Our Vision

Identity  

The Synod walks together as a community-in-mission: we are the congregations, people, communities and ministries of the ELCA in Southwestern Washington.  

The Synod staff, in collaboration with the Synod Council, are called to accompany, support, equip and encourage the Synod body through facilitation, resourcing, stewardship, connection and pastoral care.  

Vision   

Our vision is Shalom - God’s love, healing and justice at every level of life:   

• Hearts: we receive and reveal God’s gracious love, which brings to each person peace with God and peace within their deepest self.  
  Relationships: we are all invited into Christ’s new community, where all are equally valued, where none are diminished or abused, and where we learn to live in new life-giving ways that renew families, friends, co-workers and neighbors.  
  World: we join with the Spirit of Christ to oppose destructive evils within and around us,  including racism, oppression, poverty, and, with Christ, to bring God’s transforming realm of compassion, justice and peace among all people, nations and ethnic groups in our present world.  
  Creation: we live in a mutually-caring relationship with God’s entire creation, particularly with the land, forests, mountains and waters that bless us in the Pacific Northwest.  

Mission 

Toward this vision, we focus on three actions:  
Nurturing and energizing existing congregations and ministries 
Cultivating new, experimental ministries 
Growing leaders  

Theory of Change (ToC) 

 We can’t always see clearly enough and far enough to make a perfect plan for the development of our organization. A ToC helps us to decide which steps to take when there is a lot of uncertainty and challenge in seeing long-term (e.g. COVID!). A ToC asks us to make explicit what our implicit thinking is about where we think we are going and how we think we will get there.  

What are the conditions we need to cultivate that will bring us closer to our vision? 

Discerning  Together

        Listening                        Accompaniment 

    Open to the Spirit           Collaboration 

Authenticity                     Mutuality  

                Incarnation          Decolonizing + Antiracism 

   Resurrection                        Leaderful  

    Taking Action                       Difference