The  December Workshop was also at First Lutheran, and host pastor Travis Kern led the welcome and devotions. We introduced each other, and heard a report about the health status of Pastor Ron Springer. Pastor Paul Pfandenhaurer led us in prayer for both Pastor Ron and our work today.

Next we broke into groups by church and considered the collaboration—or non-collaboration—options that seem promising for each of our individual congregations. The responses included shared campus, multi-point parish/parish model, merger, and new start.

Dave then presented five case studies of congregational collaborations, with an emphasis on how they got started. Two of the case studies, Spirit of Grace in West Pasco and Paradise in Treasure Island, involved ELCA congregations in Florida.

We then broke into groups by churches again, this time to prepare answers to nine questions about our congregation. Each of the 10 congregations then presented its responses to the nine questions. Click here for a summary report.

Pastor Mark Luttio then led a discussion about our objectives  for this effort:  why we are meeting and what we want to accomplish. The first draft is as follows:

The Vision of Southeast Florida Lutherans Together in Mission:

Let us be ignited by God’s spirit to revitalize Lutheran ministry in the Southeast Florida mission field in order to share God’s love.

Our Objectives:

Each congregation or cluster of congregations that participates in this effort will develop concrete plans with measurable targets to fulfill our vision.

We will build trust and commitment as we work together in this vision.

Lunch provided opportunities for informal networking. After lunch Dave talked about the possibility of congregation-wide visioning in each congregation using Town Hall meetings. A Town Hall meeting takes about 75 minutes, involves everyone in the congregation, and gives a good picture of the congregation’s sense of purpose and dreams for the future.  Click here for a description of this visioning. Based on past experience, Dave recommends that congregations engage in this process early in the stage of talking about working together, to help them understand themselves and their prospective partners better.

Dave welcomed contributions to the www.SouthFloridaLutherans.com web site. He will give the access code and password to anyone who wants to contribute. The next topic, led by Pastor Keith Spencer, is to set future workshop dates. They are:  January 23, February 20, and March 13. The January workshop was delayed to give congregations a change to have informal meetings among themselves before that workshop. Future workshops will start at 9:00 and end by 2:30 or 3:00. The group agreed to ask each participating congregation to appoint one person to an informal “steering committee” that will probably “meet” by email. This group will help Dave plan agendas.

“Next steps” was the last topic of the day. Dave suggested three fundamentals for congregations that want to explore collaboration:

1.       Remember whose church it is—that we are stewards of God’s church and not the “owners” of our church.

2.       Pay attention to relationships within the congregation. Use advent to strengthen those relationships.

3.       Approach prospective partners with respect, humility and honesty.

Pastor Keith Spencer closed the workshop with reflections and prayer.