Balancing Act

I think I always knew that starting a project like this would involve a lot of balancing between different priorities and ideas, but sometimes I feel that the hardest balancing acts are those in which I would normally weigh heavily on one side, and want to avoid doing so.

In the next couple of weeks, once we have finalised our promotional leaflet (a sneak peek went out with our newsletter – subscribe here) I plan to begin a short series of articles about each of the different Values we have outlined, and the different portions of the Vision. As part of the induction week on Invest, Heather and I spent time talking and creating some core values that we felt defined what was important about church. Many years ago I was also involved in the refining of the core values of Whiteinch Church of Scotland (then Whiteinch Fellowship). I have found that I have quite strong opinions on this, as so as we began thinking about the future at the beginning of this year, I very much wanted to avoid creating values until we had pulled together a core team with whom these could be established in discussion, not isolation.

However, as time has gone on, it has become clear that we need a clear vision and values _before_ we can pull in a team, as these are often part of the decision-making process for those showing an interest. This, I believe, reflects again the need for a “vision-carrier”, for a primary leader – a first among equals – to drive things forward. It also underlines that, in good church tradition, there is always going to be a certain amount of “making it up as you go along”, or, to put it another way “ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda” – “a church reformed and always reforming”.