Fruitful Congregations Journey is a program that is run through the Indiana Conference of the UMC to help churches become more effective in ministry. We have gone through the first Step of 3 which consisted of a group of congregants coming together with other churches in shared learning learning experiences, reading and discussing the same material as Pastor Ben, and we have been sharing many of our findings with all of you during worship and in bulletin inserts. This has been an exciting process of learning!
Fruitful Congregations Journey (FCJ) is a multiple step process. Recently, we began Step 2. During this step, a team of consultants will get a synopsis of our church’s history and community data to give them a clear picture of who we are as a congregation. Then, on the weekend October 21, this same team will come and interview our leadership and several others to help us better recognize our strengths and growth areas. That Saturday they will be putting on a workshop for all in the church to attend, helping us to think outside of the box concerning ministry at Sullivan First UMC, then on Sunday they will present their report after the service along with a Ministry Action Plan to help guide us towards becoming a more fruitful congregation in reaching our community!
To be clear, we are not in this process because we are a “bad church.” This is a process that has helped many churches throughout Indiana grow either in numbers, spiritually, or both. I liken this process to the Apostle Paul as he was writing to several of the early churches. He saw both the good and the growth areas in these churches and helped them see what they could not concerning theirselves. What we get, though, if we decide to do the Ministry Actions Plans that they will recommend, is the possibility to move onto Step 3 of the FCJ process which provides us access to a coach to help us growth area goals!
This is not a scary thing but an exciting one! I ask that each of us would pray for our congregation, that the Holy Spirit through this process might open up doors for Sullivan First that we didn’t even know were there!
