Preparing our Hearts for the Mission and Vision Retreat
12 November 2025
Dear Good Shepherd Family,
This weekend marks a special moment in the life of The Church of the Good Shepherd. Our upcoming Mission and Vision Retreat is designed to be a joyful and spiritually rich time together—with worship, prayer, thoughtful reflection, and good food. It will also include some guided exercises to help us listen together for where the Lord may be leading CGS in this next season of our life and ministry.
Before we gather, I want to briefly orient us to the work that’s ahead.
A clear mission and vision not only bring clarity, but they also unify and focus our efforts in a common direction. These are necessary for our church to thrive and flourish.
Mission is about what we do. It helps us steward our time and energy for the sake of God’s Kingdom. It ensures that we’re not just busy, but faithful.
Vision is about where we’re going. It articulates our shared dream for the Kingdom, our city, and our church—and it shapes our actions so that we arrive at a faithful destination.
Over the years, CGS has had different ways of describing that calling. Under David Bowen’s leadership, our vision was:
“To become a thousand-member regional resource church that will be a center for the worship of God, a saltshaker affecting economic, cultural, and political life, and a catalyst for the evangelization of the diverse people groups in the Triangle and beyond.”
Later, under Chuck Jacob, that vision was shortened to:
“Real Jesus, Real People, Real World.”
Both statements served their purpose in guiding the energy and culture of our church. However, we are not the same church that we were under either of those men.
For this reason, we’re now seeking to listen again—to discern what mission and vision the Lord is calling us to within a rapidly changing context.
Nationally, we see growing loneliness, deepening division, and the rise of secularism shaping people’s spiritual and relational lives:
- Around 20% of U.S. adults report feeling lonely “a lot of the day yesterday.”
- Only 8% of friendships cross political party lines.
- Nearly 29% of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated—a figure that has doubled in the last twenty years.
Durham, too, has changed. Once a gritty, overlooked city, it’s now a thriving hub of innovation, medicine, and culture—a place where people come to train and are sent out across the world.
These national and local trends impact our church, and as we step into a renewed mission and vision, we desire to move toward our city and world in a way that takes those larger trends into account and offers the beauty and power of the gospel to skeptic and believer, alike.
As you prepare for the retreat, please take a few moments to pray and imagine:
“It’s ten years from now, and God has been moving powerfully in the life of CGS. What has God done in and through our church because of a renewed mission and vision?”
Let that question shape your anticipation and your prayers, as we will be returning to it in our time together this weekend.
After this weekend, our Mission and Vision Committee will take the next two months to prayerfully synthesize what we’ve discerned together. At the latest, we plan to present a renewed mission and vision to the congregation at our March 1, 2026 Town Hall.
I’m grateful for each of you—for your prayers, your faithfulness, and your shared love for this church. I believe the Lord has good things in store for CGS, and I can’t wait to see what He reveals to us this weekend.
With hope and anticipation,
Simon on behalf of the Mission and Vision Committee
Retreat Notes:
Friday check-in opens at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Please come directly to the Concourse to check in with your family and pick up your name tags and retreat packet.
Saturday check-in begins at 8:30 a.m., along with coffee!
For Parents:
- Friday Night: Families will eat dinner together before children head to their rooms for childcare. No additional snacks will be provided that evening.
- Saturday: Children will have a morning snack (pretzels, Cheerios, or Scooby Snacks) and pizza for lunch. Please send a fruit or side, and a water bottle.
- Nursery-aged children: Bring a diaper bag with extra clothes and essentials.
If you have any questions about childcare, please contact Courtney Johnson at courtneyjohnson@cgsonline.org.
A Season of Vision: Join Us on the Journey
September 2025
Mission and Vision Video | Town Hall Recording | Town Hall Highlights
Dear Church Family,
I’m excited to share with you an important next step we’re taking as a congregation—one that has the potential to shape the next chapter of our life together in meaningful, lasting ways.
First, let me say that we are financially and organizationally as healthy as we have been in years. We’re no longer in “rescue mode” in our church. In fact, it’s just the opposite. God has been abundantly faithful to us, and we’re in a strong, stable place.
In this next season, we’re ready to ask bigger questions:
- Who are we as a church?
- What sort of work does God have for us to do—in His Kingdom, in our community, and in one another’s lives?
These are questions of mission and vision. And the answers aren’t just strategic; they’re spiritual. They require us to listen to God, to one another, and to the unique story Christ is telling through our church. This is holy work—and I’m inviting you into it.
Why This Matters
Mission is about what we do. It helps us steward our time and energy for the sake of God’s Kingdom. It ensures we’re not just busy, but faithful. Vision is about where we’re going. It articulates our shared dream for the Kingdom, our city, and our church. Ultimately, it shapes our actions so that we arrive at a destination.
A clear mission and vision provide not only clarity but also helps to unify us and focus our efforts on a common direction. These are necessary elements for our church to thrive.
There are two risks we want to avoid in this process:
- Risk #1: That we will drift—We need clarity to set the direction of where we will ultimately go, what we will say yes and no to, and the impact that we believe God is calling us to make on the world. We could avoid this work, keep busy, and even do some good things, but ultimately, we would be missing the unique calling God has for us as a congregation.
- Risk #2: That this work will become the task of a few—me, or a small group of officers, going up on a mountaintop and returning with a tablet from on high. That’s not what we’re doing. While the session and I are ultimately responsible for the vision, we believe deeply that God works through the whole church. If we are going to go anywhere together, we need you to help discern where and how God is calling us to go. We need your ideas, your buy-in, and your willingness to speak into the process, and we need you to join with us wherever we finally decide to go.
The Process Ahead
To give this process the focus it deserves, we’re giving you “permission” to pause on extracurricular or external activities this fall to provide families with sufficient capacity to fully participate in this process. Annual events, Bible studies, Community Group gatherings, choir performances, and worship services will continue, but we’ll pause on launching new programming or recruiting for extracurricular activities, so that we can free up time and space to give our best attention to the task in front of us.
Here are some ways you and your family can get involved:
- Nominate: Mission/Vision Committee – A small team of members will help lead and shape this process. The session will appoint them, but we’re asking you to nominate people you believe should be considered. This nomination will happen in mid-September, and we will announce the committee by the end of that month.
- Participate: Community Group Engagement – Join in as groups read, reflect, and work through spiritual exercises that speak into the mission and vision. If you’re not part of a group yet, this is a perfect time to jump in and give voice to what you’re seeing and where you hope our church lands.
- Attend: Evenings of Prayer and Praise – Gather with us for worship and prayer, asking God to guide our hearts and show us His way forward. These will happen throughout the Fall on September 21, October 5, October 19, and November 2. More information will be distributed at our quarterly Town Hall on September 7.
- Engage: Congregational Retreat (Nov. 14–16) – Join us for a weekend retreat right here at the church, with food and childcare provided, where we’ll listen, talk, dream, and seek God together. Mark your calendars. We want you there!
Please embrace this as the work God has for our church in this season. Pray—for me, for our staff, for our officers. And participate to the fullest extent that you can.
This isn’t something happening to our church. It’s something happening through it—and we need each of you to be part of the journey.
With earnest hope and a full heart,
Simon Stokes
Lead Pastor