The Way Ahead: Asking Together Where God Is Leading Pathway

Every Sunday we gather in a building called the Ebenezer Center. The name comes from 1 Samuel 7. Israel had turned back to the LORD, the Philistines attacked, and God rescued His people. Afterward Samuel set up a stone and named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us" (1 Samuel 7:12).

An Ebenezer looks back. It also leaves a question hanging in the air: if the LORD has helped us this far, where does He want us to go from here?

Starting this winter, Pathway is going to spend the first half of 2027 asking that question together. We're calling it The Way Ahead.

Why stop and do this?

Some of you may be wondering why we'd set aside six months to talk about mission, vision and values. We already worship, pray, study Scripture, serve our neighbors and support missionaries around the world. Isn't that enough?

Here's the thing. A church makes decisions all year long. The board decides where the money goes. A ministry leader decides what to start and what to let go. A family decides whether to invite the neighbors on Sunday. Every one of those decisions rests on something underneath it: what we believe the church exists to do, what we care about most and what we hope God will do through us. When a church hasn't said those things out loud together, the decisions still get made. They get made by habit, or by what we did last year, or by whoever feels strongest that week.

Pathway has its own reasons, too. In 2016 three congregations, West Berlin Wesleyan, The Bridge and Gateway Wesleyan, became one church with a new name. Since then we've been through a long pastorate's end, more than one pastoral change and a season when the congregation's leaders carried the load between pastors. Many of us came from somewhere else, and many have arrived in the last few years. The words we use to describe ourselves came from an earlier chapter, and a lot of the people sitting in our chairs now never had a say in them. It's time to ask, together, whether those words still tell the truth about who we are and who God is calling us to be.

Four things we'll work on

Mission. This is the one piece we don't get to invent. Jesus already gave it to His church: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). Our job is to put it into words our neighbors understand and our own people can repeat from memory.

Values. Every church has values, written down or not. They're the convictions that show up in how we spend our time and money and in what we celebrate. Naming them helps us live them on purpose. It also helps us be honest about the ones we claim but don't yet live.

Vision. This is a picture of what God might do through Pathway in Saranac, Lake Odessa, Clarksville, Ionia and Lowell over the next ten years. A clear vision helps us say yes to the right things. It also gives us permission to say no to good things that would pull us off course, which is harder than it sounds.

Our path. How does a person grow at Pathway, from a first Sunday toward maturity in Christ? For years we've used four words: Learn, Love, Live and Lead the Way of Jesus. We'll ask honestly whether they still describe how people grow here and whether our ministries are built around them. We might keep them, reshape them or retire them with thanks. Any of those is a good outcome if we get there together.

One thing isn't on the table. Our beliefs come from the Articles of Religion of The Wesleyan Church, and nothing in this process rewrites them. We're asking how we'll live out what we already believe, here, in these years.

Listening before we write

It would be easy to treat this like a business exercise: gather a committee, write a few sentences and print them on a banner. Plenty of churches have done it that way. Then the banner fades, along with everyone's memory of what it said.

We want something slower and more prayerful. When the early church faced a hard decision in Acts 15, they settled it by praying, searching the Scriptures and listening to one another. Then they wrote, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28). We're after the same kind of decision, one the whole church reaches together under God.

So prayer runs through the whole six months. The Vision Team begins with fourteen days of prayer. Every gathering opens with Scripture and a few minutes of silence before anyone says a word. In March we'll drive through all five towns and pray for the people who live there. Before the board makes its decision in May, we'll set aside a day of prayer and fasting.

What happens when

Sunday, December 27: A sermon series begins that walks us into this season.
January to early March: A Vision Team made up of the Local Board of Administration (LBA) and key ministry leaders meets to pray, study and listen. We'll look at our story, our values, our mission and our path, and begin to ask what God may be calling us toward.
March and April: Three town halls for the whole church on Sundays, March 7, March 14 and April 11. Life Groups will talk through the same questions, and if you can't make it, there'll be a way to answer on paper or online.
Saturday, March 20: A prayer drive through our five towns.
May: Draft statements come back to the whole church for comment before the LBA decides.
Sunday, June 6: Vision Sunday, when we share what God has shown us and commit to it together.

We'll share times and details as each date gets closer.

Why we need you

If only the board and the pastor do this work, we'll end up with a vision that belongs to the board and the pastor. I don't want that, nor does the board. And I don't think you do either. Some of the best insight in this process may come from someone who has never served on a committee in their life.

Some of you have been part of this church for forty years. You remember times God came through when nobody could see how He would, and we need that memory. Others walked in for the first time last spring and still notice things the rest of us stopped seeing long ago. Both belong in this conversation. So do the teenagers in Navigators, who will live with whatever we decide longer than most of us.

Here's what I'm asking of you:

Start praying now. A short prayer will do: "Lord, where are You leading us?" Pray it for yourself, for your family and for Pathway.
Be here as the series begins on December 27, and through the weeks that follow.
Put March 7, March 14 and April 11 on your calendar for the town halls, and come ready to talk and to listen.
Read the drafts in May and tell us what you think, including where you think we got it wrong.

"In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps" (Proverbs 16:9). We're going to make plans this spring. My prayer is that every one of them follows steps the LORD has already laid down.