As promised here are the dreams you you shared for the future of Fulton United Church of Christ.  Please feel free to add new dreams and hopes for the future in the comment section. 

David

v  We are known in the community

v  Active Bible/book study

v  Addition to (can)   be used as a community hall

v  Active men’s group

v  The parsonage has become a new building housing an activity, class meeting,   school school rooms with a kitchen, restrooms and storage room

v  Audrey has a new organ

v  The front entrance to the church is more presentable

v  The church activity sign has been replaced

v  Fulton UCC become involved in helping organizations like “Serve” on a regular basis.  There is a constant need in our community to help those less fortunate. 

v  Teens from dysfunctional who are adrift and homeless

v  Food, clothing, healthcare

v  If the parsonage is removed – a parking lot could be put in its place – rent space through the week to local business employers who need parking area closer to their work.  Incomewould help church

v  Active children’s Sunday school

v  Active youth group

v  Active church fellowship

v  Social action in the community with the colleges or troubled young adults (projects/low income)

v  All activities done the community hall where the parsonage used to be.

v  More variable music regularly

v  Working with other churches on community projects – housing for homeless

v  Build addition as included in the project when we added earlier 
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As we continue to look towards the future I think there are important questions we must ask ourselves as congregations of believers who believe in a living and personal God.  The article below by Keving G. Ford asks those questions and I would love to hear feedback about the potentialy tough questions he asks us to explore.  

- David Machon

Steps Toward Church Transformation

by Kevin G. Ford

Would the neighbors around your church say, "We're glad this church is here," even if they don't attend? If your church relocated, would anyone care? Are your members actively reaching out to their friends, neighbors, and co-workers? Do your members show genuine concern for those who don't know Christ?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, your church has an inward focus that needs urgent attention.

Throughout church history, we have tended to take great moments and movements and then sicken them by institutionalizing them. A dead-end, unhealthy church is one that exists primarily for those on the inside-a cloister. Like the culture it is called to transform, it gives an unhealthy amount of attention to meeting individual needs. When the understood role of church members is to consume the best "products," the focus, whether intended or not, moves to excluding others.

By contrast, a transforming church is one that has a shared focus of mission beyond its walls, regardless of its size, personality, or worship style. These courageous churches help transform people into God's image. They transform the communities in which they minister. And, as organizations, they are continually transforming how they lead, operate, and minister. They are missional, or outwardly focused, in nature. 

Dead-end, unhealthy churches tend to focus on and define ministry as what happens inside the church (ushers, committee members, Sunday school teachers, and greeters). Transforming churches define ministry in broader terms-ministering in the name of God in their neighborhoods, workplaces, social circles, and schools. So what does it take to become a transforming church? 

If your church wants to navigate toward a transformational focus, your leadership team will need to implement these steps:

  • Redefine your mission statement to target people outside the walls of the church building.
  • Focus your evangelism and mission efforts largely on your own local community.
  • Help people connect to your outreach efforts.
  • Resist the temptation to be all things to all people.
  • Take time to develop a strategic plan that bridges your church's passions and strengths with the needs of people in your community.
  • Engage a large percentage of your membership in the process of discovering your community and developing your strategic plan.
Along the way, avoid institutionalizing the great ministries that your lay people launch. If you give them a budget, or a committee, or a staff person to lead it-you're likely to kill it. The paradox of focus is simple. It would seem as though a narrow focus would yield minimal results. In fact, the opposite is true. As the church focuses its resources on doing a few things well, it provides a permission-giving culture for members to follow their calling. Ministry then moves from the few on the inside of church bureaucracy to those on the front lines. 

Excerpted from "Us to Them"-an article featured in Rev! Magazine.
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  1. I began a sermon series this past Sunday exploring the meaning and purpose of a Missional church and will be asking several questions over the next few weeks to determine what mission God is sending our “little German church on” in the future?  Here is a definition of Missional by Rick Meigs that I used in my sermon on August 9th.  

    What is Missional - A Short Answer

    "Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but many churches today have inadvertently changed the "go and be" command to a "come and see" appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people.

    "Missional is a helpful term used to describe what happens when you and I replace the "come to us" invitations with a "go to them" life. A life where "the way of Jesus" informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower."   ---  Rick Meigs   

    The website http://www.friendofmissional.org/ has created a list of what is Missional that you will find below. 

    The missional church is a collection of missional believers acting in concert together in fulfillment of the mission of God

    The missional church is one where people are exploring and rediscovering what it means to be Jesus' sent people as their identity and vocation.

    The missional church will be engaged with the culture (in the world) without being absorbed by the culture (not of the world). They will become intentionally indigenous.

    The missional church understands that God is already present in the culture where it finds itself. Therefore, the missional church doesn't view its purpose as bringing God into the culture or taking individuals out of the culture to a sacred space.

    The missional church is about being -- being conformed to the image of God.

    The missional church is evangelistic and faithfully proclaims the gospel through word and deed. Words alone are not sufficient; how the gospel is embodied in our community and service is as important as what we say.

    The missional church understands the power of the gospel and does not lose confidence in it.

    The missional church recognizes that it does not hold a place of honor in its host community and that its missional imperative compels it to move out from itself into that host community as salt and light.

    The missional church seeks to put the good of their neighbor over their own.

    The missional church practices hospitality by welcoming the stranger into the midst of the community.

    The missional church will see themselves as representatives of Jesus and will do nothing to dishonor his name.

    The missional church will be totally reliant on God in all it does. It will move beyond superficial faith to a life of supernatural living.

    The missional church will be desperately dependent on prayer.

    The missional church gathered will be for the purpose of worship, encouragement, supplemental teaching, training, and to seek God's presence and to be realigned with God's missionary purpose.

    The missional church will feed deeply on the scriptures throughout the week.

    The missional church will be a community where all members are involved in learning "the way of Jesus." Spiritual development is an expectation.

    The missional church will help people discover and develop their spiritual gifts and will rely on gifted people for ministry instead of talented people.

    The missional church is a healing community where people carry each other's burdens and help restore gently.

    The missional church will requires that its leaders be missiologists.

    Based on the definition and description what are some ways that we can be Missional?

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As we plan to move forward in serving God I thought I would share this video about a different way of moving a church forward that has a powerful message regarding our willingness to serve God even in extreme situations.
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Fulton United Church of Christ