A couple of weekends ago (March 14), we had our semi-annual Leadership Retreat at Saint Nicholas. It came at an appropriate time. Your leaders (both lay and clergy) have been focused very much on details in recent months – pledge drives, getting permits and inspections, building the North Wing, getting ready for Lent, teaching classes – that are the wonderful tasks of ministry in an active, lively congregation. But the phrase “the devil is in the details” can mean several things, and one of them is that every so often God wants us to look up, to take a broader perspective, to see His hand at work in the world and in our lives.

So we took that opportunity to look again at our Growth and Focus Areas, the parts of our life together at Saint Nicholas that we want to grow or grow into. As we prepared for the retreat, we realized that the Council did not necessarily know what these areas were, and that the congregation may not, either. They are:

These goals will not be accomplished overnight – in fact, they may keep us busy for decades. Let me say a bit about each.

We have talked a lot about becoming a discipleship church – it is the basis for our four-fold intention to “Love God, Love Others, Teach and Learn and Serve the World.” It is also the basis for our dozen or so Triad groups, the groups that meet weekly or bi-weekly for Bible study, discussion and reflection. In the retreat, we decided that we’ve made good progress, but that we haven’t shared and communicated that progress very well. We want to keep these ideas in front of us, perhaps in this newsletter, through a new logo on our stationery, maybe new banners in the nave. So, we are working on a graphical way of depicting this discipleship focus and ways to communicate the activities of our Triad groups.

Building the North Wing has kept us busy because doing a construction project of this size is a consuming thing. We are very grateful to our leaders who have worked so hard to do this job right, to the congregation members who have given so much and pledged so much and hoped and dreamed for so long to make this a reality, and to God who is the only One who can build to last. In the retreat, we realized that building the North Wing, however difficult, is only half the job – the other half is envisioning what we’re going to do with it! Does it offer opportunities for new ministries, like a drama ministry? Does it offer alternative worship space for new ways to praise and worship God? So we’re pulling a team together to envision the North Wing and how to use it for the glory of God and where it fits into the future that God is creating for us here.

We’ve been growing – have you noticed? We see new families at worship, new people, new friends, new ideas. Nearly every week, a new family comes to visit with us. In the retreat, we realized that these visitors are God’s gift to our assembly and if we don’t work hard in smart ways to make them feel welcomed and connected and loved, we are wasting God’s gifts. So we’re pulling together another team to make sure that people who visit us know that we want them to become an important part of God’s family here at Saint Nicholas.

Finally, we want to establish a preaching point (that is, an additional worship site) in the southern part of the county. Spreading the Word is the heart of the Great Commission. In the retreat, we realized that a preaching point may take a bit longer than we’d hoped as we try to accomplish our other goals of becoming/being a discipleship church, building a Christian campus and welcoming new members and new ideas. We don’t want to forget this goal but we don’t want to spread ourselves so thin that we do it badly.

As we journey toward Easter and beyond, we lift our eyes to the Risen Lord, whence our strength truly comes. As a community of faith and as a part of the larger community of God’s creation here, we have a distinctive vision for how people can live justly and well and that is a vision we want to grow into and share. In the coming weeks and months, you’ll have lots of opportunities to add your ideas and heart to this vision.

We go together.

Pastor Greg