Chapter workday focuses on growing Cathedral community.

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On Saturday, June 26, the Cathedral Chapter met in Washington, MO for a daylong strategic planning meeting to look at two major issues in our Cathedral life:

*How can we better welcome newcomers and draw them into our community?
*How can we continue to draw current parishioners more deeply into our community life?

The morning session on newcomers used materials from the Rev. Stephanie Spellers on moving beyond being inviting or even inclusive to what she calls “Radical Welcome”: What does it really mean to embrace people as who they are without expecting them to become who you are. (Go here - http://vimeo.com/4378280 - to hear more about this concept). They then spent time identifying more than 30 different points of contact we already have with visitors entering our space, discussing what our core message is that we want to communicate, looking at the existing means of communication (and talking about the ways everything from the way someone is greeted to the structure of our liturgy and what hangs on the walls is part of communication), and finally identifying immediate tasks to move us forward.

The afternoon session included an examination of the four orders of ministry (lay, bishop, priest and deacon) and a discussion of church involvement as opportunity to grow deeper into Christ. There was also a discussion of the work of author Daniel Pink’s work on what really motivates people and how the matches up with our call to ministry (for a sense of Pink’s work watch this 20-minute talk here - http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html. The day completed with conversations about the importance of personal relationship and invitation and Chapter members’ commitments to model this behavior for the congregation in getting to know people and specifically inviting them into ministry.

Chapter workdays will happen twice a year and are times for in-depth, strategic work that monthly meetings cannot hold. Got questions? Want to know more? Ask the provost or a Chapter member!