It's a process with your response.

Greetings Members and Friends of the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz! The Vision Facilitation Team would like to thank you for taking part in the many surveys and questionnaires, and for your prayers and support in these last few months, as we discern what God's future looks like for our church. What is our goal? To focus on a vision of what our next faithful step might be. We are asking you to respond yet again, and in prayerful contemplation, write down and send to us what you have discerned our vision and mission should be for this next year. Look at the clues and issues we have discovered in our 3 circles or spheres of influence: our congregational identity, our current congregational context, and our greater community's external context (see attachment). Vision is not thinking up good things to do, copying what other churches have done, not a list of goals for the coming year, or a managerial exercise. It is a spiritual exercise in prayer and Christian conversation, a listening and discovering from the clues, some positive, and some negative ones. It is seeking out the patterns, seeing clearly what is before us, and looking at our vulnerabilities and strengths, and those issues that must be addressed to move forward. Organizational space is never empty. If we have no vision then needs, issues, problems, and conflicts will take of all of our energies, ballooning in inordinate importance. A vision will keep all of these things in perspective. A vision unifies across differences and becomes a field of energy that produces results that cannot be predicted, overcoming adversities as they arise. A vision statement is a lens that we can use to focus all of our energies in ministry in the coming year.

Given our purpose and context, what is God calling us to do in the near future? Prayerfully fill in this vision statement and return in the offering plate, email, or church office: We are the church that ________________________________________________. (It is a slogan, simple and easy, like something you might put on a cake, or use to describe our church to a friend)