Creating Intentional Spiritual Community

A community-centric and mission-focused designed model for reviewing and developing Core Values, Vision, Mission for Unity Church in Albany

Saturday, September 12, 9:00 am to Noon
on Zoom

(see our Newsletters for code)

The entire Unity Church in Albany community is invited!! 

Facilitated by Rev. Steve Colladay and Rev. Joanne Burns

Purpose

1. To support Unity Church in Albany in the Creating Our Future
2. To provide direction and decision-making capacities and capabilities for both leadership and our Unity community.

Statistics show that ministries thrive when they are clear about who they are, who they serve, and where they are going. A grass-root community creation of a collective core values, vision, mission and a organized plan of action — Creating Our Future invites success, as well as ownership, of the previously mentioned.

Additionally, after completion of the fore- mentioned, our Board of Trustees will prioritize the intentions and create goals and actions that resonate with our evolving Creating Our Future transformation.

 

Deliverables and Intended Outcomes

As we create an Intentional Spiritual Community we will:

• Consciously discern and then define the personal and/or collective core values of the spiritual community
• Review existing vision and mission and consciously and collectively affirm/update them
• Consciously and collectively define what are the next bold actions for Creating Our Future
• Consciously gather input regarding the core values, vision and mission from the entire community
• Consciously share the core values through a series of Sunday lessons

Core Values – Core Values are the “talk” we “walk.” It identifies the Core Standards of Integrity of a spiritual community, what we value at our deepest level. Our Standards of Integrity speak to how we show up in the world. It is not enough to know what words depict our Core Values; we also define them along with behaviors that support their being lived within our Unity community.

Vision – A Vision statement shares the biggest dream, wish, or vision our spiritual community can hold for the world and for the world spiritually awakening. It is a compelling and BOLD vision that inspires us into action. A Vision is so big that we know only God/Spirit can fulfill it! We can only “live” into it on a daily basis. For example, “A world powerfully transformed through the growing movement of shared spiritual awakening” is the Vision of Unity Worldwide Ministries. This is our greatest, bold contribution to society.

Mission – Our Mission statement shares who we are, as a unique entity, known as a Unity spiritual community. This tells the world our purpose for being. Our mission informs and guides our programs, outreach and activities to stay in alignment with our purpose.

If our Vision is – What we hold for the world to support spiritual and global awakening. Our Mission is – How we uniquely do that within in our spiritual community.

Next Bold Actions supports the creation of a platform for a coherent plan of action. This is the body, the framework of Creating Our Future. AND we are clear that it is Spirit that informs, guides, and instructs the actions to accomplish the ideas and intentions.

The Plan of Action (a.k.a., Strategic Plan) is the guidepost for the board and the ministry for future development. “There must also be a well-defined plan of action with goals and actions that guide each component into expression. Additionally, in a mission-focused environment, it is realized that each member is integral to the whole and has clarity around agreed upon roles and responsibilities. And they accept a level of accountability for their specific roles. All of these activities work in harmony to support the creation of an intentional spiritual community that holds shared leadership at its core.” —Toni G. Boehm, Ph.D.

 

About the Facilitators

Rev. Steve Colladay, an ordained Unity minister, is a certified ministry skills and transitional specialist for Unity Worldwide Ministries in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.

Rev. Joanne Burns has been serving Unity ministries for over 25 years. She is a UWM Ministry Wellness Consultant.

This process originally designed by Rev. Toni G. Boehm, Ph.D., based upon a work by Richard Barrett.