Healing conversations

August and September 2023

The Transition Team will hold additional healing sessions after church on Sunday, August 13 and Sunday, September 17. During these small group conversations individuals share high points of their time at FCC as well as anything that may be in the way of moving forward. Many who have participated expressed gratitude for the opportunity to share their experiences at FCC and to hear about the experiences of others.

If these dates don’t work for you, we can schedule additional sessions or you could meet one-on-one with a member of the Transition Team (listed below). You may indicate your desire to do this on SignUp Genius.

Register to attend Healing Conversation

Transition Team members:

Sharing the Draft Transition Plan for Discussion and Revisions

The Team is finalizing a transition plan to guide us through the next 18 months and hopes to share that plan for conversation in June. Our goal is to identify the work to accomplish as a congregation during this time of transition. We are working to recognize and address the polarities Pastor JT has spoken about in his sermons.

  • Build a plan with a timeline with milestones to keep us on track
  • Ensure that the timeline has sufficient flexibility to hear the congregation’s needs and follow the Spirit’s leading. Pastor JT refers to this as Chiros Time.
  • Move toward the hiring of a settled Senior Pastor
  • Provide time for significant congregational conversations to identify and commit (or recommit) to our shared values.
  • Prepare ourselves to move successfully into the future with an understanding of what God is calling us to do and be.
  • Name and address the issues that have kept us from being the best progressive Christian congregation we can be.

Transition Path

These Healing Conversations are the first phase of 3 sets of conversations planned as part of FCC’s transition. In the fall, we will begin Calling Conversations to seek to find common understanding of what Spirit is calling us to be and do in the world. The final set of conversations will begin after the first of the year, exploring the structures and processes we need in the future.

Several people have asked for a one-page road map to help understand the Transition Plan. The team has put this together, and the Board has reviewed it as an outline for our future actions. We include it below with a few notes to consider as you review it.

As Pastor JT reminded us, we are working with a timeline but will move forward in God’s time. We will move together, which may take longer than anticipated. So, the timeline and planning provide for flexibility.

Plans are subject to change with each phase of the transition, building on previous phases. Discussions in the Calling Conversations will be rooted partly in what we hear in the Healing Conversations. While we have a plan, we are open to the call to follow the leading of Spirit and the leading of our members.

If you have questions about the Transition Path or proposed timelines, please get in touch with a member of the Transition Team or the chair of the team, Martha Pitts, at marthafpitts@comcast.net.

Identify and Integrate Past Discussions into Our Work

Over the past few years, search committees, discernment groups, and organizational study groups have done significant work on behalf of the congregation. In this time of transition, it will be important not to recreate that work but to review the information generated by these groups and incorporate it into the work of our transition. We will compile the reports from this work to inform the conversations in phases 2 and 3.