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Re-imagining our congregational vision

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In three years from now, what will Clairemont Lutheran Church be known for?

Hopefully we will still be a beacon of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a
community of faith in this part of the City of San Diego. But what exactly does that mean? We all may have different answers to these and other questions when we take the time to think about the vision for our congregation.

For some, it may be the tried and true Classic Worship on Sunday
mornings: this is the place where you can experience the ancient ritual of the Christian faith combined with a modern, contextual take on the scripture, along with a choir and great organ music. Maybe it’s life groups and other ministries which cater more to the elderly among us, perhaps adding to our staff a visitation minister and a parish nurse. Maybe the focus is to be the best
grandparents and retirees church in the city.

Or perhaps our desire to see more children and youth in the church will blossom into programs fostering family involvement in the life of the congregation. Maybe this includes alternative forms of worship with different styles of music and different musicians. Maybe this type of worship happens on a Saturday or
Sunday evening instead of Sunday morning. Perhaps the goal is to be the best Sunday School and Youth program in our area.

Could Clairemont Lutheran Church be the community of faith for the working adult, the busy family, or the college student?

This congregation is blessed with a rich history of faith and community outreach. We were blessed by founders who gave us a landmark church campus, and now it’s time for us to continuing building physically and spiritually for the next generation of those who will call Clairemont Lutheran Church their community of faith. Perhaps it’s time to step out in faith and volunteer more and increase our giving.

These are just some of the things we as a congregation could consider when we are thinking about the vision of our faith
community. A simple plan of maintaining what we’ve done in the past may not be the best guidance for the future. Rather, we should look deep into our hearts and ask what we want our
congregation to mean to us and those in the Clairemont community this year, next year, and the next several years after that. What legacy do we want our congregation to have?

But first, we must recognize what God is calling us to do. Then we must prayerfully decide how we, individually and collectively,
will respond to God’s call.

Not closed, but deployed

Re-thinking the mission of the congregation during public isolation

 Have you taken the time to re-think what “church” means during this time of a public isolation?

If church is not meeting on Sunday mornings, then what is church? Furthermore, what is the mission of the congregation?

Our mission statement reads:

“Clairemont Lutheran Church/Iglesia Luterana Clairemont is a community of faith united in Word and Sacrament, building faith by inviting, welcoming, forgiving, accepting, helping, and praying for all of God’s people.”

How has the congregation lived up to this mission?

Despite the ban on large public gatherings, we have continued to offer the Word online on Sunday mornings and we hope that your life groups have found ways to keep connected as well. We have also continued to offer Drive-Thru communion as a way to keep our community in Christ connected to the sacrament. We have also continued our food distribution ministries to serve our neighbors.

But what about building faith? How are we doing that now, and how will we do this going forward? We can do this by inviting others to view our online worship by sharing the videos over Social Media. We can call others and pray with them. We can offer a sign of God’s peace to our neighbors and to those we may see at the grocery or drug store. We can help a neighbor who is having difficulty during this time. These are just some of the ways we can be inviting, welcoming, helping and praying.

For years Christian congregations have faced declining attendance and participation. Some have permanently closed their doors. One reason is that society has changed. Church is no longer the place to celebrate and mark life passages. People stopped coming to the church campus.

Now that most people aren’t going anywhere, we have an opportunity to re-think our mission outside of being a physical location in a neighborhood. We can instead think of it this way:

The church is not closed, it’s deployed.

I invite you to prayerfully consider how you can play an active role in the deployed church of Christ, both now and well into the future.

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