The primary goal of this project is to move a small, family-oriented congregation, into group process decision making instead of the small power base decision making that seems to characterize small churches. The first phase of the project focused on visioning a church's future. Using group process to discern the vision of the entire congregation allows congregational movement toward its goals. The church, through group process, discovered they wanted a more inclusive, more spiritual, and more mission-minded church. The entire membership was divided into small groups with attention given to diversity, tenure, and positions held in the church administration in order to rethink and work on this vision. The next phase was to carry the group process used in visioning the church's future into all meetings as the church moved toward its congregational goals. The third and last phase was to meet with the Nominations Committee and incorporate many of the less powerful individuals into the leadership of the congregation. The success of this process can be evaluated by comparing the current leadership effectiveness and its composition in the last several years. The project was designed to create an awareness of the value of group process and thus broaden the power base of congregational leadership. The project worked well and the church is increasingly becoming a congregation using group process for decision making.
