SSJ – Future Story of Ministry

Since 2015 we have been wrestling with this question: What will characterize our congregation in the year 2026 if we — with faithfulness, effectiveness, and innovation — live into the call of God upon us? Now we have our answer: We are called to be a disciple-making church on mission for Christ!

The Future Story Presentation

On Sunday, January 31st, 2016, the Future Story team enacted during our worship service a series of vignettes intended to represent what White Plains might look like in 2026 if we live faithfully and intentionally into the calling that God has upon us as a church. The team also handed out a multi-paged narrative giving more background and detail about the Future Story. If you have not had a chance to view the presentation, please take a moment to go to YouTube and watch it. Copies of the narrative are available in the office, or you may view it in English or Español. Watch and Read – look into the future! Where are YOU in that story?

Background to Our Future Story (SSJ)

We began the Spiritual Strategic Journey (SSJ) in 2015 with prayer triplets – over 150 people praying about White Plains. In September we delivered to you the key themes and comments that came from a summer of prayer and discussion. Out of that emerged 3 possible future scenarios – WP as a disciple-making church, a missional church, or a community of believers. Now all 3 of these elements SHOULD be present in any church, but one of these would be the LENS through which we would make priority decisions, develop programs, and so on. In November we presented these 3 scenarios, along with a narrative for each, and based on your feedback, our theme for the future became White Plains – A Disciple-Making Church on Mission for Christ. The 3 future scenarios were intended to give us a 30,000-foot view of our possible future.

Since then the Future Story Team has taken that theme and tried to move us from the 30,000-foot look at the future to the 10,000-foot view. We shared our Future Story for feedback and correction with all of the Lead Team members so that this story now belongs to them too. Our prayer is that what you read in the narrative, what you see and hear during the presentation will now become YOUR story of what is possible for White Plains if we faithfully live into our calling as a Disciple-Making Church on Mission for Christ. Give us your feedback. What will it take with God’s help for ALL of us to work together, living into this future, making a story reality?