1. Congregational Life & Renewal Cycle MC Saskatchewan
Betty Pries
L3 Consulting Group

2. Lord of Mercy
Lord of mercy breathe o’er us Your warm breath of life Remind us who we are again Prince of Peace call your people To rise up as one The Kingdom of God is at hand

3. Spirit blow through us the fire-winds of hope ‘Till our hearts burn for justice in love Blow soon on this dry, frozen land Have mercy upon us once more

4. Leader: O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you
Saturday Morning Prayer Refresh, Refocus, Renew Mini-Retreat Saturday, April 29, 2017
Leader: O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you
People: as the day rises to meet the sun.
All: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Leader: Come, let us bow down and bend the knee:
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Hymn: HWB #6, Here in this place

5. Refrain: Show us your way, O Lord: and we will walk it to the end
Refrain: Show us your way, O Lord: and we will walk it to the end. Psalm 139:1, 6-9 Leader: LORD, you have searched me out and known me: People: you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar. Leader: Where can I go then from your Spirit? People: where can I flee from your presence? Leader: If I climb up to heaven, you are there: People: if I make the grave my bed, you are there also. Leader: If I take the wings of the morning: People: and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Leader: even there your hand will lead me: People: and your right hand hold me fast.

6. Scripture Readings: Isaiah 43:14-21, Acts 2:1-8, 11b-13 Refrain: Show us your way, O Lord: and we will walk it to the end. Hymn: HWB 545, Be thou my vision Prayer: Blessing: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you; May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm; May he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you; May he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors.

7. Agenda Opening Remarks Survey Data & Discussion
Congregational Life Cycle
Renewal Journey
Implications for MC Saskatchewan
Closing

8. Opening
Questions or comments from last night?

9. Opening Questions or comments from last night?
Prayer seems to be a meeting place for people from across the theological spectrum

10. 77 respondents from 29 congregations
Survey Data Review
77 respondents from 29 congregations

11. Survey Data Review
Respondents by age

12. Survey Data Review
Length of time with MC Saskatchewan

13. Survey Data Review Summary Questions:
What do you love about the church?
What gives you encouragement or discouragement?
What do you hope for and what are you excited about?
What do you see emerging for your church and MC Saskatchewan?

14. Survey Data Review What do you love about the church?
Worship, spiritual nourishment, developing & deepening a relationship with God.
Belonging, connection, sense of family
Sense of purpose and meaning
Anabaptist faith tradition
Place of service

15. Survey Data Review What gives you encouragement?
Acts of mission & ministry, reaching beyond our walls
Development of faith among (young) people
Acts of loving kindness & mutual care
Sense of welcome to newcomers

16. Survey Data Review What discourages you?
Declining / sporadic dependence
Tilt toward aging congregations
Decreased commitment to ministries/committees
Shrinking / tight budgets
When differences lead to divisions between people

17. Survey Data Review What gives you hope / excites you?
Ministry projects that tear down barriers, open congregations to the world and our rooted in Mennonite identity
Young people growing in faith

18. Survey Data Review
What do you sense emerging for your congregation & MC Saskatchewan?
Tough question
Most common answer: Continued relationships built on love, service, mutual care, following Jesus

19. Survey Data Review
What do you sense emerging for your congregation & MC Saskatchewan?
Goals for MC Sask:
To be like an extended family where we are loved, accepted, challenged
To value one another even across differences
Reality: MC Sask may need to change to fit with current context

20. Survey Data Review
What do you sense emerging for your congregation & MC Saskatchewan?
In summary, the MC Saskatchewan is more about community, relationships and belonging than about structure...

21. Survey Data Discussion
What did you hear / see that resonates with your experience?
What would you add / remove / say differently?

22. Break 

23. A few comments
Survey suggests many experience church, MC Saskatchewan creating meaning, purpose belonging
The survey results notwithstanding...
21st C need of many (often younger people) in and beyond our pews: meaning, purpose, belonging (and spiritual depth) that current ways of doing church do not always speak into

24. Congregational Life Cycle

25. Congregational Life Cycle Exercise
What has been the “river” history of MC Saskatchewan?
We will draw this river together.

26. The Grand Narrative Suffering Awe, Wonder Transformation
Note a linear trajectory...
This model has been modified from the work of Dorothee Sölle.

27. Congregational Life & Renewal Cycle
Struggle
Surrender
Listening
Creative (Re)Formation
Thriving

28. Congregational Life Cycle
Struggle
Creative Formation
Thriving
These three stages of the cycle have been modified from the work of Mary Huyke & Daniel P. Smith.

29. Congregational Life Cycle
Creative Formation

30. Congregational Life Cycle
Creative Formation
Conception and Birth
Clear Purpose
God’s Presence = near
High Energy
Intentional & Self-Limiting Unity
Structure begins to emerge

31. Congregational Life Cycle
Creativity & Formation
Vision is known, felt, real
Unity around vision, new people drawn in
Close relationships
God is felt as real & present in everything
Vision driven structure begins to emerge
KEY QUESTIONS
Who are we?
Who is our neighbour?
Why are we here?
What shall we do?
“Who do you say that I am?”
Creative Formation

32. Congregational Life Cycle
Thriving

33. Congregational Life Cycle
Thriving
Excellence & Stability
We know why we exist
We do what we do well
People are attracted to our programs
Policies & procedures (the way we do things) develop
Structure embedded
Energy for new begins to level off
Focus = improving what works

34. Congregational Life Cycle
Thriving
Key to attend to CF questions
Excellence & Stability
Churches can stay here for a long time,
so long as answers to CF questions don’t change…

35. Congregational Life Cycle
Struggle

36. Congregational Life Cycle
Struggle
Protect & Maintain
Thriving is seductive…
Energy slips
Denial
Structure drives mission
Mission, vision must be written down
Recruiting volunteers takes effort
Deep desire to recapture what was
Key shift from denial to facing reality

37. Congregational Life Cycle
Struggle
Crisis & Confusion
Pain. Sorrow. Grief.
Blame
Loss of congregational self-esteem
“We are not who we thought we were.”
Energy becomes unfocused
Goal: Anything to save us from our death
Key shift from blame to curiosity

38. Congregational Life Cycle
Struggle
Crisis & Confusion
Sometimes this leads
to a painful death
Key shift from blame to curiosity

39. Congregational Life Cycle
Protect & Maintain, Crisis & Confusion
Creative Formation
Thriving
Where do you believe your congregation / MC Sask
is on the life cycle?

40. Lunch

41. Hymn to Greet the Afternoon
Longing for Light, STJ 54

42. Renewal Journey
Given what we have said so far... what would you see as the core characteristics of the renewal journey?
Think about this on your own, then we will talk in pairs.

43. The Grand Narrative Suffering Awe, Wonder Transformation
Note a linear trajectory...

44. Congregational Life & Renewal Cycle
Struggle
Surrender
Listening
Creative (Re)Formation
Thriving

45. Creative (re)Formation
Renewal Journey
Surrender
Listening
Creative (re)Formation
These three stages of the cycle have been modified from the work of C. Otto Scharmer.

46. Renewal Journey
Surrender

47. Renewal Journey Opening our Minds Opening our Hearts Opening our Souls
Surrender
Opening our Minds
Opening our Hearts
Opening our Souls
Note Journey goes down before it comes up!!!

48. Surrender – Opening our Minds
Asking God to help us really see
Seeing current reality as fully as possible (who we are and who we are not, our patterns)
All that is good and all that is challenging
Suspend voice of judgment
Frog analogy

49. Surrender – Opening our Hearts
Asking God to help us hear
Dialogue & deep listening among leaders and congregation
Holding our truth with humility
Listening for the truth of the other
Suspend voice of cynicism and denial

50. Surrender – Opening our Hearts
What are we grieving?
Where do we feel alive / broken?
How are we experiencing our faith and our community?
How real can we be with one another?

51. Surrender – Opening our Wills
Asking God to help us be
Letting go of our attachments to what was and what is in order to allow that which is to come
This is where most congregations / denominations stop the potential of their renewal journey
Suspend voice of fear

52. Surrender – Opening our Wills
It is easier to act ourselves into surrender than to think ourselves into surrender.
It is hard to genuinely let go without some physical act to mark our commitment to doing so.
Tell MMC story & FMC – talk about Dundas and fear of moving seats.

53. Tale of Two Congregations
Congregation A
Fear of loss
From 600 to 200
Head People
People sat 1 – 2 / pew
Resisted letting go
Spent time in debate
Developed a plan
Congregation B
Nothing left to lose
From 200 to 40
Heart People
People sat 1 – 2 / pew
Embraced letting go
Spent time in listening
Discerned a plan

54. Renewal Journey
Listening

55. Renewal Journey Listening for God to speak Discovery of our true self
Recalling our core purpose

56. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
Listening for the future to which God is calling MC Sask.
Awakening to God’s presence around us.
Listening for the Spirit as it wishes to speak
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

57. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
Listening for the future to which God is calling the congregation.
Awakening to God’s presence around us.
Listening for the Spirit as it wishes to speak
Waiting, being fully present in God’s presence, listening, praying, discerning…
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

58. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
What has been your personal experience with entering a space of waiting and listening for God?
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

59. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
Be still & know
Prayer
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

60. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
Intention
Daily personal time
Regular collective commitments to prayer
Attention
Without ceasing
To the burning bush moments
Key: Prayer that teaches capacity to listen
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

61. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
Discerning the future to which God is calling
To what purpose is God calling MC Sask?
What specific actions will lead to this purpose?
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

62. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
Survey suggested many experience church, MC Saskatchewan creating meaning, purpose, belonging
21st C need of many (often younger people) in and beyond our pews: meaning, purpose, belonging (and spiritual depth) that current ways of doing church do not always speak into
How can we listen for God in this regard?
How might God use our gift of MPB to speak to the world’s need?
How might we be asked to grow?

63. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
Discerning the future to which God is calling
To what purpose is God calling?
Sometimes we are called to…
Grow
Deepen
Close
Develop a niche
Develop a new ministry
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

64. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
Discerning the future to which God is calling
Provide space for observation & listening
Allow dialogue / discernment
Listen as searchers together
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

65. Waiting/Listening for God’s Voice
How do we know something is of God?
Synergy?
Surprising?
Sense of calm / peace (& just a hint of fear)?
Resonance at mind, heart, soul?
Genuinely humbling?
Attentive to deeper truth in alternate voices?
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

66. Creative (Re)Formation
Renewal Journey
Creative (Re)Formation
Incarnating God’s Call

67. Creative (Re)Formation
At this stage, people are advised to act quickly. Why?
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

68. Creative (Re)Formation
Testing ideas before they are fully formed…
Keeps us humble
Less singular ownership
Practices / models hearing God’s voice from those on the periphery
Builds broad ownership
Allows us to practice action
Refines the idea and makes it better
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

69. Creative (Re)Formation
Based on feedback…
Reflect
Refine
Act
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

70. Creative (Re)Formation
Based on feedback…
Reflect
Refine
Act
Spiritual Discipline: Trust
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

71. Creative (Re)Formation
Living the Journey together
Practice openness / listening for God.
Engage one another with humility and courage.
Be patient with one another.
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

72. The Renewal Journey Challenges along the way Exhaustion
Impatience, desire for a technical (quick) solution
Fear of going into the listening space
Attachments
Desire to control outcome
Inexperience
Fear of taking action
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

73. The Renewal Journey Principles
Renewal is first and foremost a spiritual journey.
We must look into the face of our dying before we can discover the face of new life.
Renewal does not happen without change.
Change can create anxiety, sabotage, emotional pain, conflict.
Patience and care for one another is pivotal in times of change.
This is not so much something we discover as it is a gift given to us.
Wait, listen, wait, listen… spiritual discipline – especially for people in the West.

74. Congregational Renewal
Struggling
Surrender
Listening
Creative (Re)Formation
Thriving
For congregations who become practiced in this work, engaging in the journey is as normal as the act of breathing.

75. A Word of Comfort and Hope
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.
Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord…
Jeremiah 29:

76. Congregational Renewal
Struggling
Surrender
Listening
Creative (Re)Formation
Thriving

77. Implications for MC Sask
How does MC Sask open itself to God’s leading?
What questions are you being asked to bring to God as a collective of congregations?

78. Implications for MC Sask
Question ideas re: to bring to God
God, how are you inviting us to deepen our faith and release our longing for you into the world?
Practically, what does it mean for us as Mennonite Church Saskatchewan to align our ministries with our commitment to you?
How are you calling us to deepen our trust in one another?

79. Next Steps
A season of prayer, opening to God and listening for God to speak
Personal prayer, listening stance
Regular invitations to be in prayer
Congregational prayer that opens to God
Opportunities for conversation
Meeting, September 15 & 16, 2017 to harvest our learning & listening

80. Closing Hymn
The Lord lift you up, STJ 73