Transition Team update, points of agreement
It’s been a while since we’ve updated the congregation on the work of the Transition Team. They’re a busy group of people; currently they’re reviewing survey data, have visited vacant church properties, are in conversation with about five other churches in similar circumstances, including Spirit of St. Stephens and the Lyndale UCC/Salem Lutheran partnering churches.
The goal is to, at some point, prayerfully develop a set of options to bring forth to the congregation for discussion and eventual decision.
As of the end of this coming August, we will have three years left in the building on a financially beneficial basis. We’re currently supporting our budget with $150,000 in the 5% interest earnings on the remaining-due balance from the building’s sale to MIA (that’s a very good interest rate, folks.) We have an option on remaining another three years after August 2013, but without the $150,000 in interest moneys.
I, or members of the committee, have looked at about nine different church plants. Seven were unacceptable because of a lack of parking; one was too small and the other had major accessibility issues. This will probably mean that we won’t be moving to another church building, that something like a storefront or retail
space, warehouse, school, large house, or other space, will be a more likely place to go. To this point, the Transition Team has, among other things, reached the following points of agreement:
– If we continue as a congregation, we want to do so as Disciples. While partnership with another non-Disciple congregation is a possibility, merger would not be something we, as a congregation, would want to do. There’s something distinctive about us as Disciples that is worth keeping and sharing.
– What holds us together is a strong sense of community. We enjoy being with one another!
– Our continued presence in this building is too comfortable for us; habit patterns and outlooks tend to remain the same as they have been. In order to be open to the necessary transformation of becoming a church of the 21st century, we need to go through
the transformation of finding another space, space that will make our worship and ministry different and more open to trying new things.
The expedient choice, the easiest choice, would be to close in three to five years and use the sale moneys to start 6 to 8 new congregations in the Metro area. (In the Christian Church in the Upper Midwest, 11 out of the top 15 demographic sites for starting new churches are in the Twin Cities Metro.) Yet, to a person, everyone on the Transition Team dislikes this option.
I keep encouraging Transition Team folks to ask themselves, “What is the best future for FCC for building the Kingdom of God?” The Transition Team folks are being pretty faithful to keeping that in mind, and I would ask that you do the same.
