Parker Stokes presented this update on the planning committee's work during the Sunday Services on October 13, 2019.

Our bylaws outline that the Fellowship has a continually developing “ 5-Year Plan” to guide our actions. I am Parker Stokes, and I am on the Planning Committee with Sandy Burkes-Campbell, Megan Zunk-Wasilausky, Scott Kasmire, Lin Chambers and Rebecca Wheeler. I want to share an overview of our planning process.

Before you can create a plan, you need some goals and guiding values. So, we started the planning process in 2017 when we agreed that WONDER, LOVE, SERVICE and GENEROSITY are our CORE VALUES. We have extended these CORE VALUES into our MISSION by attaching the verbs GROW IN WONDER, CONNECT IN LOVE, ENGAGE IN SERVICE, INSPIRE GENEROSITY.

You are already familiar with this as our MISSION STATEMENT and our intention to let it be the guiding principle that informs all our actions. This intention was best summed up in Andrew’s May 26 sermon when he asked us:

“Over the next year, the next three years, the next five years: What more can we do to help one another grow in wonder?
How can we be better at connecting in love, both with one another and with our neighbors?
What else can we do to help more members and friends as we engage in service?
How can we be a better example to those beyond our walls and inspire generosity in the world?”​ ​

Written inside the wonderful graphic footprints on the back wall of the sanctuary you can read the commitments many of us made several months ago as our first step toward this process. You can also see that these small step commitments have begun marching us forward to the place where some of the five year goals for our building and Fellowship are displayed. The Planning Committee has also solicited five year goals from each of our committees and the Board. We are in the process of organizing these ideas into an actionable list that you will see more of in the future. ​

The most important and popular idea expressed in the process so far was your enjoyment of being associated with the like-minded community you find in this Fellowship. Rev. Andrew has suggested that “perhaps OUR PURPOSE is COMMUNITY, practicing it as deeply and thoroughly as we can, both within and beyond our walls." Community will likely become the central organizing theme around which all of our future efforts will be built.

So, with guidance by our Mission Statement, energy supplied by our enjoyment of our community, and goals supplied by you, I am excited to see us continuing the process of defining the VISION of our next five years. To this end, the Planning Committee and Board will be working with you to further craft this vision. We are planning a monthly update like this to keep you informed. All of the committee members mentioned earlier and I welcome your input.