Tomorrow after the Worship Service

Sunday, January 10
1:15-3:15pm
Children, Youth, and Families Room for our first communal discernment event in the Visioning and Restructuring Process

What are our priorities as a faith community? Who are we called to be, as a part of the Body of Christ?

According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus appears after his resurrection to the remaining eleven disciples and gives them a commission that is commonly understood to be the mission of the church: "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation" (Mark 16: 15). The good news is that the "reign of God is at hand," that the long-anticipated, loving, compassionate, just rule of God has now broken through into human history. Although that reign has not yet come in its fullness (and we don't know when it will), it has begun to begin, so to speak, and the church is charged with making that known.

How do we at First Congregational Church of Oakland carry out this commission? How do we proclaim the good news of the in-breaking realm of God to Oakland and beyond?

Prior to her sabbatical, Pastor Lynice shared with the board of trustees her sense that we, as a congregation, have not yet gotten clear on our answer to that question. She also shared her longing for us to focus more intently on answering it.

In response to this urging, the board commissioned a Visioning and Restructuring Committee to design and initiate a congregational conversation and discernment process regarding our vision for ministry and the organizational structures that will best support that vision, including the role of the pastor.

The committee will also be charged with refining the ideas that emerge from that process and making suggestions for their implementation. During the course of this discernment process, the outcomes of the congregational processes and the Committee's refinement of them will go to the Board and Pastor for consideration of feasibility, fiscal and legal issues, etc. Any revisions by the Pastor and/or Board will be presented to the congregation to inform its continuing discernment.

The committee will develop a variety of mechanisms through which you can have input into this process. The first will take place in a congregational conversation on Sunday, January 10 from 1:15-3:15. Please mark your calendars now so that you'll be sure to be available for this conversation.

Members of the Visioning and Restructuring committee include the chairs of each ministry area (Grant Kinney in community care; Allison Kenny in Children, Youth, and Families; Nichola Torbett in spiritual formation; Kirsten Swenson in administration; Webb Mealy in worship; Monica Parker in music; and Marcia Lovelace in prophetic public witness); members of the Board of Trustees (Soo Hyun Han, Tony Lewis, and Lolita Ratchford), and three additional members of the congregation (Suzette Duncan, Carol Robison, and Roland Stringfellow).

Please direct any questions or concerns to the committee via its chair, Carol Robison. She can be reached at mango916@comcast.net.