After opening with prayer the group began its session of "HOW DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO".  The purpose of this session is to take stock of how our congregation does what it does.  This was a careful look at the processes by which our congregation accomplishes what it does.  These processes determine our effectiveness and how we feel about the church.

We started with the evening's Bible verses:  John 15:5,10 - 17, I Corinthians 12:12 , 14-17, 24-27 and I Corinthians 12:4-7.  It was noted that these scriptures are statements of fact, that state what we already are.  After sharing our answers to the questions relating to the specific bible verses we completed the following statements about our congregation:  

Christ saying, "I am the vine, you are the branches" means for our congregation that...

-         We all work together giving.

-         We work as one with God.

-         Together we work as a whole, each of our individual gifts work together to benefit all.

-         We must be connected to work effectively.

-         As many members as possible must be active.

-         Our skills and growth comes from His roots and nourishment.

-         United we stand, divided we fall.

-         We are a family, Christ is head, stay close to him for leadership.

-         The trees shape depends on everyone.

Thinking of our congregation as the body of Christ helps me to ...

-         Remember He chose all of us to do work, all are interconnected.

-         Recognize how important He makes us.

-         Focus.

-         Want to do my part.

-         To tolerate those whose opinions I do not agree with.

-         Know that one person does not have to do everything.

-         Use talents the best I can.

-         Work as a unit, not separately.

-         To remember that I need everybody else.

Knowing that each of us has the gift of the spirit for the common good encourages me to.

-         Participate.

-         Use it.

-         Accept diversity.

-         Do as much as I can.

-         Have faith and confidence that my small part is important to the whole.

-         I can do as much as I can.

-         Look for the good in people.

-         Respect other point of views.

Next, we summarized our opinions of the 24 statements in the back of the Mission Study Participant Manual.  After our opinions were tabulated we had a moment to look at the groups responses.  We had a great discussion on which eight of the statements we, as a congregation, identify as the most important items to focus on at this time.  These include:

             Eight Statements Identified by Group as Issues or Problems

            # 3        People in the congregation know what is going on.

            # 5        Differences in point of view are encouraged in our church.

            # 9        Leaders are not only given training before assuming office in our church

                                  but are expected to do continuing education related to their responsibilities.

            # 11      We see the future of our church as being bright.

# 12      We know how to deal with problems in ways that are creative and constructive.

                        # 19      Leaders in our church help others to become involved in the life and work of this                                   congregation.

            # 21      The abilities of church members are known and used to good advantage.

            # 22      People of this congregation give their money generously and systematically

We then reviewed the homework assignments for next week listed in your participant manual.  We also identified volunteers to perform interviews this week with people in the community.

We ended with time to share our individual skills, hobbies that God has given us and prayer in unison.

Please join us on Thursday February 5^th for Mission Study Four- "Your Relationship to the Larger Community"