On behalf of consistory, I first wish to extend a huge thank you for your engagement with the 2nd informational meeting that we held last week Sunday. Allow me just a moment to follow up that meeting by providing you with an overload of information that hopefully continues to help us all better understand the options before us, and answer the continuing questions that arise. Before any of that, can I again invite and encourage you to connect with any of our church leaders to share your thoughts and questions around this process!

Please find attached to this video a document encompassing all readings highlighted below. If you're looking for a quick synopsis, read through the first page of the attached document to see the comparison between Independence and ARC. And, be sure to complete the short survey and check out all the information regarding Independence and ARC.

1. Survey
a. We are asking each person who calls Faith Church home, to take some time to answer this short 2 question survey around this work. This is not a formal vote, but simply a sampling of our church family to help guide consistory as they lead us forward. So, please take a minute or two to complete this by June 27!
b. Survey link can be found above.

2. Alliance of Reformed Churches (ARC) Organizational Convictions
a. Please find attached a PDF that highlights the core convictions and practices of the ARC.
b. I would also encourage you to visit their website: www.arc21.org

3. Great Lakes Catechism on Human Sexuality and Marriage
a. Please find attached a PDF with a Biblical understanding of human sexuality that would guide the ARC, and that we as a church support.

4. Information Around Independence
a. In the meeting, we discussed that should we choose the path of Independence, we as a church will complete some work around our By-Laws, Governance Structure, and Statements of Belief.
b. To help bring a little bit of visual clarity to what that might look like for us, I am including three items…
i. First, please find attached a PDF called ‘Independent Framework’ - an outline of what that document would need to contain with some description. Your consistory would deem the way forward in creating those documents.
ii. Second, please find attached a PDF that has our current by-laws which would need to be updated.
iii. Third, to give you an idea of what a finished product would look like, we invite you to look at Sunnybrook Community Church from Sioux City – another RCA church who recently left the denomination to become independent. (PLEASE NOTE: Their words are not our words; this is just to give you a feel for how we would be defining things and what exactly we need to define).

Around this work I would offer these thoughts – whether we choose ARC or Independence, these statements and clarity of beliefs would make us a healthier church. Remember, both of these options allow us to function as an ‘independent’ church – one with guard rails to guide us, the other with us creating all of those guard rails. So we are committed to creating a document similar to this in whatever pathway forward we choose.

Even more than taking in information, we invite you to continue to join us in prayer for discernment. We want to do this process well and in a healthy manner, and yet also expeditiously, as we desire to turn our full focus onto the Kingdom work we feel God has called us too here at Faith. Thanks for engaging and being informed!