Since Nic Justice shared a few photos, I’ll offer a brief recap.  The fuller notes are still to come.

We began in gratitude for what God has already done, and celebrated memories we had. Some of our brainstorms were comments on an earlier post, some were high points, some sobering.   Vanessa, Jenna, and Martha arranged a prayerful timeline that we silently walked around to consider.

We discussed the financial realities of trying to do something so ambitious with fervor and a desire to talk to our friends about our money and what God might do through us with it when we share.

We reaffirmed that our church is healthiest when we have healthy, growing cells and deepening, open Public Meetings.  That is our main work.  Beyond those, we had a lot of specific ideas as to what we could do this year.  We even organized them (see BJ in the pic above) and applauded many generous professions of how people would contribute, serve, and lead.

What were some of your impressions from the meeting?  

Some of us have more money than others.  That’s awesome.  This post is hopefully informative and increases our understanding that it does not take a lot of suffering or sacrifice to exceed our goals for 2012.  It does require love and communication about the need.   We have the love, let’s communicate.

You’ve already seen our Network’s budget summary, probably.  This first part is all 4 congregations considered.

Sources

Congregations                                                 448,500
Subsidies and Grants                                       25,000
Rents                                                                     114,858
Transfers from Reserve Account               47,000
Total                                                              $635,358

Uses

Church Planting                                              284,426
Compassion                                                      103,000
Capacity                                                            226,302
Transfers to Reserve Account                    21,800
Total                                                            $635,528

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In 2011, our congregation shared $89,392, an average of $7,449/month.  As our vision and capability increases, so must our financial capacity.  Over the next week, many of you will get the Quarterly Check-in, a report from our pastors and leadership team about what happened last quarter.  Along with it will be a statement that we have if you are covenant member and/or giver of record.  Make sure to read it and pray over those leaders.

70% of FN Covenant Members replied to the survey of what we think we’ll share for 2012 in our common fund, adding up to $109,922.

Our 2012 goal is $115,000 or $9,583/month.   We’re planning on growing and hoping that other partners are sharing beyond those covenant members who responded.

If divided between the 168 adult Regular Attenders we’re looking at an average of $57 per month to exceed the goal.

If divided between just the 102 Covenant Members it’s $94 per month to exceed the goal.

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It’s a significant increase from last year.  From what I’ve been hearing, our issue is not of greed or apathy.  Our issue is to make sure that our partners and friends understand the vision, the need, and where we stand.  Let’s continue to dispel the lies that keep our friends from realizing how important they are, and how little bits add up to a lot of great stuff.

Here are some of the new cell leaders & apprentices in 2011…

Zach Wood became a CL apprentice then Cell Leader.  Matthew Abraham & Sarah White returned to CL apprentices and then Cell Leaders.

Tiffany Carter, Colleen Keller, Josh Mints, Kristen Snow, Greg Fuguet, Sean Moran, & Jesse Parsons became CL Apprentices. Mariko Snook, Melissa Lattanzio, & Jess Shoffner returned to CL Apprentice.

Michael Heneghan returned to being a Cell Leader.  Sara Keel & Carl Stovner became cell leaders.

Where were some of the other new leaders?  

Would you share a story about someone doing well making disciples?  

Here are those results, as sorted out by congregation-specific ideas and concepts.   You’ll also note one tab where 200 people at the dinners individually marked the 5 most important things.

In terms of our congregation, are there other things that you think God wants to do that we should add to the list?  

Our 5yr goals from 2007 were pretty interesting.  It can be a little confusing to look at future predictions from the past about your present.  (make sense?)

It’s a McFly-ian Dilemma.

Further dreams that we hope to realize by the end of 2011…

Dec. ‘06 we are one church with thirty-five cells with about 220 participants (Dec 11 we were 56 cells with 440 ), two public meeting sites with about 400 regular attenders (Dec 11 4 PM sites, 630 RAs), 244 members joined in covenant (Dec 11 360 CMs), about 170 givers of record in 2006 (in 2011 it was 284).

 After five years we hope…

We are articulating and demonstrating a vision for the next generation of God’s church. We have honed our practices and have unleashed our thinkers to listen and write and teach what God’s Spirit is revealing for our day.

We are nurturing our fourth meeting site. The growth of our cells has allowed us to multiply and form healthy congregations two further areas. We have exported our church planting methods to others cities.

We have welcomed an average growth of 30% in our number of Cell Leaders each year. We have 128 cells at the end of 2011 cells lead by 25 Coordinators and 4 Pastors..

We have continued to master new ways to communicate the good news. We are good at penetrating “hard core” unbelievers through our deliberate friendships, incarnational evangelism, compassionate service, revealing worship and creative, artistic events. Our cells engage pre-believers effectively. We have established a media vehicle for our use.

Circle Venture leads the network with vision. It is a respected generator of compassionate service, justice and reconciliation that gets our gifts and resources in touch with those in need. It oversees a vibrant collection of mission teams with a director paid by the Network.

Circle Thrift has shown how to mother an array of businesses. We have become adept, through Circle Venture, at helping those in need through further business start ups. Our businesses work as a mutual -aid network.

We are fomenting reconciliation. We are a consciously anti-racist, proactive-peacemaking people able to teach others.

We are conscious of our diversity and loving it. We are kingdom-like in our racial/ethnic/socioeconomic leadership, make-up, and practices. Our team of pastors is diverse in ethnicity, age and gender.

Our Music and Arts Cooperative leads us. It helps us to create, affirm, connect and communicate the gospel through the arts. Our buildings are creatively used as venues for the arts. We have paid staff that administers our events.

Children, teenagers and young adults find us attractive and meet Jesus through our ministry. We always want to focus on ministering to the next generation. We hope our parents invent ways to provide childcare communally. We want to engage with at-risk teens in our neighborhood. We want to maintain a presence on college campuses.

We have increased our national and worldwide connections through MCC, CCDA and BICWM and other partners . We send people out as members of our community to serve and share substantial percentages of our income with people outside our borders. We maintain links around the world when we send covenant members out to serve.

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What do you think is the biggest surprise?  Which one was the most encouraging to you?  Where do we still have the longest way to go?

Each day this week, there will be a new post here to get us warmed up for Saturday, then I’ll put the notes up from the meeting so we can get more action afterwards.

The first part of the meeting this Saturday shall be a gratitude activity.  We’re going to post important memories of highlights of the past few years and try to plot them in chronological order.

Help us get started.  Please comment with an important memory of our congregation since you’ve been involved.