COVID-19 as an economic and cultural blizzard, winter, and beginning of a “little ice age” — a once-in-a-lifetime change that is likely to affect our lives and organizations for years.
  2. Due to the complex and interconnected nature of our society and economy, the majority of businesses and nonprofits are “effectively out of business” as of today, in that the underlying assumptions that sustained their organization are no longer true.
  3. The priority of leaders must be to set aside confidence in their current playbook as quickly as possible, write a new one that honors their mission and the communities they serve, and make the most of their organization’s assets — their people, financial capital, and social capital, leaning on relationship and trust.
  4. The creative potential for hope and vision is unparalleled right now — but paradoxically this creativity will only be fully available to us if we also make space for grief and lament.
  5. We write this out of love for Christian organizational leaders and their work, with humility in a time of considerable uncertainty, and a prayerful hope that we are proven wrong by God, in his gracious providence, working miraculously through human ingenuity in this season.

After reading or listening to this article, what do you think it has to say to the current state of our church? Is it correct in its assertions?

What have you learned between March (when this article was written) and now?

tbc Discernment 2021

And So It Begins: Intro and Initial Survey

In the fall of 2020, we as a church decided that, in order to enter into a deliberate season of discernment, we would move to a simple church model. We committed to spending our energy asking God where we are being called in this moment and beyond. Join us in this journey forward.

As you are praying for wisdom and clarity, please first watch the introductory video, then give us your thoughts through an anonymous survey. On the survey page you will find a video with more detailed information on what we’re hoping to hear from you. You can complete this survey as many times as you’d like. It will be open until the end of January, when we will compile the information we’ve received and move on to our next phase. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, or to include your totally honest ideas and opinions.

go to survey

For more information on our 2021 discernment process, go to the Canoeing the Mountains page.