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Reviewing reports of the Long Range Planning Team, and the Evangelism and COM leadership, I have come to the same conclusions they have:

We need to be thinking of ways we can continue to grow and minister to the people in our charge. The limitations of our physical property and our financial resources require us to be creative in our thinking for maintaining viable growth and a significant influence in the community. There are still many people to whom we offer an attractive alternative for spiritual growth and nurture. We need to position ourselves to reach these people.  The challenge is to make maximum use of what we have at the moment while we anticipate the future. In order to accomplish this, everything must be on the table.  To enable us to maintain forward momentum, I propose a 5 year plan.

Year One: 2005

For the next two years we need to strengthen our physical and financial resources by creating a culture of expectations for the future.   This means developing a faith base that depends upon our efforts and God’s guidance.

One of the reports I read said, “There is a growing sense of enthusiasm at lower levels in the church that may take time to make it to the leadership level.”   That time is now.   You are the leaders of the church and what you do in your leadership this year will determine the future of League City UMC.    I’m sure you have turned over every stone in seeking solutions to the challenges that face us. However, by building strong relationships through assimilation of new members, the church invites an influx of new perspectives on the future.  Given permission to think outside the box, members can come up with innovative ideas that keep the growing edge on the church’s ministries.

One of our goals from the COM Planning Retreat is to start a new worship service this year. This has the potential to take the pressure off our parking space and our Sunday School space.   This service would be an alternative to Sunday morning and will target those members who might not be able to attend on a given Sunday as well as people in the community who must work on Sunday and wish for a place to worship on Saturday night.

This service can take shape around a particular style, but it need not be traditional or contemporary.   It can be youth driven, a heritage (gospel) service, focus on Bible study, or some other style. The important thing is that it be an alternative to Sunday morning to provide another point of entry into our fellowship.

We also need to develop plans for cell groups in the homes of our members. Cell groups have the advantage of keeping us in touch with a larger portion of the membership and giving opportunity for members to invite the un-churched into a positive Christian group.

We can develop a plan to restructure our worship and Sunday School times to create two Sunday School sessions in 2006, one at the time of an early service (9:30 – 10:30) and another at the time of  a late service (11:00 – 12:00).

With this arrangement we could maximize the use of our Sunday School rooms and also set free extra rooms to expand office space. This would require a few more teachers and a sacrifice by some classes for the greater good of the church family. Continued growth will gain the new teachers for this structure and the students in the rooms.

Year Two: 2006

Begin a weekday Sunday School to complement the Weekday worship service.

Create a Sunday evening Bible Teaching worship service.

Establish cell groups in the homes of the members.

Cell groups can spin off the Bible Teaching service for their discussions.

Re-schedule our worship services to begin the two Sunday School sessions.

Begin planning to move the Mosaic Service to an alternate site in League City in order to reach more people and make our presence more visible. The Mosaic service is the logical group to relocate because it has more outreach potential to the demographic of the area.

Year Three: 2007

Make the move and establish the satellite site.

We may rent empty office or retail space or use a school facility.

Hire another staff person to facilitate and coordinate growth.

Year Four: 2008 **

Purchase property and develop a plan for building a new ministry campus to bring the two sites back together.

Year Five: 2009

Build, relocate and reunite the congregation on a common ministry campus.

Relocation has been done before by this congregation.

Whenever this church made the decision to move to this location, it was a good decision.

The church was on the growing edge of town and grew to over 1500 members.

Final Thoughts

Since then the population has moved east and west and the membership has moved also.   Our membership roll is an indication of the movement of the members.   We now have less than 1,000 members.   Bay Harbor UMC was built to reach the eastward expansion of League City.   At the moment there is no UMC in position to accommodate the western expansion of League City.   If we had another 10 acres, we could do it here.

As the housing additions expand people will move into them and many will either drop out of church or go to an independent church.   Why shouldn’t they come to us?

League City UMC will be around 50 years from now.   The question is, “How will it exist 50 years from now?”

Will it be a small congregation still landlocked on five acres?   Will it be positioned by the decisions we make in the next few years to continue its heritage of reaching out to people who need to know Jesus.   The things we do this year will establish the pattern for the years to follow.

This is a plan for moving forward and how to do it.   It is not perfect in that it cannot anticipate all the questions that can be asked or the answers to those questions, but it does gives us a sense of direction and purpose for the future.

Every plan for the future must have the freedom to be flexible in order to adjust to new information, situations and possibilities.   As we go forward we discover the questions and their answers.   The alternative is to do nothing.

Doing nothing does not grab the imagination of the people coming our way.  Doing nothing has no power to inspire or challenge the membership.   To do nothing is to be unfaithful to the Great Commission.   It is against the flow of Christian history to say,   “We have done all we can or want to do. Let’s stop here.”

Faithfulness to the Great Commission brings with it opportunities and responsibilities that dictate our future course.

We are not the ones who should decide how large our church should grow.   That decision is best left to the Holy Spirit.   God has a plan.   Let’s do something to get on the same page with God.

To do nothing has its own set of unfavorable baggage.   To do something also has its baggage: We risk the possibility of success and gaining the good favor of God.

This is my vision and I believe it is being dictated by our present course.   However, this cannot long remain my vision only.   It is important that this, or something like this,   becomes your vision as well.  

** After the “Vision for the Future” proposal was adopted, the Long Range Planning Team presented a motion to the Board that they be given permission to begin searching for land with the goal of securing a new location site by the end of this year.  

The LRP Team sited rapid increases in land prices and shrinking availability of desirable properties as reasons not to delay the purchase of property.   The motion from Long Range Planning passed.