EMMAUS ROAD ELDERS NOTES - 5/27/14

7pm Greenwood Office; Biff Gaitan, Rennie Araucto, Eric Likkel, David Anema, Mike Elenbaas present

Informal Review of Survey Feedback:

• Grateful for Teresa Elenbaas’ work, collating feedback and sorting into categories 
• Compared notes on recognizable themes; striking that “Community/Friendships” had been listed by 80% of respondents among top three reasons for sticking with Emmaus Road; all other reasons spread out; discussed how this is an asset (of course we want sense of community within church!), but not necessarily the strongest asset for missional growth (just because we feel close, does not mean we know how to reach out, grow, and develop). 
• Emerging strategies – compared notes on “gut level” inclinations about how we think Emmaus Road ought to shift; included: articulating mission that emphasizes equipping members for missionary life where they are, as opposed to inviting them to engage missionary life via Groundworks, Sunday/Belltown based activities; in-other-words, leaving our Belltown focus behind as a collective expectation, while multiplying the fruit born from the last few years (good things have happened through our community development efforts), across and throughout Emmaus Road’s presence “around the Sound”; all of our church rhythms, patterns, gatherings (including Sunday and all it’s elements), should be shaped to support this renewed mission; we acknowledged this is not anything novel, or necessarily complex, but it is challenging, given the internal resistance to discipleship and missional living among most churched people in our day/age 
• Agreed not to share all the survey results with everyone; can answer members’ specific questions individually 

Road Crew Plan (agenda already published online last week in eWeekly)

• Eric to first set up context – briefly explain PROCESS and TIMELINE for DISCERNING MISSION and TAKING NEXT STEPS 
• Rennie to explain what Council saw in survey results; what our impressions of Emmaus Road are from the information Teresa gathered, sorted, and gave to us; that ReLaunch Team will take closer look, meet together, make some proposals that represent change 
• Mike will speak to one specific strength and area of concern, re: Children/Youth 

People: Elder Districts

• Elders agreed to postpone restructuring/shuffling until after ReLaunch in September 

ReLaunch Team

• Eric authorized to hand pick adhoc team to function as “steering committee” to craft proposals for Road Crew to consider by end of August; Relaunch September 

Prayer

• Closed with robust prayer together