​Discernment Team Report to Grace Church

Discernment Team Report to Grace Church

We are pleased to inform you that the Discernment Team recently met in person (with some virtual attendees through Zoom).

We were joined by the Rev. Susie Skinner who serves as our team chaplain. She celebrated Eucharist, and in her homily she talked about the meaning of “calling a Rector” as something much more profound than the process of hiring a person for a leadership role.

As a team discerning what God’s plan is for our church, we enter the search process open to God and listening for the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Among the first orders of business will be developing a Parish Profile and surveying our congregation to gather key information about where we want God to take us. We have begun to form sub-committees for that work.

Committee members who are going on the mission trip (that departed Sunday morning!) will be inviting the young people on the trip to share their hopes and dreams as members of this parish. What a wonderful opportunity to listen to them!

A search consultant, highly recommended by Bishop Deon (and several others), will join us in August and will consult both with the Discernment Team and the Vestry to assure that we are working collaboratively to make good things happen.

The Discernment Team has been charged by the Vestry to provide the Vestry with the final 2 – 4 candidates by April 1, 2023. Our overarching goal (beyond dates and numbers) is to discern the best candidate(s) to give the Vestry. The Vestry after prayerful discernment will call the new Rector. As our chaplain pointed out, even as we are discerning our future, so will the candidates for Rector be discerning prayerfully what God wants for them. Members of the Discernment Team are eager to hear your thoughts as to Grace’s needs as we move forward together. Here are their names.

Lindsay Amen. Lyn Ballard, Shari Bonham, Dianne Casey, Kathy Davis, Dick Entenmann, Mike Gibbons, Mike Heyer, Lesley Hoffarth, Jackie Johnson, Yvonne Johnson, Rachel Major, Janet Mika, Andy Miller, Jessica Thompson, Brent VanConia, Jenn Wethington