YES

Your Church Council voted on Monday evening to continue with Phase II of the Fruitful Congregation Journey (FCJ).  The vote was unanimous after a robust and energetic conversation, and it was taken on a motion made by the FCJ team here at FUMCB/The Open Door.  With this vote we will enter into a 10-month time of congregational and community assessment.

Why did our FCJ team and lay leadership support this proposal?  While not a perfect tool for congregational revitalization, FCJ provides our congregation with an excellent opportunity to focus on our mission and make the best possible decisions about where we invest our resources as we seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Phase I of FCJ was called the "Shared Learning Experience."  A team of more than 12 laity here have been engaged in a study, over the last six months, of Biblical truths and organizational insights about the keys to a vital, healthy, serving, community-transforming church.  Each month this team has been praying, reading, and having a conversation with lay leaders from other UM churches in central Indiana.

Phase II will be a process of assessment.  Working with the FCJ consulting team in our Annual Conference, data will be gathered on our community and church, trends in worship attendance, giving, and small group participation over the last 20 years will be analyzed, church members will be encouraged to participate in an online survey, and a cross section of leaders and church members will be interviewed face-to-face.

Following the gathering of data, there will be a Consultation Weekend.  A set of Ministry Action Plans (MAP's) will be presented to our congregation for our consideration and possible approval.  After the recommendations are made, there will be at least one month for us to pray about the MAP's, hold several church "town hall" meetings, and then we will vote "up" or "down" on the entire package of recommendations.

Please be in prayer for our leaders and the journey ahead.  As we have said before, if your small group, class or friends would like to visit with a member of our FCJ team, please contact the church office or speak with Tom Kinzer, Sue Sgambelluri, James McLary, Sarah Green, Jonathan Purvis or another member of the team.

N.T. Wright has written a brief description of what a healthy, dynamic, vibrant congregation looks like.  I would encourage you to read this over several times and perhaps even print it off.  Put it someplace where you will see it everyday.  FCJ will help us build on our strengths and offer us the opportunity to move towards this picture of the church:

"It's a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life.  It's where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly stop by for a chat.  It's where one group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for global justice.  It's where you'll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptations, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry that purpose out.  It's where people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its part."

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark Fenstermacher