First 2 Planning Sessions Completed--Pastoral Care and Mustard Seed Life Groups

Two ministry groups completed the fourth step of the Re-visioning Ministry Component of the process of Living into God's Future for Us.  Pastoral Care met last Monday and Mustard Seed Life Group leaders met on Tuesday.  Both groups spent some time reflecting on all of the input that has been generated so far, then prayerfully imagined where they might be called in the future.  Finally, they drafted a plan of action that will help them answer that call.

They were actively engaged in the strategic thinking process described earlier in this blog which involves imagining what we can do now that will lead to a hoped for future.

The Pastoral Care Team imagined a near term and a long term goal.  In the near term, they recognized the need to get to a place where the whole congregation understands and embraces the multi-level pastoral care structure that is in place at Trinity/Pointe of Grace.  Some of the steps they believe might help them achieve this included

• Identify and understand the "audience" they are trying to reach (various sub-groups in the community.
• Get clear on what these audiences need to understand about pastoral care ministry at Trinity/Pointe of Grace and how they would ideally perceive pastoral care ministry.
• Solicit input from various audiences
• Devise communication strategies such .as (1) regularly engaging people in conversations about the Pastoral Care "umbrella"' (2) communicate special requests to the pastors; (3) plan for Stephen Minister's presence at Pointe of Grace site; (4) Present on Pastoral Care at new members' classes.
• Imagine other creative ways of displaying/communicating the Pastoral Care delivery chart.
• Celebrate successes.

The group also devised a long term goal.  It began with a dream about physical building spaces that functioned as a "community center" where people of all ages and needs could find needs for relationship and wholeness met.  Conversation led to considering the actual ministry that might happen in this space and the goal was formed as a comprehensive, broad program of pastoral care offered to all ages and needs.  Some groups mentioned included seniors, youth, homeless, those with mental health needs.  They imagined some potential steps to begin building a ministry that might one day fill the hoped-for space.

• Identifying the groups that might be served.
• Get acquainted with the groups to identify their needs and desires.
• Involve those groups in planning what to offer
• Share the dream--what happen in a comprehensive ministry.
• Get trained as well as identify partners and connect with them
• Start trying things out--take small steps.
• Collaborate with other groups.

The Mustard Seed Life Groups Leadership drafted a long term objective: 

We want to develop the infrastructure for the caring/"garden”/"home” space that actually draws/invites people (voluntarily) into relationship that helps them be what they are called by God to be, including the missional(ambassadors for Christ) focus of actively inviting others in and making a real difference in our community.  They developed a 9-step action plan.

• Develop a solid model for leadership (turning Huddles into the embodiment of what we home Mustard Seed groups will be).
• Accept responsibility to provide leadership to Mustard Seed ministries. 
• Assess target audiences to find out what they actually want
• Develop a clear Core Message about why community is important
• Develop a inventory of available groups for ready access
• Create a training structure for new group leaders
• Target new audiences
• Seed new groups
• Do a status-check to get feedback about how things are working

Other groups will be developing plans of action to stengthen their ministries in the coming days.  It is exciting to observe one result of our Re-visioning Ministries process is that lay leaders are getting clearer on the potentially powerful role they may play in making ministry happen. 

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