After
a cordial and thorough discussion in which members listened to each
other and sought to discern God's guidance, our Session voted during its
July meeting to dissolve our ConnXions worship service following
worship on Saturday, July 28. In the conversations that preceded and
followed this vote, Session members expressed deep gratitude for the
saints whose labors of love have allowed us to conduct this ministry,
for the worship ConnXions offered to God, for the spiritual gifts and
hungers expressed and fed, and for the chance we took in offering this
service. Session also approved the celebration of Holy Communion and a
special prayer litany for our final ConnXions service, helping us to
close ConnXions with the same trust in God we had when we launched it.
Some of us may not
have participated in the past two years of discussions about how to
support ConnXions, but key leaders of ConnXions, Celebrate Ministry,
Session, and staff have remained prayerfully active. During our one year
review of ConnXions, we admitted that we had missed the agreed-upon
benchmarks. We fell short of the expected level of volunteers and did
not maintain or increase our attendance. We originally set a benchmark
related to offering, which Session deemed invalid because we do not
always contribute during the worship service we attend. Yet, Session
voted to continue ConnXions and keep trying. In 2010 ConnXions averaged
68 worshippers per service. That fell to 51 in 2011 and to 42 thus far
this year. [The comparable figures for Morning Glory are 200 in 2010,
202 in 2011, and 206 in 2012, and for traditional worship, 174 in 2010,
164 in 2011, and 181 in 2012.] For the last three months, average weekly
ConnXions attendance has been 32. Yet, the level of volunteer support
has generated the most concern. As ConnXions continued we depended on
the same few, deeply committed volunteers to prepare and display the
media presentations, provide hospitality and childcare, and tend to
other aspects of the service.
In response, members
of our ConnXions and Celebrate Teams formed a task force to discern a
way forward. In May, this team presented a set of 30, 60, and 90 day
benchmarks for volunteer support and attendance to Celebrate Ministry,
which our Session approved in June. Although volunteers contacted more
than seventy people who had expressed interest in contemporary worship,
we did not reach our volunteer benchmark. Thus, under the plan provided
by the task force and approved by Session, the issue came to Session in
July.
Although the
dissolution of ConnXions comes with disappointment, we have not failed.
In years of conversation, prayer, and reflection, we heard God calling
us to try something different. Dedicated volunteers and staff provided
meaningful worship in an accepting environment. We did not do everything
well. We never do. Yet, we made a good faith effort. We have reason to
feel very good about the worship we provided, the hours of faithful
service dedicated saints contributed, and the faith we put into action.
When we launched ConnXions on the first Saturday in February 2010, we
reached for extra chairs as 278 people attended. Let's match that on
July 28, not in denial of our disappointment but in expression of our
gratitude for all ConnXions has been and of our hope in God.
At
the beginning of the Babylonian Exile, the prophet Jeremiah declared,
"I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare
(shalom) and not for harm, to give you a future with hope" (Jeremiah
29:11). We faithfully followed God into our ConnXions service. As we
dissolve ConnXions with disappointment for what will not continue, we
also proclaim our profound gratitude and our complete trust that God
will lead us into a future with hope.
Grace and Peace,
LP
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