Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

by co-chair Barb Hummel

You may be one of the 130+ of our members who looked at how we could develop our church over the next 15-20 years to move even more deeply into our vision statement of Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice. That discernment process resulted in the formation of a mission team to strengthen and deepen our faith through expanded programming for all ages.

The Next Generation Initiative (NGI) mission team is co-chaired by Helene Nelson and Barb Hummel and includes: Kythie Boyd, Winton Boyd, Gary DeClute, Paul Evans, Charlene Gallagher, Ellery Hamann, Paul Hedges, Racheal Lancor, Ruthanne Landsness, Ralph Petersen, and Sara Roberts — and we’ve been busy! We have had 6 meetings since July. Here are the highlights of some of our work to date:

• We recognize and honor the current strengths—both existing mission teams and activities—that we already have. In looking at our existing programs, we developed some criteria that helped us look at what else might be possible or desirable. The criteria included:

• How experiential are our programs? That is, how much do they allow us to go beyond talking about God to actually feeling God’s presence, and evoking the mystery of God and our faith?
• How participatory are they? How actively do our programs engage people?
• How well do our programs go beyond the realm of words and intellect to engage all our senses?
• How do our programs allow us to connect with other people at varied, but significant levels? Are there multiple age groups for leadership and participation? Are groups easy to enter, particularly for newcomers?
• How well do our programs connect faith to justice?
• Are our programs consistent and well organized?
• What is the commitment level required to participate in our programs?

• There was a consensus that we need to define the NGI in a way in which the goals and themes of spirituality, community and justice all are part of the strengthened programming to deepen our faith.

• We see our recommendations as a supplement to the important work that our ongoing mission teams have. In that vein, we are looking at the congregational ideas that are “bigger” (i.e., may take longer to accomplish than one year, or represent some new directions).

• We spent three meetings delving into what each phrase of our vision statement could mean or look like for us 15-20 years from now, beginning with a look at the next five years. A few consistent priorities or “levers” emerged:

1. Improving programming for children and youth.

2. Strengthening programming for families, as well as inter-generational/multi-generational activities

3. Community through activities linking music and spirituality

4. Community through a focused series of Faith in Action adventures & retreats with in-depth programming in smaller groups.

5. A series of experiments with meditative/other spiritual experiences

6. After many experiments with programming, to understand how space and design of our church may need to be changed

We are far from done with our task! We are in the process of creating a more specific report, but wanted to let you know we are trying to serve you diligently and faithfully. We welcome your comments and inquiries!