Vision Announcement — Sabbath, February 11, 2006

For the past year and a half, our church has been engaged in a process of re-evaluation with a small group called the Vision Community. It has been our desire to seek God’s face for His desired future for our congregation. The work of the vision community has been helpful and we thank all of those who have been involved in that process.

At General Conference Convention, July 2005, our delegates were introduced to a guided planning process from Vision Planning, a company in Colorado. On January 28, the church was invited to attend a local public presentation of Vision Planning’s service design. The feedback received from that meeting was generally positive.

With our previous vision community work as a foundation, and believing that God does have a vision for our congregation, the church board, after prayer and consideration and much discussion and dialog, by unanimous decision has decided to partner with Vision Planning to help us discern God’s desired future for this church as we seek direction for ministry and building. We believe this process will allow us as a church to come together more quickly and thoroughly and move us in the direction of achieving God’s preferred future for our congregation.

As a board we acknowledge that the process will not be easy and that it will be challenging for all of us. We are willing to take that risk of faith. So we are asking for your help and assistance. Teams will need to be appointed to serve in strategic areas such as prayer, communications, growth potential, funding, design and building. In all, this could include a group of 60 – 70 people being involved over a period of seven to nine months. Our current ministries will continue to function. This is why each of you is important to this process.

The purpose of this announcement today is to inform the congregation of the Board’s commitment to this process. As soon as we engage the process, we will schedule congregational meetings to gain your input. We will plan to hold several public meetings to engage the congregation in the process, to pray together, and to encourage one another.

We recognize that this process will cost a large sum of money, but we believe it to be wise stewardship of counting the cost. We have determined that the church does not have the expertise required to complete this assessment. In planning for ministries and buildings what we do with God’s money must be done wisely. We believe this to be a wise investment. We are excited about what God will do in us and for our congregation. We believe that we will never be the same again and that we are embarking on a new exciting journey for the Eugene/Springfield Church of God (Seventh Day).

We invite you to be a part of this process. Thank you for your support.