Summary of Northbrae Community Church Retreat Findings

Eight topics were discussed during the morning session of the retreat and each group proposed ideas for the whole group to discern during lunch. From that discernment, five areas of interest were taken into the afternoon sessions for planning and commitment.

The morning topics included service, worship, adult education, children’s program, theology, spirituality, networking and growth, and community.

The afternoon topics included sense of community, teen/youth programs, more adult education programs, Christian foundations balanced with all traditions, and internet outreach (get the word out).

Several people took the time to make additional comments on the yellow sheets that were included in their packets, and these comments are included in the summary.

Summary

Northbrae has the desire to be a Christian church that makes use of the wisdom of world religions. Based on the theology and children’s program planning posters, there is a desire for Christian rituals and Christian education as a primary basis with the integration of world religious wisdom as a means of understanding one’s Christianity better.

Rituals was a repeated theme within the theology, children’s education and adult education topics, with the question of what Northbrae’s rituals are and how they can be different from other Christian churches while remaining Christian being noted. There were suggestions for a wedding ceremony, baptism, communion ritual that is Christian and includes the wisdom of other religions.

Education, both children and adult is very important to Northbrae. For adults, there is a desire for lecture series and other means that will help better understand how to be a progressive Christian, possibly by understanding other religions better. For children and youth, there is the same desire to have a Christian education program that is open to the wisdom of other religions.

Rites of passage are important and it seems important to keep them Christian theologically, while helping children understand and accept people of other world religions. There is also a desire to continue youth education after the rite of passage.

Adult education programs that are currently active are still popular. There is a desire for more bible study and service projects, and improvement in attendance at current events such as Wednesday night dinners. Lecture series with outside speakers is also of interest.

There is a large interest in ‘Getting the Word Out’ theoretically, while there is a much smaller interest in making it happen. This is evident from the discrepancy between the number of people who discerned the need during lunch and the number of people who chose to be in the discussion.

Suggestions for increasing Northbrae’s presence included advertising at U.C. Berkeley, GTU, craigslist. The website is seen as a means of effectively communicating about Northbrae. A banner on the front lawn with the theme ‘Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors’ is suggested. Getting sermons, both text and sound, onto the website was also suggested.

On the topic of Sense of Community, which the group interpreted as internal and external networking, there were four items suggested:

Do a member survey for talents and interests and get that data into a database. Create nametags and have a self-description directory. Make a time pledge like the annual giving pledges

Have events to get acquainted that are small scale and have a short time duration

Describe service opportunities for Northbrae and the community on the web and in the Sunday bulletin – include contact information

Address member care needs and opportunities

During the commitment session, this group determined that the first item to complete is the talents and interests survey. The second is to increase publicity for current volunteer opportunities. Third is to determine who would be head of the Church Life committee. Fourth is to recognize volunteers in print.

The spirituality poster received many red dots, but they were spread between all of the topics. This suggests some uncertainty within Northbrae about what spirituality is, and how it works with education, theology and worship.

Within the worship topics, the sermon received many dots, which is consistent with the questionnaire that showed everyone at Northbrae values the sermon. There were a fairly large number of dots on the singable hymns item, suggesting that there is a desire within Northbrae to change hymn selection. At the same time, there were only a few dots associated with changing the worship program.

***************  Summary of ministry questionnaire responses