Wednesday, March 4, 2009
St. Paul UCC, Fort Thomas
The meeting began at 11:00 a.m. Present: Andrew Birken, Pam DeFusco, Keith Haithcock, Rudy Gruenke, Gil fauber, Steve Hecky, Linda Kemp-Baird, Cynthia Priem, Henry Marksbury, Mark Young, and Stuart Blersch.
Andrew Birken is now the interim pastor at St. Paul UCC in Alexandria.
We welcomed our guest, Ruth Brandon, who led the meeting. We began by reading the parable of the sheep, as rewritten by a child in Harlem. We continued with the theme of outreach by role playing situations involving people who don't have religious backgrounds but who make contact with our church. We discussed ways of reaching these people.
Ruth handed out a rubric, "Contrasting Theological Paradigms," which compares the "establishment church" with the "mission church." The Center for Parish Development created the rubric.
Steve commented that the most difficult diversity issue is to be found within our own congregations: the status quo members vs. the more progressive members.
The meeting adjourned at noon.
Next meeting: Wednesday, April 1, 2009, at St. John UCC, Bellevue. Our discussion topic: how do we conduct our Sunday services?
After the meeting we will go to lunch with Mark Young, who is leaving our cluster to become pastor at Immanuel UCC in St. Bernard.
Respectfully submitted,
Stuart Blersch, sec'y
