ChurchFuture Consulting and Facilitating:

•  Cooperation, collaboration, and joint ministry

•  Congregational consolidation

•  Vision and strategic plan process

•  Real estate issues:

•  Shared building agreements

•  Feasibility projections

•  Workshops:

•  Council retreats

•  Best practices in congregational development

•  Worship to reach your community

•  Organizational change

In additional to his work with congregations, Raymond is associated with the Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry (http://www.touchstone-center.com/, an organizational development and evaluation consulting firm with national clients. 

Consolidation, Cooperation, and Joint Ministry

In 2001 David Raymond got his start in church consulting under the direction of Pastor Fred Lee in an assignment at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis. St. Luke's had a long history of global mission support. As its neighborhood changed from predominately Scandinavian to predominately Hispanic/Latino St. Luke's decided that its mission field was now right outside its doors. During the vision process the congregation decided to join forces with a nearby Hispanic/Latino church, Todos Los Santos, to become El Milagro/The Miracle Lutheran Church.

In 2002, Raymond and Pastor Robert Nervig served as co-consultants to the 4-church  Consolidation Steering Committee in North Minneapolis in 2002. During the process two of the churches withdrew and the other two formed River of Life Lutheran Church.

In 2006 Raymond was the facilitator/consultant for the Joint Exploration Team (JET), a team formed by three churches in Northeast Minneapolis with a mandate to explore cooperation and report back to the congregations with a recommendation. JET made its recommendation and issued a detailed report within three months. The recommendation was presented to the churches and adopted at congregational meetings in each church by an overall margin of 94%. JET was then restructured as a new council to implement the recommendation, which resulted in the birth of Northeast Community Lutheran Church about 7 months later. The web site that describes this effort is at www.nelutherans.com.

In August, 2007 Raymond started working with the West Pasco Lutheran TEAM, "Team Exploring Area Ministry".  This team is composed of pastors and representatives from six nearby Lutheran churches along the Gulf Coast of Florida. You can follow the progress of this ambitious effort at www.pascolutherans.com.

Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey got its start at Reformation Lutheran Church, just south of downtown Orlando, Florida. Cristo Rey then moved to a different location, and now the two congregations are exploring joint ministry with one campus. Their TEAM is called Todos Explorando Areas Ministeriales/Together Exploring Area Ministry. Raymond started working with the Orlando TEAM on June 21, 2008. See the Orlando page of this web site to follow the work of this TEAM.

Current and Past Church Clients