Listening In & Speaking Up

Posted on January 25, 2018January 31, 2018 by Andy Wood

Speaking Up

Thank you for all your participation in our series thus far. Many of you have voiced appreciation, apprehension, curiosity, concern and a whole host of other feelings and related thoughts. We deeply appreciate this. These are all signs of engagement. We also deeply appreciate your prayers. They are critical. However, we’re also aware that we haven’t heard everybody. We know that there may be some who are waiting silently in the wings – waiting to see what we’ll say, how we’ll act, waiting for courage…

We know that there may be some who are waiting silently in the wings

There is a small piece of graffiti on the wall in the church sanctuary. It’s on stage left and is obviously from another era. Well before our time in the building. It reads “Don’t go away mad. Just go away.” Can I encourage us all not to do that! Part of our vision statement is to “build a safe community”. Can we try to be that for everyone in these conversations? Can I encourage you, if you’re one of those waiting in the wings, who haven’t voiced your thoughts or feelings to anyone in leadership – when you’re ready, we’re ready. For real. Even if you’re not in the wings, so to speak, if you need to chat with someone in leadership, please know that we’re all ready for that – we welcome it. The pastoral and lay elders are here to hear.

Listening In

Also, we are keenly aware that we’re being watched. Not in a creepy way, but there haven’t been too many churches in our circles who have attempted to do what we’re doing. There are some and we’ve learned from their mistakes and successes. However, this also means that we want to be careful about the audio we post – especially the audio from our Hot Button evenings. For the first Hot Button evening we posted a recording of the two people doing GYVE together as well as the commentary by the facilitator. However, we did not post any of the discussion afterwards. If you came you’ll know that the discussion was rich. If you missed it, you can request a link to the audio, but we will not be sharing it with anyone outside of WCV.

For the 2nd Hot Button evening on Feb 11, we will not be posting any of the audio. However, if you’re part of WCV, you can certainly request a link to the audio.

Thanks for understanding!

>>Here is the audio from our first Hot Button evening.

>>If you want to request the conversation afterwards, email Vanessa at the office.

Getting Ready for Part 3 – Hot Buttons

Posted on January 4, 2018February 14, 2018 by Andy Wood

Now that we’re in the New Year we’re going to be entering the third part of our series “Fixed on Jesus: how to hold the centre in an age of diversity”. Having rooted ourselves firmly in the centre (part 1), and having explored a model for how to love well, GYVE (part 2), we are now going to practice what we’ve been talking about. In order to do that, we invited your input. As you might imagine, we gathered a whole list of “Hot Button” issues of diversity that you felt the church needs to address. For those of you who participated in this survey, thanks! We had a lot of thoughtful responses! We have done some categorizing and have come up with what we feel will be good issues for us to explore in the next two months. We did exercise some editorial control (for example, “unkempt hipster beards” will not be discussed! – thanks for that – you know who you are even if nobody else does!).

For each of the Hot Button topics we will have one Sunday morning in which we will explore the various perspectives on the subject. These will not be times to take a position as a church – that’s not the point. Rather, the point is to learn.

Then we have scheduled a few Sunday evenings to demonstrate what doing GYVE looks like with each of these Hot Button topics. We will have a few brave people model the process for us. Again, the point isn’t to argue positions. Rather, we are attempting to create a safe place to hear each other, and hear the stories, values and experiences underneath the various perspectives. This is a sacred and holy event.

If you haven’t already gotten a handle on GYVE, we highly encourage you to do so. Also, please continue to pray for the church in this season. It will bring up many emotions. God will meet us – the Holy Spirit has been guiding us and will continue to do so. Still we say, “Lord have mercy!”