Mt Zion UCC

Aug. 3 – 9 AM – Congregational Gathering to provide congregation with updates on the transition. 

Have questions relative to the transition?  Forms  are available in the narthex to write

down your questions to be addressed by Council in preparation for the August 3^rd Congregational Gathering. 

Then in September, we will hold a Congregational Meeting with a date yet to be determined. 

July & August - Self-Study Team continues to work on filling out the Church Profile form

July 27 - Council & Self-Study Team meet to discern the specific nature of the next pastoral call

August 3 - Anne Wantz and Self-Study Team host Q&A session at 9 a.m.

Mid/Late August - Self-Study Team forwards completed Church Profile to Church Council for affirmation

Late August/Early September - Church Profile is mailed to congregation. Anne Wantz & Self-Study Team host Q&A session.

September (date to be determined) - Congregational Meeting to vote on Church Profile

The narrative has been produced as part of the vision discernment process.  Everything you read below is a result of the weeks the congregation has spent together, discussing our visions, hopes, and dreams for Mt. Zion's future.  The narrative will be affirmed by the congregation at the worship service on Sunday, June 22nd. 

Mt. Zion UCC invites and welcomes everyone to accept Christ as their Savior, to share in Christ’s passion and love, to come together and grow in Christian faith and understanding, and to serve the wider community and the world in Christ’s name. 

The congregation was officially founded in 1851 as Mt. Zion Reformed Church.  Numbering fewer than one hundred members, Mt. Zion took a leap of faith in 1955 and within two years called a full-time pastor, purchased a parsonage, bought property and built the present church!  Established at its present location in 1957, the year the United Church of Christ was formed, the church expanded in 1986 and called a second pastor in 1994.  Mt. Zion UCC continues to live out a rich tradition grounded in faith, love, and hope. 

Strengths

Sensing God’s presence through prayer, worship, fellowship, and mission has given us great strength and conviction.  We have faith in God the Father, God’s Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.  We believe that God is present in the good times and bad, providing strength and hope.  We are a congregation that believes God is with us and still speaks to us no matter where we are on life’s journey.

Worship begins whenever we come together to give thanks, to serve, or to discern God’s will for us.  All of our services are liturgically based, but each has its own feel and flavor.  We offer two Sunday morning services as well as a variety of additional opportunities to grow in our faith and to worship God.  Through sermons given by our pastors, music provided by our diverse choirs & instrumental groups, and readings of the scriptures, our faith in the Holy Trinity grows.  Many opportunities exist at Mt. Zion for one to grow spiritually and worship as a family of faith, including a monthly Grateful Praise Service (GPS), small group Bible and book studies, and summer Wednesday evening casual services.  We have dedicated teachers, who serve our Lord and Savior in passing on Christian values and beliefs by teaching a wide range of Christian education programs.

We help those in need within our church family through ministries such as care baskets and our prayer chain, demonstrating our commitment to our community.  We minister through local community missions such as Compassion York Food Run, Chop & Peel soup kitchen, Good Samaritan Fund, Big Brother/Big Sister, Crop Walk, and the Alternative Gift Place.  We care for God’s global community through missions such as the Lakota Indian mission, Micro-Lending trust banks, Blanket Sunday, and Our Church’s Wider Mission (OCWM).

Uplifted by our faith in God, God’s eternal presence, and supported by our family of faith, we believe that we are forgiven of our sins and will receive eternal life.  One of the biggest priorities of this congregation is to communicate Christian beliefs and values to our children.  Although our church has many opportunities for growth, we see a need to further strengthen programming for the older teens and young adults in our church family; we feel it is vital to provide for this group. 

Opportunities

We believe that God accepts everyone and calls us to share Christ's affirming message of love and justice for all people.  Segments of the congregation have discussed becoming an Open and Affirming congregation; we are aware that this would present both opportunities and challenges for us.

We wish to explore ways to provide programs that enrich the lives of the community without regard to age, culture, race, class, or denomination.  In particular, there is a need in our community for youth and elder programming and developing a support network for both of these populations.  To provide this programming, we are willing to renew or expand our place of worship & facility.

God has blessed us with a core of talented, devoted people, who volunteer their time and energies to teach, to lead, to serve, and to support & staff mission projects.  In order to maintain our extensive programs, we need to expand our leadership base.  By training and empowering our members, honoring their current level of stewardship and involvement in God's mission, we offer them the means of grace to deepen that involvement.

As an active congregation, we intend to expand our programming to realize God’s Will for Mt. Zion United Church of Christ.  Therefore, we need to call additional pastoral and support staff, to inspire our shared ministry and mission in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Feedback coming to the self study team indicates that there is still some confusion about our visioning process.  We are being asked “Why are we doing this?” and “How will this help us?”

Let’s start by looking at the four main milestones or waypoints of our process.

Core Values – Those values to which I am willing to commit major portions of my time and energy.

Bedrock Beliefs – Those things which I absolutely believe to be true.

Motivating Vision – What do we see for the future of our congregation?  What do we want to look like 5 years or 10 years from now?

Key Mission and Ministry – How will we accomplish or reach our vision?  Will it be missions or outreach or growth?  Some combination of these?  Or something else entirely?

Why is it important to discover these things?  The first two, core values and bedrock beliefs, have a major impact on our daily actions and decisions both individually and as a congregation.  If one of your core values is the sanctity of your own life and one of your bedrock beliefs is that skin and bone do not hold up well when hitting the macadam at 160 miles per hour this will have a major affect on how you drive your motorcycle.  If, on the other hand, one of your core values is the sanctity of your own life but one of your bedrock beliefs is “IT CAN’T HAPPEN TO ME”, this will also affect the way you drive your motorcycle, and we will likely be reading your obituary much too soon.  Much of the time we give little thought to our core values and bedrock beliefs.  Upon examination of our lives we find that often our actions and decisions run counter to what we say we believe or value.  As a result, our lives are not turning out as we hoped. The same thing can, and does, happen to congregations.  

How do we discover what our real values and beliefs are?  As individuals we sit down and think about it.  Or maybe we talk with a trained counselor who knows what kind of questions to ask.  As a congregation we do much the same thing.  The difference is we now have 50, 100 or 200 people involved and reaching a consensus can seem chaotic. As a small experiment, invite 8 people over to your house and then try to order pizza.  Anchovies?  NO!  Pepperoni?  Yes.  Well, maybe.  Hamburg or bacon?  Yes.  Well, maybe.  If I am among the 8 there will be at least one who says “can we get a little chocolate on that?”   

We have used large groups (congregational gatherings) and small groups (focus groups of 10 – 12) to discover our congregational values and beliefs.  The process is working.  We have identified our top 10 core values and are now working on our bedrock beliefs.  We will use the same process to discover our motivating vision (God’s will for our congregation) and our key mission and ministry (the methods by which we achieve God’s will).  

When we are finished we will have developed a profile that states who we are and where we are going.  Should that profile indicate that we want and need to be a two pastor congregation, we will form a search committee and call a second pastor.  That profile will help to insure that any pastor or staff person we call wants to drive their motorcycle that same way we drive ours.

If I could offer a personal invitation to each of you to join us in this effort, I would do so.  We firmly believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding us and the invitation to join us is always open.  If you cannot physically join with us, please keep our congregation in your prayers. 

        On Sunday, April 13th we will gather to begin the third phase of our Vision Discernment Process, regarding future ministry and mission decisions for Mt Zion U.C.C.  Our first step in this part of the transition and discernment process will begin when we gather in the sanctuary for worship at 8:30 a.m.  Our Self-Study Team and transition consultant Rev. Larry Knutson, will lead us in a one hour service, followed by a fifteen minute fellowship break, and then a one hour gathering downstairs to begin mutual discussion and prayerful consideration of our church’s ministry and future.  

            As a study of scripture confirms, an authentic vision is not constructed by God’s people, but rather revealed to people by God.  At this point in our congregation’s transition process we need to be mindful of that, as we share thoughts and ideas as to the future for our church.  Those potential visions can come from any one of us and at any moment in time.

The Christian experience also has shown that a motivating vision only survives when it becomes an experience for many.  Visions only grow when they are shared spontaneously and enthusiastically with everyone.  A vision that truly motivates you and I is like a magnet that draws people, individually and collectively, to itself.

        Our critical Core Values and Bedrock Beliefs will now be brought into creative interaction with scripture, worship, fellowship, and the transformative presence of the Holy Spirit as we undertake this third phase of the transition process.  Our Core Values and Bedrock Beliefs define who we are.   Our emerging motivating Vision(s) will spring from that identity and carry us into the future.

        As you prepare for this third phase of our transition process together, please ask yourself; “What is it about my experience with Jesus Christ, through this congregation, that I want to share with others because I believe we cannot live without it?”

        Between April 13th and May 18th, there will be a variety of very important, small groups forming that you will learn more about on April 13th.   These will include Focus Groups, as we have been having, as well as the formation of several Interview Teams and Prayer-Triads.  Every member of our church is encouraged to participate in some way, through this variety of opportunities.  

        The third phase of this process will continue into May, concluding on Sunday, May 18th with a Congregational Gathering.   The May newsletter will have more details concerning that date.

        As always, If you have any ideas, questions, or thoughts you wish to share in regard to our church’s time of transition and it’s future, please talk with any member of Mt Zion’s Self-Study Team, our church consultant, and members of your church council. 

The next step in our process will be to gain clarity and unity around our Bedrock Beliefs. Bedrock Beliefs are those profoundly held beliefs to which we return for strength in times of stress, questioning, and confusion. This will be Phase II of our congregation's Vision Discernment Process, lead by our Transitional Ministry Consultant and Mt Zion's Self-Study Team.

We will follow a similar strategy of Congregational Gatherings and small Focus Groups. Please prayerfully consider hosting one of the Focus Groups for this upcoming Phase II. This step will begin on Sunday, March 2nd, and continue through Sunday, March 30th, with the following schedule of events: 

Sunday, March 2nd
8:20 AM  ~ Announcements & Concerns;
8:30 to 9:15 ~ Worship; 
9:15 to 9:45 ~ Food & Fellowship Break;
9:45 to 11:45 ~ Congregational Gathering -- Bedrock Beliefs.

Monday, March 3rd - Tuesday, March 25th
Focus Groups and Interview Teams meet and complete their process
All Focus Group and Interview Team reports due by Wednesday, March 26th

Sunday, March 30th
8:20 AM  ~ Announcements & Concerns;
8:30 to 9:15 ~ Worship; 
9:15 to 9:45 ~ Food & Fellowship Break;
9:45 to 11:45 ~ Congregational Gathering -- complete Phase II Bedrock Beliefs.

Also during March, the Self-Study Team will begin the process of preparing our church's Profile. This very important document, which results directly from the Vision Process, is utilized by the UCC churches in the pastoral search and call process.

In April and May we undertake Phase III of the Vision Process by discerning and clarifying our congregation's Motivating Vision. This in turn leads to Phase IV involving concrete strategic and long range planning as related to a Pastoral Search and Call Process and our church future ministry/mission direction. 

We look forward to YOUR companionship and discipleship on our spiritual journey together into the future God calls us to!