Overview of Transition Team meeting 8/28

The Emerging Unified Church of Carlisle

Overview of Transition Team Meeting

August 28, 2012

On Thursday, August 28, 2012, the Transition Team conducted its sixth meeting.  We have begun to hear some questions regarding our progress or lack thereof.  All of you have probably heard, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”  And we are going to have to take some time to unify our churches and make it the very best house of worship which we can imagine it to be. 

The unifying of our three downtown United Methodist churches into one unified church has not happened before in our neck of the woods.  While the Co::Lab provided us with a basic framework within which to operate, we have been developing the reporting mechanisms and structure with which to operate efficiently and productively.  For some of us, we have had to adjust the way that we typically have functioned as we grapple with the significance of new terms, a multitude of tasks, new accountability procedures and ever-occurring deadlines. 

We strongly believe that communications is extremely important – it is one of our top priorities. We have provided an overview of every Transition Team meeting and will continue to do so.  As the secretary of the Transition Team, I have been charged with recording the minutes of each meeting and conveying the major events of each meeting to all of you through these Overviews.  The minutes are received by every Transition Team member, and copies of the Overviews are provided to all of our members at each of our three campuses.

To be as succinct as possible about Tuesday’s meeting, I would share that I now feel that the Transition Team has in place everything that we will need to move forward.  If we were building a football stadium and before one shovel of dirt was able to be moved to erect the stadium, the basic infrastructure to support such construction would have to be in place.  Infrastructure typically refers to the roads, water supply, sewers, electrical grids and telecommunications needed to support a stadium filled with 60,000 fans.

For us, the infrastructure for us to operate as a Transition Team has been the creation of Focus Group Status Reports, Transition Team Status Reports, A Handbook of Roles and Responsibilities for Transition Team and Focus Group members and a new calendar for meeting dates and reporting dates.  A member said that after our work has been completed other churches who decide to unify can use these documents and reporting tools for their work.  We had to create them first!  Our working infrastructure is now complete! 

July 1, 2013, remains the day when our church will officially begin to operate under one roof, and we will finally be one church. Our first unified service in our transitional facility will occur on Sunday, July7, 2013.  

Transition Team

Pastoral Team                        Allison                         First                                    Grace

Jim VanZandt, Chair                 Ron Axsom                  Dennis Downey, Co-chair     Colleen Kulp

Bishop Neil Irons                     Ann Cook                    Tracy Horgan                        Kerm Leitner,

                                                                                                                                Secretary

Mira Hewlett                           Jeff Harpel                    Debbie Washinger                 Randy Noaker

Susan Stewart                         Joanne Reynolds            Lois Weibley                        Dianne Otto

Dennis Keller, District Superintendent    

Our next scheduled meeting is Thurs., September 13, at 6:30 pm. 

Pioneering Meditation 4

Pioneering:  Meditations for Our Transformation

Number 4                                                                 August 26, 2012

Protective Prayer

(Jesus said)…“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”  Luke 22:31-32

If I look clinically at my prayer life, I can group my prayers into four major areas: thanks, praise, confession, and intercession.  Most prayers rise because of conditions I see or experience around me.  I expect it’s the same with you.

But I learned another important area on March 4^th, the day of the vote to unify.  Down in front of the auditorium at the high school sat Pastor Jan, praying from the time the doors opened until the voting was over.  Later I asked her about that time, and she told me there was nothing else for her to do, so she decided to pray that Satan would not be allowed to enter the hearts of those who were in the building.

Sometimes we feel lulled into downplaying the impact of the forces of Darkness active around us.  Maybe it’s because we’re trying to focus on the positive aspects of faith, like forgiveness and love.  But God takes evil seriously, and so should we.

Once we lived in a society with a comfortable level of Christian behavior and favor.  But today we experience many things that dismay us, because they erode the things that were and remain bedrocks of our faith.  Read the news and try to remain calm and Christ-focused.  Tough to do!

Many times when we see wrong, we blame human causes.  Frequently we can identify some set of circumstances or an event that stinks of evil.  Our anger rises against the person or institution that does a wrong to someone.  How many times have we shaken our fists or felt anger rising over an obvious wrong?  This is a basic hard-wired human reaction.  But we miss the mark if we don’t recognize the evil power behind the human deed.

Jesus’ example while he was dying on the cross -- “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do.“ (Luke 23:34) -- reminds us that behind human wrongdoers and their deeds is the great Darkness of Evil at work in them.

When we begin something, we want and expect it to succeed.  If it is a special or worthy activity, or if involves serving Christ, we pray for it.

We have been praying for the co::lab and the transformation process for months; praying that what we are doing pleases God, according to the scriptures and our personal and collective discernment.  We’re praying for the fruits of our efforts, and for service to others.

We also need to pray that God protects God’s enterprise from the assaults of evil, both from outside and from inside our fellowship.  We need to engage in Protective Prayer.

Protective prayer is like weeding a garden.  Once we have planted seeds, we fertilize and water.  We also weed the garden so it will produce good fruit.  Or you can compare protective prayer to any number of mundane things we do in the course of a week: washing dishes, doing laundry, changing a diaper, cleaning our homes, and so forth.  These ordinary things are done to keep us healthy.

We need to pray protectively for our transformation work.  Have no doubt that Satan has his sights on this journey, and will do all in his evil power to defeat us.  Satan wants to frustrate us and fracture our work for unity and fellowship by sowing seeds of doubt and distrust among us.

Jesus, who was tempted by Satan, knew the cunning and soul-corrupting power of Evil.  And Jesus gives us the most powerful weapon against Evil: the grace to forgive.  But it is not one we can use by ourselves.  We need Jesus to help us.  We need Christ to point out the logs in our own eyes before we try to remove specks from the eyes of others.  We cannot be spiritually arrogant

Paul, in warning the Ephesian churches that Christians are in a war against the powers of Darkness and their minions, puts it this way:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Ephesians 6:10-13

Protective prayer is like the other side of the prayer coin.  On the heads side of the coin, we offer praise, thanks, intercession, and confession.  On the tails side we pray to prevent Evil from encroaching, to keep Satan away. 

Here are some other Bible passages that highlight God’s protection:

On the twelfth day of the first month we set out … to go to Jerusalem.  The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way.  Ezra 8:31.

You, Lord, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked, who freely strut about when what is vile is honored by the human race.  Psalms 12:7-8.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  Matthew 6:13.

Pray for the God of Might to protect us from Evil, and to lead us forward in our battle against Satan for the soul of Carlisle.

Common Prayer.  Our Father, as we wrap our infants in a blanket to keep them warm, as we wrap our arms around our children to show our love and protection: we pray You will wrap Your protection around this Transformation process.  Wrap us in your Divine protection from the forces of Darkness that threaten us on this journey.  AMEN.

 

Transformation Team emphasis for the next two weeks:

Administrative Structure, Transitional Funding, Fifth Sunday Combined Worship, Congregational Meetings

Please address your feedback and comments to Charles L. Reynolds at papoo99@comcast.net.

Overview of Transition Team meeting 8/9

The Emerging Unified Church of Carlisle

Overview of Transition Team Meeting

August 9, 2012

On Thursday, August 9, 2012, the Transition Team conducted its fifth meeting. At this point many members from the three campuses have been added to the fifteen focus groups which have been identified by the Co::Lab and Transition Team.  Due to vacation schedules, there remain some individuals who will still need to be contacted during the upcoming days.  Hopefully, by the time that you are reading this we will have completed the membership for each focus team.  However, we will be enlisting your ideas and suggestions as we proceed, and some additional members may be joining focus groups based upon our needs and your expertise.  At our next meeting, we will be scheduling congregational meetings at each of the campuses which will provide you with additional updates and enlist your input during this period of transition.

As you discovered on Sunday, the pastors will be exchanging pulpits on a monthly basis.  Additionally, the pastors will be planning cooperative events on the fifth Sundays of those months having five Sabbath days.  All are encouraged to visit services at the three campuses where our fellow sisters and brothers now worship prior to our unification and movement into our transitional facility.

As we continue to look at the timeline, the most pressing priority is to identify and organize the administrative structure that will be utilized by our new church.  We have re-established January 1, 2013 as our target date to have this structure in place.  We have also come to realize that the funding of our unified church needs to be a two-step process with a transitional budget in place for each campus from January 1 through June 30, 2013, and then a combined budget starting 0n July 1.  Thus, the new church will operate on a fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) rather than a calendar year.

On September 1, the Transition Team will be up and running on the internet.  An email address has now been established for you to contact the Transition Team directly:

carlisleumcs@gmail.com

We invite your thoughts, questions, concerns, suggestions and ideas.  Please email us or talk to us at any time.

 Transition Team

Pastoral Team                       Allison                        First                            Grace

Jim VanZandt, Lead               Ron Axsom                 Dennis Downey          Colleen Kulp

Bishop Neil Irons                    Ann Cook                   Tracy Horgan              Kerm Leitner

Mira Hewlett                           Jeff Harpel                  Debbie Washinger       Randy Noaker

Susan Stewart                         Joanne Reynolds         Lois Weibley               Dianne Otto

Dennis Keller, District Superintendent

Our next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, August 28, at 9:30 am. 

Overview of Transition Team meeting 7/24

The Emerging Unified Church of Carlisle

Overview of Transition Team Meeting

July 24, 2012

On Tuesday, July 24, 2012, the Transition Team conducted its fourth meeting. Since our last meeting, Pastor Mira had presented each member with complete lists so that we can begin contacting members to join our focus groups.  We will be using the term, focus groups, to refer to the work areas or subcommittees which have been mentioned previously.  These include: Communications, Timeline, Administrative Structure, Identification of Church Name, Incorporation of New Church, Plan for Funding Ministry, Worship (Worship Life of the New Church), Grow (Christian Formation for All Ages), Serve (Service and Outreach Opportunities), Connect (Congregational/Pastoral Care), Transitional Facility, Transitional Staffing, Physical Assets, Heritage Preservation, Site Location and Childcare Programs.  Two team members shared that everyone whom they have been able to contact so far has agreed to serve on their focus group. At our next meeting, we will be establishing some meeting dates at each campus to share what help we will be needing and inviting all members to get involved in the many tasks ahead.  Shortly, each campus’s website will have a link to the work of the Transition Team.

 As we move forward toward incorporation in early 2013, five focus groups have been given top priority: Communications, New Name, Finances, Incorporation and Administrative Structure.

We agreed that the use of non-paid consultants from the Conference would be helpful, and Dennis Otto has already been tapped for his expertise in Administrative Structure and Staffing.

The Naming focus group scheduled a meeting for July 30 and will be bringing a process that they recommend to our next Transition Team meeting.

 Dennis Downey, vice chair of the Transition Team, will be entering and tracking all of our input.  This will be helpful in many ways as we continue our work toward unification of our churches in Carlisle.

 Please contact any of us if you have any questions or suggestions.

 Transition Team

Pastoral Team                       Allison                        First                            Grace

Jim VanZandt, Lead               Ron Axsom                 Dennis Downey          Colleen Kulp

Bishop Neil Irons                    Ann Cook                   Tracy Horgan              Kerm Leitner

Mira Hewlett                           Jeff Harpel                  Debbie Washinger       Randy Noaker

Susan Stewart                         Joanne Reynolds         Lois Weibley               Dianne Otto

 Dennis Keller, District Superintendent

 Our next scheduled meeting is Thursday, August 9, at 6:30 pm. 

Pioneering meditation for 8/12

Pioneering:  Meditations for Our Transformation

Number 3                                                           August 12, 2012

Packing for the Trip

These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff -- no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.  Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.  Mark 6: 8-9

I was an airlift pilot in the U. S. Air Force.  My job required me to have bags packed and to be ready to travel anywhere in the world on short notice.  One of those bags was an arctic bag consisting of thermal underwear, a cold-weather parka, mukluks, and a dozen other things I absolutely do not need as I write this meditation with the thermometer melting.

The pioneer journey we’ve embarked on won’t need those kinds of bags either.  In fact, it’s not things we need to take.  We need a kind of Eternal Credit Card, one that gives us the confidence to completely trust in God to provide what we will need in any situation.

In the passage from Mark’s Gospel, and also covered in Matthew and Luke, Jesus gives some unusual packing instructions.  Most of them are what not to take.  It’s as if this commission to preach to the ‘lost sheep of Israel’ was only half of the task.  Do you think that Jesus had another purpose in mind when he emphasized what not to pack?  I think, besides preaching to and healing others, Jesus was training the disciples to put their full and absolute trust in God when God sends them forth.  I believe that’s why they were told to pack light!  It was not about who they were, but whose they were.

Most of the pioneers in our nation’s history made the westward journey only once.  We’re also making this journey only once in our lifetimes.  The pioneers of old took what they believed to be important for the journey and for the destination.  But they took more than they could carry, and consequently had to cast off things they thought were valuable, but were actually irrelevant.

We must also make choices.  We are not leaving behind our families and friends, or even our homes.  But the things we must leave behind are just as difficult to leave.  They are precious or valuable now, but they stand in the way of reaching our destination.  We must leave behind some attitudes that are no longer useful.

We have spent years in our individual churches in worship, fellowship, and education.  We all remember special times– a sermon, a Sunday School moment, a wedding, a prayer rail confession, a Christmas or Easter service -- events that helped shape our lives.  It is a natural human tendency to link the event to a particular place -- tangible things to tangible places.

But for those events and times that have deep spiritual meaning, isn’t it more vital that we link the experience to a new insight and relationship with God?  Then, no matter what happens to earthly places, those precious memories and experiences are intertwined with our journey toward our Master.

St Paul expressed his personal convictions in his letter to the Philippians, chapter 3: 13b -14:

“…But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul knew he had to put aside all those past things that were so important to his identity, even to the point of forgetting them to clear his mind for what God had in store for him.

We don’t need to drop everything this minute, this week, or this month.  We have time to take photos or even narrate a video of those places and things in our home churches that are precious to us and are part of our stories.

But we do need to start putting away the tangible things, and changing our attitudes toward them.   We need to adopt a new attitude that better defines whose we are.

We still have almost a year until we will leave our accustomed sanctuaries and join together in a new one.  It will be a new place that may look like an old place, but is a new church to every one of us, regardless of the building.

Until then, carefully look over the attitude you will need on this pioneer trail.  Take these next few months to say goodbye to old things and hello to our traveling companions, to treasure past memories and to enjoy the present as it unfolds with new relationships.

We can begin by draining any anger, frustrations and prejudices that weigh us down.  We can give them over to Jesus Christ, the Divine hazardous waste container.  I don’t

know of anyone better-equipped for this job than Jesus.  He’s on call and available 24-7, and promises to handle anything we want to seriously drop off.

We can use these next months to pray out those poisons of Darkness that hold us back, and will surely make our souls sick on this journey.

So, pack light, put out the trash, and always carry your Eternal Credit Card.  It is honored everywhere you go!!  And bring a bucket, because it is going to be filled to overflowing with blessings every day as long as you hold it up to God.

Common Prayer.  Our precious Friend and Savior, you traveled with only the commission of your heavenly Father to heal, to confront, to proclaim, and to save us by your passion, death and resurrection.  Help us to travel to our transformation destination without any thing or attitude that diminishes our worship of you, or our service to our sisters and brothers in Christ.  Let this journey teach us to trust you always and for all circumstances.  AMEN.

Transformation Team emphasis for the next two weeks:

Focus Groups in Communications, New Name, Finances, Incorporation, and Administrative Structure

Please address your feedback and comments to Charles L. Reynolds at papoo99@comcast.net

Pic from picnic

Here's a great pic from the picnic July 29 at the Fairgrounds. What a crowd! It was so exciting to have so many come together (about 350!) to welcome the pastors and join in food and fellowship. Kudos to the cooperative ministries team, who put everything together and kept things running smoothly. Look for more pics on this blog and/or on the campus websites.