NOVEMBER MINISTER’S REPORT

After last month’s Governing Board meeting, more than one of you mentioned to me that I seemed to be handing out an awful lot of “homework,” and reminded me in effect that all of you are volunteers with “day jobs,” who are generously doing the important work of the church in your spare time.

Fair enough. So to put it all in context, most of the things that I will be distributing to you from time to time are mostly for your information and feedback, and perhaps to stimulate your imaginations. The “homework” is all optional and voluntary, and in effect is to help me better learn about First Parish. Notwithstanding all of the routine work that has to be done around here just to keep things going from day to day, this is still very much a “learning year” for all of us. You are learning about me, I’m learning about you, and hopefully together we are both learning a little more about First Parish: what we do well, what we hope to do better, where we want to go together, and what resides at the “soul” of our shared spiritual life as a covenanted community of faith.

And this is why, in addition to the three priority areas of Membership, Stewardship, and Outreach, I asked all of you to think about creating simple, transparent, easily teachable and consistently repeatable Standard Operation Procedures for each of your respective areas of concern, and also to try to carve out some time for yourselves to learn more about the “big picture.” Because both of these things are going to be very important to us in the years ahead, and will make all our work easier in the long run.

To borrow a sporting metaphor, this first year of my ministry here might basically be thought of as a “rebuilding” year. We have a new coach and new players to integrate into our team, we are working together to learn and implement an entirely new “game plan,” and we have many long hours of training and practice ahead of us before we achieve our full potential. We’ll still play a full schedule this season, and hopefully win a lot more than we lose. But winning a championship doesn’t happen overnight. We need to commit ourselves to creating that “culture of success” over a long haul if we truly wish to achieve everything I believe we are capable of achieving.

And on that note, here are some quick updates:

• Accessible Bathrooms. My understanding is that our accessibility architect has already drawn up plans to remodel the parlor bathroom on the main floor, and is in the process of creating similar plans for the two bathrooms off of the multi-purpose room on the ground floor. These two bathrooms will probably NOT be fully ADA handicapped accessible (something about lack of space for an adequate wheelchair turning radius), but they will be more accessible than they are at present, and also still accommodate some of the other uses we’ve talked about in terms of pageant dressing areas, and a dedicated custodial mop sink. The Women’s Alliance has also been working on plans to refurbish the parlor kitchen (and move the Sexton out of that space entirely). Between what the Alliance has to contribute, our anticipated insurance settlement from the water damage, and a possible “bridge” loan from the Trustees, I’m hoping that all of these projects will be completed by this spring prior to my Installation service (as well as the slate roof, belltower, and plaster ceiling repairs in the Meetinghouse proper, all of which are on the Trustees’ menu). We will still need to address the fundraising issue to make up the balance of the cost of the bathroom remodel, whatever that turns out to be. The number which people have been kicking around is about $5000, but we won’t really know the exact figure until the work itself goes out to bid.

• Membership Growth. As of Monday afternoon, I have mailed out a total of 55 visitors welcome letters since the start of our regular services in September. This is truly excellent traffic! (In comparison, I don’t think I mailed this many letters total the entire four years I served in Carlisle). Next steps on the Path to Membership are a newcomers brunch/reception after church on December 2nd, and the beginning of our “Explorer” series/New UU classes in January. The traditional Sunday for formally receiving new members into fellowship is Palm Sunday, which this year falls on March 16th. Our “benchmark” goal is that 20% (or more) of this year’s first time visitors will choose to affiliate formally with First Parish by signing the book on or prior to that Sunday.

• Stewardship Campaign. Stephanie will doubtlessly want to deliver her own, more detailed report on this as the campaign itself wraps up, but from where I sit the indications are that this has been very successful, both in terms of improved process and also early results. The next three steps in this area (as I see them) are a) to consolidate the learning and success of this years campaign, so that they can continue in subsequent years; b) to begin to pull together our “special events & fun(d)raising” team as we talked about at the Planning Retreat, and c) to work more closely with the Trustees around issues of bequests and planned giving.

• Community Outreach. Here’s a handout of some of the things I think we ought to be thinking about in terms of improved promotion and public relations. Again, feedback invited but not required.

• DRE Search. As of this morning, there were nine resumes in my file. My understanding of the process is that the DRE Search Committee will do the initial screening, and that I will also interview the “finalists” – and that hopefully we will be able to come to a consensus decision. The goal is to have someone on board by January.

• Worship. Attendance seems to be solid and energy high, although it’s difficult for me to know how to compare what is happening now with previous years. I’ve been involved in a very interesting on-going conversation about worship on alternating Wednesday evenings, based on the book Worship that Works, and some of the insights from those meetings will no doubt make their way through the Worship Committee and into our worship service, but no really major changes to our current Order of Service are contemplated before next fall. In the meantime, we will continue to “experiment” from time to time with alternative worship practices, although always within the over-arching structure of our current tradition.

• Small Group Ministry. This is another area here at First Parish where I’m still learning the ropes, but which I hope will become a significant component in our overall program mix. I like to think of “Covenant Groups” (sometimes also known as “Chalice Circles”) as simply one component of a more expansive SGM program, which should also include “Affinity” groups (like Connections and the Soulful Parenting Group) and more traditional Adult Religious Growth and Learning offerings. I’ve met with several of these groups already, and hope to begin revitalizing this program again after the first of the year as well

• Lay Chaplaincy/Pastoral Care Ring. Sally Madore has asked to step down from her position as lead lay chaplain, although she has agreed (at my request) to remain on our letterhead, and to fulfill some of those functions on an on-going basis as needed. In the meantime, I don’t see any need for us to limit ourselves to just one lay chaplain, and would kind of like to expand this program a little, in connection with improving our overall system of recruiting and training “Care-Ring” volunteers. The sad truth is that if we are successful in achieving our membership growth goals, there is simply no way that I personally am going to be able to provide the level of personal pastoral care I was accustomed to when serving smaller congregations. So we need to start putting together a program to take over much of that responsibility, so that our members who need and desire pastoral care will not be left to do without.