Long Term Plan 2004-2009

Approved by the Discernment in Long Term Planning Committee of FGC. For consideration by FGC Central Committee, Tenth Month, 2003

Introduction

This Long Term Plan for 2004 to 2009 follows from the Minute of Purpose and Major Goals approved by Central Committee in 1995 (see below). The first FGC Long-Term Plan was approved in 1997 and covered the years 1998 to 2003. Friends have been encouraged by the experience of increased community and cross-committee cooperation that came with the first Long Term Plan. The guidance and energies enabled by that process led to vital new programs and services.

The seasoning process for this Long Term Plan has been accomplished over a period of two years with full and intense participation from program and administrative committees and staff. The initial discernment was undertaken by individual committees. Committee clerks were instrumental in the process as they helped their committees discern the objectives and action steps to be included in this plan. The evolving plan was carefully considered, and many suggestions made, by Executive Committee, Central Committee (in 2002), program and administrative committees, and Executive Committee again in the spring of 2003.

The work of preparing this plan, including reviewing and incorporating suggestions for additions, deletions and changes, has been guided and coordinated by the Discernment in Long Term Planning Committee (DiLTP). As agreed by Central Committee in 2001, we did not consider changes in the Minute of Purpose or the four major goals. The objectives (underlined) and action steps are all new.

In evaluating FGC’s experience of the previous (and first) Long Term Plan, Executive Committee’s major criticism was that there was no operational plan with timelines, budgets, or clear assignment of responsibilities. This in turn made it difficult to establish priorities. DiLTP expects that preparation of such an operational plan in the coming year will be an important part of this discernment and planning process.

No Long Term Plan is a final document cast in stone. This plan summarizes the Spirit’s leadings available to us at this time. Our work together includes being open to new leadings in the years to come. This plan is an ongoing reference document, guiding and shaping our work, but not controlling it.

DiLTP wishes to express its deep appreciation and respect for the very Spirit-centered work that committees and staff have put into the preparation of this new Long Term Plan.

FGC LONG TERM PLAN FOR 2004 - 2009

MINUTE OF PURPOSE

(Approved by Central Committee, Tenth Month 21, 1995)

Friends General Conference is a Quaker organization in the unprogrammed tradition of the Religious Society of Friends which primarily serves affiliated yearly and monthly meetings. It is our experience that:

• Faith is based on direct experience of God.
• Our lives witness to this experience individually and corporately.
• By answering that of God in everyone, we build and sustain inclusive community.

Friends General Conference provides resources and opportunities that educate and invite members and attenders to experience, individually and corporately, God’s living presence, and to discern and follow God’s leadings. Friends General Conference reaches out to seekers and to other religious bodies inside and outside the Religious Society of Friends.

GOALS, OBJECTIVES, AND ACTION STEPS

Goal I: Provide, and help its affiliated yearly and monthly meetings to offer, opportunities for worship and spiritual nurture to people ranging from the most seasoned Friends to the newest seekers.

Objective 1: Expand the work that feeds Friends’ spiritual hunger, strengthens meeting communities, and opens Friends to the transforming power of God.

1. Give particular attention to supporting and spiritually rejuvenating the most active members of the meetings we serve.
2. Nurture and support yearly and monthly meeting committees on ministry and worship.
3. Facilitate the integration into the Religious Society of Friends of people who come from other faiths.
4. Develop religious education programs and curricula for all ages based on the experience of expectant waiting worship.
5. Provide religious education for racial, cultural and socio-economic sensitivity.
6. Continue the ministry of publishing and distributing books and other printed materials to Friends.
7. Support a deeper understanding of right ordered meeting for worship with attention to business through Gathering workshops and/or small conferences with this focus.

Objective 2: Facilitate ministry by seasoned Friends who can help meetings provide opportunities for spiritual growth.

1. Help meetings recognize and nurture gifts of the Spirit in their members, and provide for spiritual accountability through clearness and support or care committees.
2. Foster a clearness process and mechanism for ongoing support and accountability at the levels of the monthly and/or yearly meeting for Friends who feel called to travel in the ministry.
3. When asked, assist those responsible for planning yearly meeting sessions and other Quaker events in discerning who might serve as appropriate speakers and workshop leaders.
4. Provide elders/traveling companions for, and otherwise nurture, Friends who travel in the ministry with support from FGC’s Traveling Ministries Program.

Goal II: Nurture monthly meetings and worship groups, particularly those that are small and isolated, or are in areas where little support is available.

Objective 1: Listen to the ongoing and emerging needs of yearly meetings and monthly meetings throughout the FGC family.

1. Strengthen two-way communication between FGC and affiliated meetings.
2. Develop a network of FGC monthly meeting contacts.

Objective 2: Maintain and expand support for FGC’s Traveling Ministries Program.

1. Discern additional seasoned Friends able and called to travel in the ministry.
2. Continue nurturing meetings that have been visited by TMP visitors.
3. Strengthen the support and care of those traveling in the ministry.
4. Draw together and circulate the information and insights we gain from TMP traveling Friends.

Objective 3: Serve as a resource by helping monthly meetings and worship groups to share with others what has worked well for them.

1. Foster communication among meetings regarding outreach, meeting life, religious education, meeting space, ecumenical and interfaith activity, and racial and ethnic diversity.
2. Nurture and support the clerking ministry of clerks of yearly, quarterly and monthly meetings and worship groups.
3. Help meetings and worship groups become visible, accessible and welcoming.
4. Increase meetings’ awareness of the availability of Friends and Friends’ organizations with specific experience and skills (e.g. in financial management, outreach).

Objective 4: Offer services that support the vitality of meetings and worship groups, especially those that are small or isolated.

1. Help (new) seekers find meetings and worship groups.
2. Help meetings and worship groups strengthen their Quaker witness.
3. Help meetings and worship groups deepen their spiritual community.
4. Help isolated Friends form worship groups and build relationships with yearly and monthly meetings.
5. Encourage and assist meetings and worship groups to develop and/or maintain book tables and libraries.

Goal III: Build and sustain an extended, loving community of Friends based on the experience of unity in God’s spirit while embracing and respecting great diversity.

Objective 1: Bring Friends together from across the United States and Canada.

1. Continue taking steps that will make FGC Gatherings evermore welcoming, inclusive and affordable.
2. Develop a clear understanding of the mission and goals of the Annual Gathering and use this as a vital reference point when making decisions about the Gathering.
3. Continue to hold small conferences at least once every other year.
4. Continue to hold Gatherings and small conferences in a variety of geographic locations to enable attendance by more Friends.

Objective 2: Encourage and support meetings to be open to a diversity of seekers, attenders and members.

1. Work with monthly meetings and yearly meetings to enhance the welcoming, involvement and membership of People of Color.
2. Assist meetings that are seeking to create a cohesive faith community that includes individuals with a variety of religious experiences.

Objective 3: Challenge/reduce/eliminate racism within FGC and the meetings we serve.

1. Provide an appropriate ministry within the yearly meetings and monthly meetings we serve on issues of racism and racial diversity.
2. Empower and nurture a network of Friends across monthly meetings and yearly meetings that we serve who want to move their meetings forward in dealing with racism and increasing racial diversity.
3. Increase racial and ethnic diversity on FGC committees.
4. Coordinate, facilitate and evaluate FGC’s program and administrative committee work to enhance racial and ethnic diversity in the Religious Society of Friends.
5. Distribute printed materials, and assist FGC committees in developing printed materials, that include the voices of People of Color and support Quaker work on racism and diversity.

Objective 4: Provide care and support for Friends and seekers of Color and their families.

1. Create links for Friends of Color who are solitary in their monthly meetings with other Friends of Color.
2. Create opportunities for Friends of Color who are in leadership positions to talk with each other and with others about their experience.

Objective 5: Provide care and support for high school and young adult Friends.

1. Support young adult Friends in connecting with a monthly meeting and each other.
2. Discern the best ways to bring together high school youth and young adult Friends to facilitate the transition from the former group to the latter group.
3. Include youth and young adult Friends in FGC decision-making processes whenever possible.
4. Encourage writing and publication by high school and young adult Friends.
5. Link youth with service opportunities.
6. Encourage young Friends in ecumenical and interfaith work.

Objective 6: Exercise responsible stewardship of our financial and property resources.

1. Develop a major gifts program that incorporates a ministry of building Spirit-based relationships between FGC and our contributors.
2. Create an effective deferred giving program.
3. Increase the total number of donors.
4. Improve the collection and analysis of data for development purposes.
5. Anticipate and plan for future financial opportunities and challenges.
6. Create knowledge and understanding of financial implications of current and proposed programs.
7. Continue to maintain appropriate physical space for staff and committee

Objective 7: Become a model in developing and implementing personnel policies and practices that are aligned with our Quaker values.

1. Promote a healthy and spiritually centered work environment.
2. Encourage the development of good staff supervisory skills while maintaining a consultative and collegial work environment.
3. Balance the need for good staff benefits and health insurance with the need to provide fair and appropriate salaries.
4. Increase racial and ethnic diversity in the staff

Objective 8: Be responsible and caring stewards of the people who serve as volunteers for FGC.

1. Identify and minimize barriers to service on FGC committees.
2. Provide ideas and materials to help volunteers communicate and interpret the programs and services of FGC to Friends.
3. Help newcomers to Central Committee to better understand the opportunities for service, and their responsibilities in their new role.
4. Find ways to nurture, recognize and celebrate the service of the volunteers who make FGC possible.

Goal IV: Articulate, communicate and model core experiences, values and principles of Friends, such as the direct experience of God, the miracle of the gathered meeting, the meeting for worship for business, the balancing of individual leadings with corporate discernment, and the call to live and witness to our faith.

Objective 1: Get out into the world with the Quaker message and extend a clear invitation to attend a Quaker meeting.

1. Expand and enhance dynamic and up-to-date FGC web sites.
2. Enhance and utilize the QuakerFinder web site.
3. Support outreach work by yearly meeting advancement and outreach committees.
4. Develop literature that effectively communicates the Quaker message to those new to Quakerism.

Objective 2: Continue to develop the Quaker Press of FGC and QuakerBooks of FGC as comprehensive and effective resources.

1. Discern and initiate appropriate publications on important and timely topics, including racism, our testimonies, and materials for young Friends.
2. Explore the way we develop FGC publications to make the process more coherent and responsive to the needs of the Friends and meetings we serve.
3. Implement new promotional activities to attract new customers and increase the use of the bookstore.

Objective 3: Help Friends engage in a continuing process of renewing and integrating their experiences of the historical, spiritual and theological foundations of Quakerism and our Quaker Testimonies as the basis for our practice, social witness and service.

1. Co-operate with Quaker action-oriented organizations (e.g. AFSC; FCNL; FCUN; FWCC) in advancing this objective.
2. Support parents and caregivers as they raise children to be Quakers in a world that often does not share our Quaker testimonies and values.
3. Advance the understanding that social witness and service grounded in worship are important aspects of Quaker outreach.

Objective 4: Engage in and support dialogue between FGC Friends and those of other faith communities.

1. Build bridges between FGC, other Quaker organizations such as Friends United Meeting, Evangelical Friends International, and their yearly meetings , as well as Friends World Committee for Consultation,.
2. Participate in the Historic Peace Churches/Fellowship of Reconciliation Consultative Committee’s work in advancing peace theology in ecumenical dialogue.
3. Participate in the activities of the World Council of Churches’ Decade to Overcome Violence.
4. Participate in the 2006 Assembly of the World Council of Churches through sending delegates, encouraging young adults Friends to serve as stewards, engaging Friends with the theme and other materials, and reporting widely on Friends’ experiences of the Assembly.
5. Encourage and support friends involved in local, state, national and international ecumenical and interfaith work through the development of collegial networks.
6. Develop and disseminate theological works on topics of relevance to FGC’s relations with other Friends’ bodies, Christian churches, and interfaith partners.

Objective 5: Expand our communications and interpretation of FGC’s programs and services to monthly meetings and yearly meetings and the Friends we serve.

1. Create and implement a comprehensive communications plan for FGC.
2. In our committee work, model good Quaker practice, including conducting business in the context of worship, practicing discernment and engaging in corporate action under divine guidance.
3. Improve communication between FGC staff and their counterparts in yearly meetings.