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‘Seeing’ into the future

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By Mark Azzara

I didn’t really know what it was like to do long-range planning for my church until I began. Our “task force” (oooh, I hate that phrase) had received broad but mandatory guidelines from our church’s central office and tons of data from a congregational survey in addition to our own input. I knew right away that if we heeded God we would do well; if not we’d fail miserably. We chose three of the guidelines’ eight broad topics to address in the next two years, and I then became part of a subcommittee that focused on evangelism – how our church will prepare congregants to learn more about our faith and how to share that faith. Along the way I realized how little any one of us brought to the table but how much we all brought collectively. At the end of those two-hour meetings over two consecutive nights we had a plan. There is still a lot to iron out but we actually have a sensible, achievable plan. More than that, we have hope because now we see that God did, and will, guide us.

All God’s blessings – Mark

 

Mark Azzara
Mark Azzara
Mark Azzara spent 45 years in print journalism, most of them with the Waterbury Republican in Connecticut, where he was a features writer with a special focus on religion at the time of his retirement. He also worked for newspapers in New Haven and Danbury, Conn. At the latter paper, while sports editor, he won a national first-place writing award on college baseball. Azzara also has served as the only admissions recruiter for a small Catholic college in Connecticut and wrote a self-published book on spirituality, "And So Are You." He is active in his church and facilitates two Christian study groups for men. Azzara grew up in southern California, graduating from Cal State Los Angeles. He holds a master's degree from the University of Connecticut.

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