Tonight's Meeting

The creative juices were really flowing tonight! Thank you Father Gary for giving some much needed insight into our Church's theology. Kara, thank you for the painstaking work you have done formulating a sketch of our vision statement. Reed, Peter, Val, and LaVerne: Thank you for your prayerful discernment of the Church's vision and perceptive comments in that regard. We penetrated some challenging material and deep issues tonight constructing the vision statement. I am exhausted, so I will keep this message brief.

I would like to post some of the notes and material that we have created at the two most current meetings. Let me know if you are interested in seeing some of this material on the blog. Also, if you have any particular requests, post those in your comment below.

I am excited to be a part of the awesome work that God is doing at St. Mark's and look forward to our upcoming discussions of His plan for our Church family.

Diocese of Southeast Florida Mission Statement

Vision & Mission

VISION � what we dream

MISSION � why we exist

STRATEGIES � what we do to achieve our mission

ACTIONS � the specific steps to implement our strategies

OUR VISION

BRING THEM IN � It is the dream of a diocese whose sole purpose is living out the Great Commission to make known to all people the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

BUILD THEM UP � It is the dream of a diocese that enables the Holy Spirit�s continued transformation of our own lives.

SEND THEM OUT � It is the dream of a diocese that is truly mission-focused, both within and beyond our borders.

TEND THEIR NEEDS � It is the dream of a diocese where every parish and every person engages in a ministry of compassion and comfort to the needy in our midst.

HARVEST GOD�S FRUIT � It is the dream of a diocese that welcomes 65,000 new disciples and 20 new congregations by the year 2020.�

OUR MISSION

The mission of the Diocese of Southeast Florida is to make known to all people the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, including ALL, excluding none.

Click on the following to link to the Diocese website: http://www.diosef.org/vision2.html

Also, see Pam's comment posted on the Topic: Categorizing Meaning Statements post, dated October 13, 2005. It includes her proposed mission statement and our next meeting info.

A note about the paintings on this blog

The first painting is titled Spirit Descending, watercolor on paper, by Bill Branch, 2005. Branch is a parishioner at St. Mary's Cathedral, Memphis, Tennessee.Spirit Descending
watercolor on paper, 2005

The second painting is titled Matthew 4:20, oil on canvas, by Geoffery Johnson, 1999; from a Private Collection.
"Immediately they left their nets and followed him."

The third painting is titled St. Mark, by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, circa. 1655-60; from Los Angeles County Museum's Permanent Collection.

Welcome!

Welcome to the St. Mark's Interim Planning Team's Blog!

The purpose of this blog is to facilitate discussion amongst interim planning team members, to educate the members of our parish and other interested parties in regards to this transformational period in our church's history, and to share ideas relating to topics pertinent to the formation of our church in its transitional phase. After each meeting a new topic will be posted by the moderator of this board. The topic will relate to the task assigned to our team. I encourage you to share your ideas, work, thoughts, and prayers through this board with other team members.

"Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." Romans 5:1-5 (NRSV).

It is my hope that we will share in this love that God has poured in our hearts, not just during this interim process, but always. So that, we may strengthen each other with the godly character made manifest in our lives through the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that each of our unique characters and experiences will open us to discern God's will for St. Mark's Episcopal.

Topic: Categorizing Meaning Statements

It is my understanding that our first homework assignment is to review the meaning statements and develop categories for the meaning statements. Following Peter's suggestion that each of us come up with two categories for the meaning statements, I have created this blog for that purpose. The following are some examples: "Ministries", "Ecumenicism", "Evangelism/Outreach". It may help to refer to the acronym "SWEEPS" while brainstorming. The categories provided as an example are meant to guide you in your thinking. If your categories are broad, great! If narrow, fantastic! There is no strict guideline for this brainstorming exercise. In fact, the more creative we are with this project (and I sensed an enormous amount of creative energy at our first meeting), the greater the benefits.

Our end goal is to come up with a new mission statement for the St. Mark's. The parish-wide Historical Reflection represented the spring-board laying the foundation for this next developmental stage. Here is a link to an online version of The Book of Common Prayer: http://www.bcponline.org/ Father Gary referred us to pages 305 and 855 as points of reference for the development of the mission statement. I invite you to share your Categories and comments.