Council wants to keep you up to date on what is happening here at FGCC. We want to give you a bit of a timeline and a report given to us through the transition process.
Council asked the Transition Team to review our multi-site model. To begin with, they used the multi-site report that was written back in spring of 2021. At our November 6 congregations meeting there was a short discussion on multi-site at our tables, which indicated a desire for more discussion. As the transition team continued to work on the multisite review, they wanted to hear from all the sites and convened a meeting on December 3, 2022 to listen and make some suggestions. Coming out of that meeting a report was written which you will find below. In the report there is an appendix which gives some information from experts in the field of multi-site.
During the fall of 2022, Council recognized that they needed to meet with and listen to each site. Meetings with North Site, The Gathering, and Attridge (staff) Lead Teams have taken place. Council has also been receiving monthly reports from the sites, and over the past year, the multi-site strategy has been an agenda item many times (15+), which has taken a very significant amount of Council’s time and energy. This has affected the speed that we can respond to other pressing issues related to transition and missional focus. We need to bring more clarity to our multisite strategy in order to focus our vision and values. Council is working on a strategic plan that will be shared next week. We have invited input from all our sites as it relates to multi-site.
On January 31st, Council released Nathan from his leadership role at North Site. This was due to the relationship, communication and trust breakdown between Nathan, and leadership staff and Council, even though several steps were taken to bridge the gap, including external mediation, we were unable to move forward together.
With the release of Nathan, the NS Lead Team has made the decision to no longer be a part of FGCC. Further information will be provided in the coming weeks.
It has been identified in the multi-site report that we are moving towards all sites having more independence, away from our current multi-site model. As a result, Council made the decision, along with input from the congregations to hold an Attridge only conversation on March 2 and 4, to complete this part of the transition work allowing us to know how to move forward in hiring our next lead pastor. We are committed to finding our way forward, discerning what independence means and how it can help us keep our “Why” at the center of our strategy.
Together working to fulfill God’s commission,
FGCC Council
Erica Fraser, Anna Robinson, Ken Willms, Janice Block, Joel Dyck and Gil Klassen.