Coming Up Sunday, December 14; Questionnaire

On Sunday, we'll enjoy a presentation from our youth, a retelling of the timeless story of Jesus' birth. In order to incorporate the Christmas play, the worship service will be slightly rearranged, and our scripture readings and some of the hymns will be incorporated into the play. It should be an enjoyable morning.

Also, for the next two weeks, we'll be distributing and collecting year-end questionnaires about the ministry of Central Christian Church. These questionnaires are my idea alone (yes, the pastor is calling an audible) and are intended to gain a clearer understanding of where we think we are and where we think we are going. I hope that you'll put some thought into these questions (which appear below) and share your comments. In January, I'll share the results, and add my own thoughts -- rest assured, anonymity will be preserved (though, if you want me to know that your thoughts are your thoughts, you may sign your questionnaire -- I'll be the only one looking at them).

Here are the questions:

• What are your overall impressions of Central Christian?
• In the past year, what are the main successes of Central Christian?
• What has disappointed you at Central Christian in the past year?
• What would you like to see Central Christian do in the coming year?
• Do you feel comfortable inviting people to worship at Central Christian? Why or why not?
• Other comments

I know that churches often pass out surveys or questionnaires. I also know that these churches seem to merely collect these surveys or questionnaires and then forget about them. That is not my intent (in those other churches' defense, I'm sure it's not their intent either). At the very least, I will share the results of these questionnaires and my impressions at the Cabinet meeting in early January (Saturday, Jan. 10 from 10:00 am to Noon if you want to put it on your calendar), with the expectation that this will guide some of our planning for the coming year.