…to develop our vision for Unity Church in Albany
April 22, 12:30 – 3:00pm
by Karin Reinhold
Where is the church going in the next 3 – 5 years?
What do we want our community to be?
What is the highest vision we have for our community?
On April 22nd, we will gather together to discern the future of our church in prayer and faith.
Visioning is a process where the community comes together to discern what is God’s highest vision for our Spiritual Community. It reveals what is wanting to emerge for the near future.
Creating a vision is powerful because it draws a mental picture of the result you want to achieve—a picture so clear and strong it will help make that result real. It then becomes a strong force to move us forward. Some may think that a vision is a vague wish or dream or hope. But it is not. It’s a picture of real results that can be achieved. It comes from the future and informs and energizes the present.
Visioning is a way to draw out a common purpose, a way to focus our combined energies and guide our efforts.
At Unity Church in Albany, we have used visioning on a regular basis. It has been quite successful at manifesting and inspiring changes. From the last Unity visioning exercises we developed a) the webcasting of Sunday Services; b) we became more involved in community service projects such as FOCUS and also Building the Beloved Community: Healing Racism; c) we manifested an increased annual income $10,000 to 20,000 more than the church had been averaging (which manifested within the year after the visioning); d) a commitment to more meditation classes and an ongoing series of spiritual teaching classes and more.
Visioning then allows us to see beyond our current reality, see what is wanting to emerge, create and bring forth what does not now exist yet, becoming what we are not right now.
A well-crafted vision, with a wide community support, acts as a guiding force for all members of the community which ignites, within each of us, inspired action in the direction of our vision. We become passionate about it. And slowly, over time, as parts of our vision start coming true, we all of a sudden find ourselves living our vision.
“Truly I tell you, If you have Faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there.’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
Come join us on Sunday April 22nd, 12:30-3:00pm, on this year’s Unity Church visioning exercise.
Reminders of why visioning is so powerful:
- Visioning brings all congregants into alignment with a shared purpose. In unity, in the union of many, we find profound truths and experiences that are grated than ourselves.
- Visioning amplifies God’s program for our church. Together in prayer and discernment, we bring forth God’s plan for Unity. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” Jeremiah 33:3. If one person can do this, imagine the power of all of us calling God together.
- A vision inspires action. A powerful vision pulls in ideas, people and other resources. It creates the energy and will to make change happen. It inspires individuals and organizations to commit, to persist and to give their best.
- A vision is a practical guide for creating plans, setting goals and objectives, making decisions, and coordinating and evaluating the work on any project, large or small.
- A vision helps keep organizations and groups focused and together, especially with complex projects and in stressful times.
- The church’s vision becomes the church’s DNA. It is sewn into the fabric of our relationships, a driving force that defines what we do and why we do it. It becomes the measure of how we assess our success.
- Visioning enlivens us and our community. It activates forces unseen, uplifts us, charges us and moves us into inspired action.
- In visioning, we come into heart and brain coherence, we access heart intelligence, we overcome conditioning, we overcome the environment, and it is then that magic happens, and God starts flowing through us, as us