SHAPING OUR FUTURE

Friends -

I'm Sue Sgambelluri, and I've been a part of the Fruitful Congregations Journey Team at our Church since the fall of 2013, but my time here actually goes back quite a ways.

We moved to Bloomington in November 1994. We had been part of a much-loved church in Indianapolis, and we missed our friends and faith community terribly. It was so hard to journey through that season of Advent without a church home. And then in the spring of 1995, God led us here and we were so warmly welcomed by then-pastors Howard Boles and Phil Amerson. We were so grateful for the quality of worship, the intelligent, relevant preaching, the small groups, and the social consciousness here that gave us opportunities to connect ... and grow ... and especially to serve.

Over the next 20 years, this faith community gave me lasting friendships, gave me reassurance and a sense of perspective when my career took an unexpected turn in 2002, sustained me when my marriage ended after 18 years in 2011, and continues to give me hope and peace now as I walk with my parents during these last days of their earthly journey.

I'm in a very different place than I planned to be when I came here 20 years ago. So much has changed in my life, in my family, and in my faith journey. And this church has been there at every turn ... reminding me of what is important and reassuring me that our loving God has a plan for me and work for me to do.

This church has become a touchstone in my life. It deserves more than just my thanks. It deserves my time ... and my financial support ... and my service.

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When Mark asked me to be part of the FCJ Team, I was skeptical. I've been to a countless conferences, I've worked with a lot of organizational development consultants, and I've even been a consultant. When it comes to organizational growth and visioning programs, I'm tough to impress. I couldn't imagine a visioning process that would be sufficiently high quality and responsive to the distinctive needs of our church. What books would we study and why were those chosen? What were the qualifications of the consultant and why could he or she be trusted to offer recommendations about our church? Why was FCJ better than any other programs? Don't we have the talent and expertise among our own members to craft our own program rather than look to one that comes from our connectional relationship with the larger church?

But ... as I said ... this church deserves my support ... my best. And so I said yes. I trusted. And together with other members of the FCJ team, we prayed and we studied, and we listened, and we learned. We asked a lot of tough questions. We argued and discussed and debated.

And I've come to realize that the FCJ Process makes a tremendous amount of sense for us at this moment in our congregation's history. This prayerful, Christ-centered plan may be imperfect in some ways, but the framework it provides is powerful and, more importantly, we serve a God with a perfect plan. And as we all know, when we seek to stay close to God, He will lead us where we need to go.

Over the last 20 years, our church has changed too ...

 

We've torn down an older building and built the Wesley Wing, we acquired the property across the street. We've faced alarming debt ... and we've gotten that debt under control. We've said goodbye to treasured friends ... and we've welcomed new ones. We've brought closure to some ministries, grown others, and introduced new ones.

Everything that we've been through as a congregation has brought us to this point ... and on Monday, December 15th, our faith family with have an important opportunity to begin shaping what coming years will look like for this church. That evening, we'll gather in the Sanctuary at 6:30 pm, we'll worship together, and we'll vote on the Ministry Action Plan that has been developed for our congregation through the Fruitful Congregations Journey.

While we've hosted three town meetings on the FCJ Ministry Action Plan, you do not need to have attended any of them in order to vote. You simply need to be a current, registered member of First United Methodist Church Bloomington. We'll have childcare available that evening, and if you need more copies of the Ministry Action Plan or background on the FCJ Process, please let us know. You'll find cards with team member names and contact information at church exits, and you're welcome to call the church office, too.

Thank you for being my church family.

I'll see you all on Monday, December 15th.

Sue Sgambelluri