Brothers and Sisters, we have walked through quite a year together. We have seen God’s faithfulness and wondered at God’s silence. We have charted new paths and stepped into the unknown. We have talked and prayed and planned and sacrificed and now we are hopeful as we step to the edge and look over to see the view. As we reflect on what God has done in us and for us, we wanted to spend the summer communicating clearly about what happens next. Many of you have asked questions about the Rise Capital Initiative that we began last summer and we want to share more about what has already begun and what is to come.
If I can take you back a few years, let’s remember what we have walked through together.
After coming out of a global pandemic and the division around inclusion, we began a year long strategy formation that included Home Meetings that many of you either hosted or participated in. These Home Meetings are where faithful church members opened their home to others for dialogue and dreaming. These 14 home meetings were a place where questions were asked, the faithful shared their hearts and we dreamed of what deeper waters God was calling First United Methodist Church of Winter Park out into next.
Then, out of the work from those Home Meetings, a Strategic Planning Team was formed. These dedicated individuals met for over a year to listen carefully to the Holy Spirit and the work that was already underway and prayed about how to meet the challenges our church and community face. This Strategic Planning Team developed three focus areas that were born out of their hard work:
Deepening Community, Neighboring Well and Resourcing Legacy
We launched the Rise Capital Initiative this time last year with these three focus areas and we all gathered for the Vision Night, the Stakeholder’s Dinner and then for worship and fellowship on Commitment Night in November. As we started 2026, we moved toward living into these focus areas in specific ways.
Your Pastors, Directors and key Staff leaders have been working on Objectives that are collaborative, daring and full of faith. We want to share them with you. But we don’t want you to just passively listen, nodding your head in agreement, we want your questions, your buy in and your thoughtful feedback.
Over the next two months, you will hear from the Pastoral Team through video devotions about what we are working on and where we feel like God is leading us next. We hope you will engage and tune in every Wednesday to learn more.