Believing that God is calling us to a renewal of our ministries and to listen to God's call in our life as a church and as individuals, our church invited the New Beginnings ministry to guide us through our visioning process.

New Beginnings is a service offered by Church Extension, a General Ministry of the Christian Church (DOC), to assess the strengths and challenges for a congregation as it seeks to engage in significant ministry in its community.

We have completed the following phases of the six phase process:

Phase I: A congregational profile with demographic information about our current participants was compiled. We also submitted two videos of worship services, financial reports for the last three years, and information about our facility's insurance.

Phase II: On May 29th we met with our District Minister, Ken Marston, and our New Beginnings consultant, Ruth Fletcher, for an on-site assessment. This meeting included a complete building inspection, a financial review, a windshield tour of Stafford, an open discussion with the FCC Board Chair, Mike Ramsey, and Pastor Rhonda Glenn, followed by an Appreciative Inquiry session with our leaders, members and ministry participants.

Phase III: A preliminary review of the comprehensive report was conducted between the consultant and the pastor. 

Phase IV: A follow-up training to enable our leaders to engage in an interpretation and discernment process with our congregation occurred on July 25th and 26th. Three leaders and the pastor attended the cluster event.  Other churches in the Kansas Region that are also engaging in this process include: Hutchinson First Christian Church (DOC), Emporia First Christian Church (DOC), and Colby First Christian Church (DOC). As a part of this training our leaders analyzed our report, openly shared some potential options, and discussed how to engage our church family in the visioning and decision-making process.

The next step in the process will be to meet with our members and participants in small groups (called Cottage Meetings).  This phase will begin in early September.