Loose Threads

Thursday, June 30th, 2005

There are several conversations going on among NVFC folks. They involve a significant number of people but not all of them are talking to each other. Some of them I am a part of and some not, but I thought it would be good to let you know what’s being discussed so that you can get in on the conversation(s) that interests you.

1. Sunday School Teachers A lot of us are scratching our heads trying to figure out why, in a church so committed to kids, that it so hard to find people willing to help out with Sunday School. Lots of ideas are floating around about why that is: 1. Some who have done it for a long time are burned out and wish some new blood would take over. 2. Some who have kids themselves find Sunday AM one of the few times they get to have adult interaction and love knowing that they can trust the SS teachers and helpers with their kids for an hour a week. 3. Its way scary. 4. It feels like a job one could get trapped in forever. 5. Not gifted in that area. Etc. What should be done? Is there something that needs to change about the program itself?
Are there reasons that haven’t been thought of? What are some possible solutions? (brainstorm)

If you want to weigh in on this conversation talk to Kim Boyd, Lynn Clouser Holt, Scot Headly, or someone else on the CE committee.

2. Committee in general There are several conversations about how to make church work more rewarding, how to make business flow more smoothly, how to avoid long, boring meetings, how to involve lots more people in the nuts and bolts of our mission, etc etc. The conversations have sort of gelled into an ad hoc committee (Keith Baker, Stan, Rebekah Schneiter, Scot Headly, Jenny Crackenburg, Myrlene Rourke, Wes Cropper) which is brainstorming about changing our committee structure to reflect the needs and work style of the people of NVFC. We’re talking about changing some of the committees to task forces. The advantage is that the task forces would meet just when there was something to do and/or when there was a project to plan. A task force could draw on about anyone who might just stay on for one project. They would only report to AD COM when they needed to. They could have unlimited numbers of people interested in their area of responsibility but wouldn’t have to worry about gathering them all together for meetings. Another idea would be to let everyone select an area of interest which would automatically put them on a task force in that area. When there was something that needed to be done in that area, everyone on that list would be contacted and invited to participate if they desired. That way, everyone would be included but wouldn’t have to feel obligated to participate in every activity the task force chose to do. Also, Nominating committee would only have to find two or three people to head of a task force because others would be recruited for short-term service as projects came up. If you would like to join that conversation you could meet with the ad-hoc committee (next meeting 7-05-05) or chat with one of the members about your ideas.

3. Business There is a conversation going on about how to make business meetings more effective. Sometimes people see it as just rubber-stamping work that’s been done by AdCom or some other committee. Other see it as a slow moving meeting during which brain squeezing minutiae is endlessly debated. Early Friends called it “meeting for worship for business” - how do we get back to that so that business meetings are places we actually do discernment, where personal agendas give way to listening only for God’s voice? How do we make sure the minutiae which doesn’t lend itself to discernment are taken care of in some other venue without giving up the ideal that everyone’s leading is important? This conversation is mostly happening in Administrative committee but I have noticed a fair amount of discussion in the foyers and hallways about it too. You can go to Keith, one of the Team, someone on Ad Com if you care to ask questions and/or make suggestions.

Conversations

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