Questions for reflection – Koonung Heights Uniting Church https://koonungheights.unitingchurch.org.au Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania Sat, 06 Oct 2018 07:18:11 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://koonungheights.unitingchurch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Logo-2-edited-150x150.png Questions for reflection – Koonung Heights Uniting Church https://koonungheights.unitingchurch.org.au 32 32 40008245 2018, 7th October https://koonungheights.unitingchurch.org.au/2018/10/2018-7th-october/ Sat, 06 Oct 2018 07:18:11 +0000 https://koonungheights.unitingchurch.org.au/?p=2130 SETTING A FUTURE COURSE FOR KOONUNG HEIGHTS
Dear friends,
With David Carter’s retirement, our congregation is once again asked by Presbytery and Synod to consider our future ministry needs. A key component of that is a mission study.
Our mission study will take place after church on Sunday, 14 October, for about two hours. You are asked to bring your own lunch, but there will be tea and coffee and sweets. We will start at 11.30 and try to finish by 1.30.
It is not a simple thing to set a direction for a congregation today. There is considerable evidence – both anecdotal and academic – that religion is not relevant to many people today, especially to people under 40. Over 30% of the Australian population reported ‘no religion’ in the most recent census. Yet many people of all ages still seem to search for community and meaning.
So we are challenged as followers of Jesus to try to work out how to follow in his way in our times. That is the point of a mission study – to find our future path. How will we do this?
In 2011, we conducted a mission study and wrote a mission statement. You will find a summary of it with the notices. Over the coming week, your Church Council asks you to read (or re-read) the mission statement. What would you add to it? What would you remove? What would you change?
At the mission study meeting, we will use a number of other questions to help us think about our future, and what kind of minister(s) we need to lead us in the path we envision.
Please give some thought to these questions:
• What do you most value about our congregation as it is?
• What dreams do you have for our congregation? Are there particular things you would like to see happen?
• What is our church’s presence in the neighbourhood? For whom is it a beacon of hope?
• What possibilities do you see for our congregation to reach out beyond our doors?

If you cannot attend the mission study meeting, we will have a questionnaire for you to fill in.
At worship on 28 October, the Church Council will report back to the congregation about the results of the mission study. We will also be preparing our congregational profile (a description of who we are and the results of our mission study). This profile will go to presbytery and then – we hope – to the Synod placements committee at the end of November. Placements committee then recommends names to us of potential ministers. More about that in a few weeks’ time.
Please feel free to talk with me or any other elder about this process.
Harriet Ziegler, Church Council Chair

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