Westminster Presbyterian Church
Where Faith and Life Connect
New Blessings to Come:
Visioning Task Force Report to the Session
Honoring the past and embracing the future,
I am grateful for my life’s experiences and
I accept new blessings to come. [1]
Westminster’s recently adopted mission statement says,
We seek to follow Christ in an open, inclusive community of faith where God’s transforming love for all creation is celebrated through worship, discipleship, and service.
Westminster’s new mission statement tells us why we are here. The purpose of this Vision Report is to show where we want to go or, more importantly, where is God calling us to go? Implementation of these statements is outside the scope of our charge. However, we plan to make ourselves available to session, ministry leaders, and the congregation as we grapple with the sometimes tough issues and decisions about how we live our life together.
We hope that this vision will be beneficial to leadership and lay ministries as a means to assess what we are doing now and to ascertain what we need to do continually to create a community that is grounded in God’s purpose.
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Our Vision for Westminster
We envision Westminster as a spiritually vibrant church that inspires each member. Its staff and lay leaders will guide our congregation as a whole, and our members as individuals, into a deeper encounter with God as revealed by Jesus Christ.
Westminster will integrate the spiritual, mental, physical, and relational dimensions of life so that all work together with a sense of consonance that brings wholeness and holiness to life; in other words, a place where faith and life connect… in worship, discipleship and service.
In Worship
We envision encountering God in worship in ways that are life changing. By the grace of God, preaching will be inspirational, relevant, and accessible; participation of the laity, both adult and youth, will be enhanced; music will build upon its foundation of excellence with a broad variety of styles and cultural traditions, breathing spirit and vitality into a worship experience alive with God’s presence. To further experience the sacred, Westminster will create opportunities to celebrate special cross-cultural and inter-faith services.
Our joyful worship at Westminster will glorify God as we marvel at the mystery of God’s presence, and as we reach out to welcome a broad and diverse community, essential to the future of our church.
In Discipleship
We envision Westminster Presbyterian Church as a place where the call to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ is heard, shaped and nurtured. We understand our development as disciples to involve growing in our understanding of the Christian faith and of the world around us, growing in our relationship with God, and growing in our relationships with one another.
Growing as disciples of Christ will mean deepening our spiritual formation as we discern the will of God in our daily practice of the Christian life. The congregation will have opportunities to be involved in faith development experiences, whether it is through classes, small groups, or mentors teaching others. Our teaching ministry’s purpose will be to lead people to a close relationship with God, not just to gain knowledge about God.
With worship that nourishes, and a teaching ministry that strengthens, shapes and forms, Westminster will be a community that is grounded in God’s purpose.
In Service
We envision, by God’s grace, Westminster’s ministry to grow more outward in focus, while continuing our strong history of nurturing and supporting the needs of people in our congregation. We will connect faith and life by the kinds of ministries and concerns which we support as a congregation, and individually by the kind of impact we have in the daily living of our lives in service to others, just as Christ served.
We see this unfolding through a process of discernment, where congregation members identify their God-given gifts. Then, having been equipped with the needed resources and empowered with purpose, congregation members inspired for service will be engaged in ministry in our church, community and the world.
Our commitment to community and world service needs will be reinforced by our financial support, and will be demonstrated in the way we allocate our financial resources to outreach organizations and for other meaningful issues or causes.
Growing into the Vision and Mission
We hope this Visioning Task Force Report will serve as a guide for shaping the future and direction at Westminster as we continually seek to be disciples of Christ and discover what God is calling us to do and be. We anticipate that much of what we describe in this Report will unfold gradually and organically as we grow into the Vision and Mission. As we listen to and follow God’s call, Westminster will continue to become a place where faith and life connect, in worship, discipleship and service.
Visioning Task Force
Jean Bonnyman
Tim Crais
Terry Crow
Kristi Gorden
Judy Jorden
Tim Ryan
Chris Van Beke
Rev. Dr. Buran Phillips, ex officio
Rev. John Linton Muntz, ex officio
[1] Daily Word, 12/29/09
I love teaching 3rd and 4th grade Sunday school. I find it is an age where children are beginning to have the ability to discuss topics and form their own opinions. I love watching children discover what the world looks like through their eyes.
Hello, my name is Debbie Babelay. This year I have the wonderful opportunity of teaching the 2-3 year olds in our Sunday School program. They are all precious to me. We have fun learning about God’s love and how each of us is a special child of God. I look forward to their smiling faces each Sunday morning. This is my 3rd year teaching in the Sunday School program. I have also worked with vacation bible school.
I have known Westminster my entire life! I grew up in the church since birth. My faith is rooted in so many wonderful experiences at Westminster such as going on trips with Choristers, Montreat, and a Mission experience to Mexico. I went to college in Alabama at Birmingham-Southern. After college, I lived in Birmingham where I worked in sales. I met and married my husband Wiley there. Jim Carter (former Westminster minister) married us at Independent Presbyterian in Birmingham. Wiley’s career has taken us to New Mexico and Arkansas, and now back to Knoxville. We have been here since 2011. We have 3 children, Ella (11), Grant (7), and Walker (5). I work as the Assistant Director of the preschool at Central Baptist which allows me to have a similar schedule to my children. My favorite job is being their Mom!
Bio: Junior at the University of Tennessee 
I am a senior at UTK majoring in Global Studies with a focus in Economics. I am currently in the process of apply to graduate school for CSP. I love to be outdoors and travel. I also work as an Resident Assistant at Volunteer Hall on campus and enjoy babysitting and baking.
My name is Malena D’Alessandro and I’m a junior studying marketing at the University of Tennessee. I’m originally from south east Michigan where I attended high school at Oxford High School. I am currently part of Spring Sports Ambassadors, Volunteer Team and Best Buddies at UT.