Over a year has passed and more than thirty posts have been written since we launched the Metanoia blog. Andy, Stephen and me (Nathan) thought it would be wise to take stock, pausing to consider what is working and what is not; thinking about the potential of Metanoia, and crucially, what we need to do to realise that potential. So below is a summary of our discussion, including a first stab at a vision statement. We decided to post this summary on the blog so that followers can see where we are up to in our thinking. As ever we appreciate your comments and invite relevant input.
Draft vision statement:
Our vision for Metanoia is that it becomes a place where Kingdom thinking is cultivated, a space where we can think and dream in the freedom that honesty with accountability bring. Our focus is on how the Bible relates to everyday life, all sectors of society and our culture; in order that we may discover more of God’s plans for our world and to create and innovate with Him to these ends. We affirm the importance of creative thinking – learning to imagine what could be in a renewed and resurrected world. But we long for these thoughts and dreams to become manifest in concrete change. Therefore our vision is that our learning, dreaming, dialogue finds creative expression in tangible outcomes; in short, that Metanoia’s contributors live out the values and challenges we discuss. As we do this, we aim also to invite others to collaborate with us and challenge each one to incarnate kingdom thinking too.
What could be:
We posed the following scenario as we thought about what Metanoia could grow to become in the next 12 months.
It’s June 2012. 30+ people are regularly engaging with Metanoia as contributors and/or commenters. Two well attended events (15+ people) have been successfully run. 2-3 outcomes have been identified and are being worked towards and roll outcome is complete. What did we do to get there?
Events are the gateway, so they will be the primary way of attracting new contributors/commenters/followers. Consequently we plan to have two events, the first one in late September/ early October 2011, to coincide with the return of students. From these events, interest and numbers of participants will grow. A larger core team will emerge, helping to create the ‘critical mass’ needed for the think-tank element of Metanoia to take off and to generate relevant, realistic outcomes.
We then started the process of moving from what could be to what will be: Defining what steps we need to take and who will take them.
The following list is incomplete and will be added to shortly:
• Metanoia needs to come on to the radar of St Thomas Church Philadelphia senior staff: Arrange meeting with Marjorie and/ or Nick Allen.
• Our advertising media needs to be ready: Blog/facebook/twitter all need to be up-to-date and full of relevant, current content. Paper media, including flyers need designing and a logo is needed to brand material across media.
• Decide on a topic for the first event. Identify the area of most current interest/controversy. Provisional idea is a debate on Rob Bell’s ‘Love Wins’, with invited guest speaker(s).
• Following on from the first event, identify more people who could be invited in to the core team. Start identifying outcomes (eg written/video resource, presentation, reports, and advocacy).
• Second event for spring term.
Thanks Nathan, you have summarised our discussions very well (just like you chaired our meeting very well!). In terms of content, I think the vision statement is spot on. My only comment is that it might be better expressed as a set of bullet points or key words - but that's just a personal preference. It is important that the vision is clear and well-defined so that people understand what we're about and are inspired to join us.
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