Last Saturday, 43 members of the parish met with Stephanie Caro, our Ministry Architects consultant, to think about our mission, values and ministries. We engaged in a number of exercises designed to surface the attributes and traits that, in the opinions of our parish, make Saint Thomas’ a distinctive and important place. We also spent some time thinking about how Houston and our neighborhoods are changing, and about how we can share the Gospel of Jesus with our neighbors, and about how we can serve them. We settled on four key traits that define us (or that we hope will define us): welcome, worship, learning and service. We agreed that we need to work on ways to meet the needs of families and to provide ministry and teaching to their children; we also agreed that we would like to reach those who are single. We think that these are the four core values of our parish: we are Christ-centered, welcoming, community-oriented, and orthodox. Our church staff and transformation team will be working over the next several weeks to craft our…
