Dear St. Luke's,
It's been a busy August for your church council! In addition to our regular monthly meeting, we spent 1-1/2 days in an off-site meeting earlier this month reviewing and discussing input you provided during the recent listening campaign.
First and foremost, we are feeling encouraged and grateful as a result of the insights you shared and the love that you clearly express for this community. We realize it is important to expand on this kind of congregational conversation, and we have asked the listening campaign team to bring all of us together in September to talk some more.
In the meantime, I would like to touch on several themes that were impressed very strongly on us by the listening campaign results:
> Members of St. Luke's expressed, in many different ways, how much you value the community and inclusiveness of the congregation, and your desire to be more welcoming and engaging. That appears to be a core value and something that we would like to discuss more.
> We heard a clear message that you greatly value the leadership of our pastor, and that you want to assure that St. Luke's provides for continued strong leadership into the future.
> We were reassured to see that many of you affirmed that you are aware that we face financial challenges and need to be realistic about how best to steward our assets, and that you welcome a frank discussion of these issues.
We're looking forward to further conversation on these and other points. Watch the bulletin for details of the gathering for a "congregational conversation" following worship on September 14.
On behalf of the St. Luke's Church Council,
Jessica Schimpff, Council Chair
