Month: May 2022

You may have been hearing about focus group meetings being held around the district.
Three have been completed, three are yet to go. If your congregation has already been
represented at one of these meetings, thank you for participating. If you’ve not yet been
involved, look for an opportunity at Holmesville (May 21) Olathe (May 22) or Prairie View (June 4). Some of these sessions will be available on Zoom.

These meetings are a product of nearly 6 months of planning by something we’ve come to call the DnA Team “Discovery ‘n Action.” It is a planning process that is focused on the future of the Brethren in the Western Plains, where we can be reframing and re-energizing who we are and how we can transform that energy into action plans that give voice to Jesus in the neighborhood.

Some have expressed reticence with the fact that these sessions begin with asking participants’ reactions to a proposed purpose statement. The question, some will ask, is what we’re doing here if the answer is largely a done deal already? The reason it’s not a done deal is that the proposed purpose statement is
(a) still subject to input from district members and (b) is only step one of what is projected to be at least a 5 step process. We’re hoping to gather information related to multiple pieces of the process, not just to the first step. There may be more feedback sessions like these as we move toward later stages.

What does the bigger picture look like?

• A purpose statement tries to articulate what the paramount point of our faith
  community is.
• Next comes a statement of core values that drive our belief system toward vision
  and mission.
• Out of values comes a broad process of visioning toward our preferred future
• Rooted in the vision is a mission, requiring the articulation of more specifics in a
  mission statement reflecting what we discern God wants us to do.
• So far the above has no action planning in it. That’s the last step – plans for action.
  That’s what the “A” is in the DnA acronym. In these sessions we are attempting to
  discover our purpose, values, vision, and mission in order to put wheels on them, an
  action plan.

Planning for intentional community is work, takes time and requires involvement in order to be sustainable. If you’ve not yet been involved, please check focus group information on the district website and click the link at the bottom of the article to see where remaining meetings are to be held. If you want to join by Zoom, please e-mail the session leader or floryl@sbcglobal.net since we’ll need to e-mail back a specific Zoom link for the meeting you want to join. There is also the possibility that we will schedule additional meetings after district conference if there are more people who have not had a chance for input. Your voice and your congregation’s voice are very important to our district family’s life and

work together.

Western Plains District Church of the Brethren

Opportunities to participate . . . to be part of our planning

Focus group conversations about the future of our district

Through May and early June, we are holding conversations in churches around the district led by members of a team we’ve called the “DnA Team.” That somewhat mysterious name stands for Discovery ‘n Action, signaling an effort to gather information from members of our district, feedback which will be transformed into —

• A renewed purpose statement
• A statement of core values that are at the foundation of our life together as the Body of Christ
• Exploration of a vision for the district
• Reformulation of a mission statement for the district
• Action plans for carrying out a mission of reflecting/modeling Jesus in the neighborhood.

The DnA Team consists of six members – three women and three men — plus the Interim District Executive and the Leadership Team chair, members residing from Colorado to the Missouri border. These members were carefully called to give as broad a representation as possible of the demographic, generational, theological, and geographic variations in our district. The Team has been meeting regularly since November, and has developed the planning process that is now being introduced on a wider basis through these congregational/member meetings.

What can I do to get involved? Attend and contribute in a focus group discussion!

Distributed with this description is a schedule of congregational meetings being held from April 30 to June 4. We have tried to create clusters of congregations that are close enough to allow relatively convenient driving distance for a majority of our members. For members of congregations that are at greater distances that didn’t cluster so well, several of the groups will be streamed on Zoom for people who cannot attend in person. We will also create additional and reconfigured groups later in the summer for congregations not expressly included in a cluster at this time or persons who can’t participate now.

Look over the list and identify the session that includes your congregation, or if we couldn’t create a convenient grouping for your location, check out a Zoom option. To attend by Zoom, please e-mail your intent to floryl@sbcglobal.net so a Zoom link can be sent to you.

What will the format be at these meetings?

The DnA Team has formulated six key questions that will be asked at all meetings, intended to solicit your feedback on significant aspects of our faith, community, and witness life together as a district. A recorder will log participants’ observations and suggestions which will then be the basis of a series of reports and plans, the first of which will be shared at District Conference this summer, July 29-31.

Come and be part of the future of Brethren in the Plains!

Click here for Focus Group Schedule