Stories to Build Dream On

Report of the Visioning Core Team

Guiding Themes for FPCSLO | 2011-2016

Our Mission is to Glorify Jesus Christ and to be instruments of God’s healing, reconciling, life-giving presence in the world.

During our 2010 Stories to Build Dreams Onprocess, the FPCSLO Visioning Core Team found that the stories and dreams shared by this congregation abundantly reaffirmed our church’s mission statement. Based on the information we gathered from the entire process, we propose the following themes for that mission’s richer fulfillment in the next five years.

1.  Deepen Our Connections with God

• Strengthen worship and add  worship opportunities specific to needs, seasons and themes
• Reach for excellence in music and liturgy
• Involve more congregants in worship leadership
• Preach Biblically based sermons on pertinent and timely issues
• Bring sermons and practice liturgies that apply to practical living and foster growth and hope
• Expand opportunities for Bible study and theological dialog
• Foster more opportunities for prayer, spiritual growth and reflection through retreats, creative rituals, outdoor worship, etc.

2.  Deepen Our Connections with Each Other

• Celebrate our identity as a truly intergenerational church family. Honor and welcome all ages of congregants. Provide opportunities for intergenerational fellowship, worship and dialog.
• Acknowledge not only the traditional nuclear family, but the many "family" relationships in the larger church family that reflect the ideals of God's family
• Encourage the development of both large and small groups of every variety to enrich connectedness
• Welcome new team and ministry opportunities that utilize the congregation's various and diverse passions and gifts
• Celebrate our church's  rich and evocative history which contributes to who we are today
• Cultivate, nurture and strengthen caring relationships which become incarnations of Jesus' love
• Support and develop all ages of children and youth in their spiritual growth and journey
• Remember to honor and include our church’s elderly population in the church’s fellowship
• Communicate and celebrate availability of church programs and mission opportunities to promote greater awareness and participation

3.  Pursue wholeness

• Promote and teach the Biblical ideal of salvation as God's reclamation of the whole person, body as well as soul
• Encourage the development and balance of areas of growth and passion in our lives
• (Physical) Fitness related groups, Dance, Nutrition, Outdoor Activity, etc
• (Emotional) Expand Support group opportunities, Wholeness Groups
• (Relational) Mediation Team, Reconciliation, communication skills enrichment
• (Intellectual) Forums and dialogs on contemporary issues of moral and intellectual concern
• (Spiritual) Growth groups, devotional studies, retreats, spiritual enrichment, Bible and book study groups
• Promote and teach the care and healing of God’s Creation
• Promote and teach responsible stewardship and thoughtful investment of all our personal resources

4.  Practice Christ's radical hospitality

• Strengthen and expand our presence and involvement as a downtown church in the local community
• Broaden and deepen our global outreach and involvement
• Advocate for the poor and powerless locally and globally
• Welcome, and show God's love and our care for, those on the margins of power and privilege
• Offer kindness and acceptance to those who have typically felt excluded by the religious community
• Open our doors for more cultural, music and peacemaking activity so that we can be known as a place of sanctuary, growth, involvement and acceptance
• Broaden interfaith and ecumenical dialog and involvement