Building a Vision of Our Future

Last month in this column I wrote about a wonderful growth workshop I attended with several other Starr King members.

Instead of focusing on simply welcoming visitors and growing our congregation, Larry Peers, workshop leader, former Unitarian Universalist minister and Alban Institute consultant, talked about “growing the soul” of the congregation. Working in groups by congregations, we focused on changing the way we do church.

Each group considered the best accomplishments of their congregation and on the strengths that contributed to those successes. We were asked to consider how by building on our strengths we could go further and accomplish our visions for the future. Coincidentally, we were planning our annual Board of Trustees retreat at this time.

Each year your Board holds an all day retreat to learn how we can work better together and develop a theme. This year our retreat was at the Unitarian Church of Livermore. The Board had discussed three items they wished to see addressed in our upcoming retreat: ministry of hospitality, communication and a five-year plan. Those ideas seemed to fit right in with the idea of working from our strengths to communicate and build a group vision for the future of Starr King Church .

Leading Change and Connecting for Our Community This year our retreat was led by Vanessa Wilcox, daughter of our Religious Education Director, Jean Wilcox. The theme became Leading Change and Connecting for Our Community. Vanessa began the retreat by discussing an article from the Harvard Business School entitled Leadership for Change: Enduring Skills for Change Masters. The article discusses various skills needed to affect change, including:

SENSING NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES : Idea scouting, identifying gaps between what is and what could be.

KALEIDOSCOPE THINKING : Stimulating breakthrough ideas; shaking up assumptions and reinforcing a spirit of creativity.

COMMUNICATING INSPIRING VISIONS : Shaping raw ideas into a theme that makes them come alive; creating a vision that supports the value and direction of the change. MASTERING THE DIFFICULT MIDDLES: This includes persistence and perseverance; ensuring plans are not rigid and can be redirected if needed, but revisiting and reminding everyone of the vision and mission. CELEBRATING ACCOMPLISHMENTS : Recognizing, rewarding and celebrating accomplishments, even if just for energy and effort.

We brainstormed our top needs and opportunities, including a financially and spiritually sustaining congregation; Religious Education parent support and connection; social justice and the larger community; attracting and retaining visitors; volunteer development; space. From there we moved to developing our vision of Starr King Church in five years.

An Unfinished Vision Our vision remains purposely unfinished because we want your input. We want the vision for Starr King to reflect the dreams and strengths of the entire congregation. Though we got bogged down a bit over semantics, grammar and philosophy in our DRAFT Vision, it included:

A vibrant, dynamic, connected community where meaningful, transformational spiritual practice can arise in an intergenerational environment.

A financially secure, abundantly generous congregation. Addressing critical social justice issues and needs. An array of opportunities for personal and spiritual growth and service.

Connectedness — inter, intra, “god connection.” Over the next few months your Board of Trustees will be deciding how to roll out our visioning process to you so that it will become your vision for a future that can happen.

Please join us. ~Bob