Bishop's Committee Retreat

Today we had a our Bishop's Committee retreat. We spent the day at Seabeck Conference Center thinking about who we are as a parish and where we want to go. It was a very positive time together, and I think we accomplished a lot.

I asked the members of the BC to complete this sentence: "We are a ______ church." Here's what we came up with:

• caring
• friendly
• welcoming
• joyful
• family
  

We talked about our values as a parish and we came up with this list of values:
We value:

• Welcoming
• Courage
• Respectfulness
• Diversity
• Honesty
• Caring

We also set some goals for ourselves for this year. Here's what we came up with:

• Repair the kitchen floor before Easter
• Make up our $15,000 budget deficit
• Add three new family units
  
• Create a narthex task force to recommend improvements
• Add two new choir members
• Have a successful dining-out group
• Create a cry room
  
• Prioritize our improvement list
• Have five successful clean-up days, two of them with a barbecue lunch
• Celebrate Rogation Day May 17
• Make a plan for access to the upper area of our property
• Have a HUD house work party
• Make the barn ready for the CK Food Bank freezer

It's a long list, but I think it's attainable. Some goals aren't too difficult; others will take some sustained effort and focus.

It was a good day, well spent. We learned how to work together well and we enjoyed each other's company.
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