by Kurt Imbach

It is exciting to be able to communicate with you in this new way, and to be able to tell you about church fellowship plans which I know is of key interest to all of you.  Thank you again for giving me this opportunity.

One of the great legacies of our Forty Day effort is the existence of a number of small group fellowship units.  We certainly will want to continue to strengthen these as well as to create whatever more become workable.  How this will be done will require sensitivity, flexibility and creativity. 

My plan is to concentrate on those who are willing to be facilitators because there is a lot to instill in terms of strategy and philosophy for building healthy units.  I will meet with them as leadership small groups so as to learn, model and problem-solve in a support setting.

Existing groups can continue as they are, or modify constituents as they wish.  We encourage all to meet through the Summer in some fashion and with regularity so continuity is maintained.  There will be renewed emphasis and direction in the fall.

Any who are interested in being a facilitator are encouraged to talk with me about that.  If you are not yet in a small group but would like to be, let me know.  If you would like to talk small group philosophy  with me, come see me.  Let’s talk.

Some of the things important to me in small groups are:  Commitment, priority, clear objectives and expectations, limits of commitment, self evaluation, learning connectedness without cliquishness, format according to objectives, growth in every way, making a contribution to the life of the church, etc.

We will be continuing the Dinners for 7-8 which provides healthy balance for small group ingrowth.  We will emphasize the growth and health of the Young Adults as vital to our church and Sunday school, we want to find ways to replace the winding down of Primetimers, continue to grow the exciting vitality of Men’s Fellowship, and generally work at deepening our quality of fellowship throughout the church in terms of what we have learned from the Purpose Driven Life.  I hope to be able to complete all this by August 1 (of some year!).