Visions and Dreams Team

Visions and Dreams Team

Strategic planning process now underway: Visions & Dreams Team begins its work “Lord of Life Lutheran Church has great opportunities for mission, and you have a critical mass of people to accomplish what God is calling you to do,” said Rev. Dr. Dave Daubert, a Lutheran pastor and founder/president of Day8Strategies, a consulting firm for churches and nonprofits in Elgin, Illinois. He is the author of “Living Lutheran,” a 2007 book that lays out a simple and effective process for strategic planning that we are using in the visioning that is now underway at LOL. Dr. Daubert, who worked with Pastor Wolfgang back in the 1990 and 2000s, joined our newly installed Visions & Dreams Team at their first meeting May 23 via Zoom. The team consists of members from Lord of Life and from our partner church, Christ the King in Cary. Its task is to lead the congregation as together we discern how God is leading us into the future.
The key is listening! Over the summer, we will be engaged in a listening campaign that utilizes “The Three Great Listenings” as articulated by Rev. Dr. Steve Bouman in his book, “The Mission Table,” another resource the team is using.  Those Three Great Listenings are:

  • Listening to God through communal bible study, prayer, and guided
    conversation.
  • Listening to one another in the church through focus groups, intentional one-on-one conversations, a survey provided by the ELCA called “Congregational Vitality Survey” and group planning exercises.
  • Listening to the larger community around us through demographic studies, one-on-ones with community leaders, and reports and analysis of the Garner community.

By the end of the year, this process is expected to produce a new purpose statement, underlying principles that guide our ministry, and a list of three or four priorities for the coming two or three years. Plan now to attend the special congregational meeting that our Congregation Council has called for Sunday, June 23, at 11am, to learn more about the team’s plans and upcoming activities. Watch out for a congregation wide email later this month that will invite you to complete the online Vitality Survey.

The Visions & Dreams Team at their first meeting, from left, front row: Sarah Watkins (LOL), Cindy Wilke (CTK), Alecia Harrison (LOL); back row: Pastor Daniel Pugh (CTK), Shannon Thomsen (LOL), Mark Dowell (CTK), Bob DeVito (LOL), Pastor Wolfgang Herz-Lane (LOL), Paul Sovany (CTK).