"Where there is no vision the people perish." So says the book of Proverbs.

"One hundred years ago almost 45 percent of Americans were raised in the Mainline Protestant tradition while today fewer than 15 percent are." So says the book of cold, hard facts.

The combination of ancient truth and contemporary cold, hard facts compels me to ask a pair of questions:

• What has become of the vision of Mainline Protestantism in America?
• Does it matter?

I don't know the answer to the first question, but to the second I'll insist that, yes, it does matter. It matters because the church matters. As Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon put it 20 years ago in their now-classic Resident Aliens, "the world needs the church because, without the church, the world does not know who it is."

I cannot tell you what has become of the vision of Mainline Protestantism, but I can invite you into a journey of renewing the vision of our little corner of it at Clarendon.

Beginning this Sunday, in worship and in our congregational meeting after worship, the entire congregation will be invited to engage a visioning process that session began at its retreat at the beginning of the month.

So bring your dreams for a more vibrant congregation, and your dreams for a better world, as together we begin to cast a clear and compelling vision for the future at Clarendon Presbyterian.

Come and see. Come and dream.

peace,

 David

PS: We're having a potluck brunch with our congregational meeting, so bring your best! Among the materials available Sunday will be updated CPC directories. For the first time they will include birthdays -- if you tell me when your is!

PPS: The 2012 budget, passed last weekend by session, is attached below for your preview. If you have questions about anything in the budget, please let me know by Saturday afternoon so that we can gather any pertinent information in advance of Sunday's meeting.

CPC's staff design group continues its work, and will present an update to the congregation at Sunday's congregational meeting.

The group's work is being conducted in relationship to the broader visioning work of session and the congregation, and will proceed according to a set of broad goals and principles that emerged from the group's conversations and guidance from session.

To maintain and expand a vibrant congregation, the staff design group will ensure that staffing at Clarendon be designed to:

1. Ensure effective and efficient stewardship of the congregation's human, financial, and physical resources.
2. Develop more diverse and interactive ministries, particularly with respect to music and Christian education.
3. Facilitate better identification and harnessing of congregational time and talents.
4. Complement the strengths of existing staff and lay leadership.

The group has reviewed data from National Capital Presbytery and from the broader Presbytery Church (U.S.A.) on staffing patterns of similar-size congregations, and will present those findings Sunday. Elders Travis Reindl, Karen Kimmel, and Gordon Hawthorne, and members Dave Norman and Grant Mandsager are serving on the staff design team.