Do you ever wonder what your future will be like? Do you think you know what you want from life? La Ka Shing wrote: "Vision is perhaps our greatest strength... it has kept us alive to the power and continuity of thought through the centuries, it makes us peer into the future and lends shape to the unknown."
Having a vision for our church is especially important in these tough economic times and ever-increasing demands on our resources. Your Church Board would like to take the opportunity to help create the church we want to be in 5-10 years time. For this reason, last year the Board created a Visioning Task Force charged with leading a process for "Understanding where we are going and what we want to be as a faith community..."
The Board also established goals for this Visioning process:
1. Ensure that everyone has an opportunity to share their thoughts
2. Learn about what the church and its community mean to people
3. Discover what inspires people about our future
4. Determine what the main priorities are for people as we move forward
5. Prepare a vision statement that will help us set our priorities for future goals
For the past year we have been asking members and friends to help us envision the HUUC of the future. We have also reviewed the survey results taken prior to hiring Wendy, conducted a visioning workshop, and solicited feedback from members of the congregation on their vision for the future. From all the data collected we have come up with 5 statements that represent the comments we have heard over and over again and that we hope articulate the future you envision. These are:
1. We are a growing and thriving congregation with an abundance of resources to fulfill our commitments and goals.
2. We are an indispensable part of the community.
3. We offer a variety of ways for our members to deepen and nourish their spiritual growth.
4. Our Congregation and its members are passionately engaged in social activism and outreach.
5. We are a vibrant, multi-generational congregation, participating in a variety of religious education opportunities.
Through this survey we are asking you to first determine whether or not we have accurately heard and articulated the vision you see for our church for the longer term (5-10 years). You will have the opportunity to rate and comment on each statement listed above.
Secondly we are asking you to provide some input on possible directions that each of these vision statements could take over the next 2-3 years. Your comments will help the board and ultimately the staff and leadership of the congregation determine their priorities in the shorter term.
Thank you for participating in this survey. Your comments will be considered confidential and not shared with anyone other than the Visioning Task Force. If you'd like to be contacted to discuss this is person please provide your contact information at the end of the survey. We value your time and commitment. We trust that by working together we can shape the future of our congregation to be an expression of our passion and spirit.
