Cedar Ridge Strategic Planning for 2009 - 2010
Summary
We are now moving from a phase of inquiry, evaluation and change to simplifying what we do and developing consistency around our vision. In 2009-2010 we would like to make progress towards our vision in the following ways:
Community
- Strengthen our small groups system for discipleship
- Continue to leverage Sundays as more than just an event but as an opportunity to live out our vision in a deeper and more fulfilling way.
Servanthood
- Develop our Community Farm
- Launch Global Engagement
Growth
- Clarify our theology, beliefs and values and embody them as a community
Background
Reflecting on Our Vision
The last few years have seen a lot of change for Cedar Ridge. After the Senior Pastor transition in 2006 we embarked upon a whole-church community discernment process to establish fresh vision for the future. This resulted in a vision that felt very true to what we had dreamed of when we first started as a community 27 years ago. Our vision “to be a community of hope and transformation dedicated to following Jesus” has both inspired us to action and has also caused us to stop to re-evaluate and re-align a lot of our activity. This has been a slow, patient and sometimes uncomfortable season. Through processes like Global Engagement, the Property (resulting in our community farm) and the Children and Youth review, we have strived to be faithful to God’s call and to rally our whole church community around the vision. All this has required a lot of necessary prayerful discussion and thoughtfulness. This has not been “inactivity” but a different kind of activity as we have earnestly sought to follow God’s heart.
Acting on Our Vision
Such re-evaluation and re-alignment can often feel destabilizing, but because we have taken these processes so seriously and sought to listen so intently and carefully to God and to one another, we can look forward with confidence and in unity. Now we can turn the decisions from these processes into action. While we should always maintain a healthy level of ongoing “self evaluation”, looking ahead, we will also spend more time practically living out the transformation to which the vision calls us. Of course, this will be no less difficult. The changes being introduced are deeply challenging for all of us but we do not need to rush. Rather, we can move forward in determined, integrated and sustainable ways. We have had feedback from many leaders about not doing too much, not going too fast and being careful not to cause distraction from these core directions. This is all reflected in the planning for the year ahead at Cedar Ridge. The Community Farm, Global Engagement and Children and Youth all represent areas where we want to transform vision and ideas into measured, practical action.
Two Dynamics of Community
As we have pursued our vision to follow Jesus, we have seen two dynamics of church activity evolve: a) we do certain things “centrally” i.e. as a gathered community all together and b) we do things “locally” out in the communities where we eat, sleep, live and breathe. Of course, most of this local activity is all very personal and not organized by Cedar Ridge. Hopefully each of our private lives are profoundly influenced by our vision and what we do as a community to help one another follow Jesus, but Cedar Ridge does not organize or program people’s personal lives. However in this “local” context (“out there”) CRCC will intentionally organize community opportunities. Primarily these are small groups of people gathered together to embody the vision to follow Jesus by growing spiritually, caring for one another and serving others together. This “local” dynamic, then, is our small groups system and our vision is that over time everyone who is able would belong to a small group where they can feel at home and thrive. In planning for next year, we want to put a lot of work into strengthening our small groups system.
The “central” dynamic represents what we do as a whole gathered community. Sundays is an obvious time when we all gather together. Given that we are a very geographically spread out community of people, we would like to take more advantage of the opportunity we have when we make all that effort to gather on Sunday. In our planning for next year we want to put work into clarifying and leveraging opportunities for worship, growth, community and service on Sundays. Central activity is also activity that we have made decisions about together. For example Global Engagement activity will not be something we will necessarily all gather together to do at the same time but it does represent something that we have made decisions about together as a whole community and will focus on together as a whole community. Our Community Farm is similarly a “central” activity.
Our central and local dynamics of community are both important to our vision. Some aspects of our vision happen best centrally and some locally. They are very connected but different and we do not want to try to force the wrong kind of activity in the wrong setting. We want to plan and work carefully such that both kinds of activity are mutually supportive and synergistic.
The Plan for 2009-2010
1. Strengthen our small groups system for discipleship
We have seen great progress in this area in the past 2 years. The discipleship series have been a great help and create a natural opportunity for new groups to begin, for people to join existing groups and for all groups to focus on spiritual growth. Next year we plan to build on this progress and will continue with discipleship series but we also want to help all groups develop their own missional purpose i.e. their unique reason for existing. This represents a paradigm shift from small groups being defined as study meetings on a particular night of the week to groups of people committed to growing, serving and caring for one another in everyday life. We want to increase the support and development of small group leaders and involve more leaders in this process. We also want to develop workshops, retreats, gatherings and other discipleship environments that support small group life by providing growth opportunities.
2. Continue to leverage Sundays as more than just an event but as an opportunity to live out our vision in a deeper and more fulfilling way.
There are potentially many aspects of our vision that can be accomplished by gathering on Sundays. We are transformed and inspired by God’s presence in worship services. New people get connected and others make deeper friendships through a loving, welcoming environment, social events and hospitality. For some, Sundays have also become days when we work on our farm. We have the opportunity for a connection across age groups and all kinds of options for meetings of various groups. Looking to next year we would like to clarify a larger purpose for our community on Sunday, perhaps making it the day we gather as a “central” community and encourage more “local” community on the other days of the week. We also recognize that all of this activity on Sundays, including our worship service, requires well coordinated practices and systems that are integrated. Next year we want to increase our effectiveness on Sundays in every way.
3. Develop our Community Farm
The Community Farm has gotten off to a great start this year and we want to build on that next year. The Farm will continue to be a major focus in 2009-2010. This year has been very experimental and the planning for next year will be subject to the learning from this spring and summer.
4. Launch Global Engagement
This will be a major focus for us next year. See separate document.
5. Clarify our theology, beliefs and values and embody them as a community
Like all churches we have a unique story, vision and values and we want to help everyone at Cedar Ridge rally around these by clarifying and living them out. The intention is not to get everyone to agree, nor is it to draw lines in order to exclude anyone. We will not be taking stands on political or religious issues. Rather we simply want to clarify who we are, what is important to us, what is not so important and why. This will involve a discipleship series and lots of discussion opportunities, with the aim that we would grow closer and more accepting of one another as a community and live out our vision with deeper understanding and commitment