We’re four months into this new ministry now, with six months left to go until the end of the program year. We’ve identified our on-going priorities for the year as Stewardship, Membership, and Outreach, and are working to make meaningful advances in each of these three areas. Energy and enthusiasm are high, Sunday attendance is good, and although money is always an issue in churches so far we seem to be paying our bills.
Now, here’s an evolving checklist of things I would like for us to try to address before the end of the program year in June. If it all seems a little overwhelming, DON’T PANIC! The job of the Governing Board is simply to help define the desirable outcomes and necessary tasks, to identify and recruit the appropriate people to carry them out, and to make certain they have the training and the resources they need to be able to get the job done. Obviously, we won’t accomplish everything we hope to right away. But at least we can get things moving in the right direction
Wrap-up the Stewardship Campaign [Stephanie, Carl, Stewardship Team]
* Follow-up with the last of the folks we have not heard from yet.
* Add up the total number of pledges and the amount pledged
* Calculate the average & median pledges
* Do the analysis
* Thank the donors and volunteers
* Begin planning and recruiting for next year.
Special Fundraising Events [Bill, Carl, Linda, others?]
* The silent auction for handicapped accessibility is off to a great start!
* Now we need to start thinking about scheduling other events for later this spring (Jim Scott concert? Linda’s Spring Festival idea?)
* First steps toward a more formalized planned giving program.
“Next Step” – Trustees: especially Paula, Steve, Ted]
* We should know in another month or so whether or not this is going to fly.
* If it DOES fly, we will be entering into a whole new era of space utilization, program development, community footprint, etc. Be Prepared!
* If it doesn’t fly, we will need to move on to Plan B – what will we have to do in order to be able to accommodate all the things we want to do here in the space available?
Develop More Explicit Administrative Policies and Standard Operation Procedures [Tim, Barbara, Sue, others?]
* Identify more realistic deadlines for routine office work
* Predictable meeting schedules!
* Policies/Procedures in place: simplify, simplify
Articulate a Clear Vision and Long Range Plan for the Future of First Parish [Tim, COM, entire leadership team]
* “Becoming the Church People Think We Are.”
* “Roles, not Goals” – what part should First Parish play in the larger Portland community? How do we step up and fill those shoes?
Keep Enhancing the Pathway to Membership [Tim, Val, Sylvia, Membership Committee]
* (See Previous Handout – “The Path to Membership”)
* Benchmarking Measurements – what percentage of 1st time visitors
visit again? become formal members?
* Keep tweaking the materials and practices
* Hire a paid, part-time Membership Coordinator (?)
Volunteer Ministry Opportunities at First Parish [Tim and Nominating Committee, Governing Board]
* (See Previous Handout – “Volunteer Ministry Opportunities at First Parish”)
* Work with the Nominating Committee: “a ministry for every person”
* Develop better job descriptions
* Refine recruitment procedures.
Children’s RE program [RE Committee, new DRE, Tim]
* get the new DRE up to speed ASAP
* on-going Training and Team-building, program development
Worship & Music Program [Tim, Music Committee, Personnel Committee, Worship Council]
* Chip’s decision to resign actually puts us in a position to rethink (and expand) our entire music program: Organist, Accompanist(s), Choir Director, “Artist(s) in Residence,” guest performers
* Work with the Worship Council to better define the kind of worship experience we hope to create -- Order of Service Changes, Sept 2008?
Public Relations/Identity and “Branding” (walking briskly while chewing gum….)
* (See Previous Handout – “Thinking About Outreach”)
* Two new slogans: “Portland’s Original Faith Community (gathered in 1674)” and “A Warm & Welcoming Place in the Heart of the City”
* Some upcoming events we may wish to publicize:
January
Arrival of the new DRE
“New UU” Explorer Classes
February
10 Jim Scott Service (and Concert?)
Rev Tim’s Semi-Vegetarian Potluck and Lenten Study Series
March
16 New Members Reception on Palm Sunday
23 Easter Sunday
29 First "Greater Portland Community Forum @ 1st Parish" (?)
30 UUA Social Justice Sunday
April
16 Music Sunday
20 Earth Day
May
5 Installation Service
11 Mother’s Day/Spring Child Dedications
18 Spring Festival (?)
Small Group Ministry program [Tim, Bill, existing SGM participants]
* Identify existing groups – support and coach
* Spring facilitator training
* Open enrollment: form new Covenant Groups
Chaplains/Pastoral Care Ring [Tim, Membership Committee, Chaplains]
* Sally Madore, Bob Greenlaw, Johanna Spencer, more?
* Identify, Recruit and Train additional Pastoral Visitors, Care Ring Volunteers
* BTS Field Education Student?
Monday, December 10, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
BECOMING THE CHURCH PEOPLE THINK WE ARE (AND EXPECT US TO BE)
When church leaders begin to reflect about what it means to be a “successful” church, they are often tempted to look first at the things that are easy to measure: Attendance, Membership, the size of the Church Budget, the results of the Annual Stewardship Campaign, and the amount of the Average Pledge. These are all good benchmarks of institutional growth, but if they become the ONLY benchmarks they also tend to start driving the entire organization, and in the process the less tangible things that make churches authentic faith communities sometimes get lost or fall by the wayside.
This is why it is also important to consider what some church consultants call “Incarnational Growth” – how effectively does our congregation embody our Mission as a community of faith, and how can we grow in both maturity and expertise as people of faith in order to make our vision real? At the risk of oversimplifying the process, the challenge of Incarnational Growth essentially involves thinking about "roles, not goals," while examining three successive questions regarding the seven core areas of our church program.
• What is our definition of excellence in this area?
• What would that look and feel like if we actually achieved it?
• What do we need to learn and do in order to make that happen?
Just as a reminder, the seven core areas are:
• Worship
• Lifespan Religious Education
• Fellowship
• Hospitality
• Faith in Action
• Community Outreach
• Pastoral Care
This is an invitation to avoid impatience, and to dream big dreams. We are in this for the long haul, and planning for an era, not just a year or two down the road. If we know where we want to go, with persistence and tenacity we will eventually get there. Or to paraphrase Thoreau, until we draw the blueprints for our “Castles in the Air,” we will never be able to put the foundations under them.
This is why it is also important to consider what some church consultants call “Incarnational Growth” – how effectively does our congregation embody our Mission as a community of faith, and how can we grow in both maturity and expertise as people of faith in order to make our vision real? At the risk of oversimplifying the process, the challenge of Incarnational Growth essentially involves thinking about "roles, not goals," while examining three successive questions regarding the seven core areas of our church program.
• What is our definition of excellence in this area?
• What would that look and feel like if we actually achieved it?
• What do we need to learn and do in order to make that happen?
Just as a reminder, the seven core areas are:
• Worship
• Lifespan Religious Education
• Fellowship
• Hospitality
• Faith in Action
• Community Outreach
• Pastoral Care
This is an invitation to avoid impatience, and to dream big dreams. We are in this for the long haul, and planning for an era, not just a year or two down the road. If we know where we want to go, with persistence and tenacity we will eventually get there. Or to paraphrase Thoreau, until we draw the blueprints for our “Castles in the Air,” we will never be able to put the foundations under them.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
THE ECLECTIC CLERIC - “Portland’s Original Faith Community”
I’ve been thinking an awful lot of late about the complex relationship between innovation and tradition. Between roots and wings. Between memory and hope. It’s a fairly ubiquitous topic in my line of work, with its constant challenge to be out there in the vanguard and on the cutting edge, while still remaining solidly grounded in the values and principles of our liberal religious heritage. The latter connect us to the wisdom of the ages. The former evoke our creative imaginations, that portion of our life-spirit which “maketh all things new,” and that Scripture tells us was created in the image of God.
When properly aligned, tradition provides the stable foundation which allows innovation to flourish. When they become out of alignment, it can sometimes start to feel like that age-old struggle between the irresistible force and the immovable object. Thomas Jefferson once advised: “In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, flow with the current.” I prefer a more pedestrian metaphor. So long as our feet remain planted solidly on the ground, our heads are free to soar as high among the clouds as they wish.
Tradition teaches us not to fear change, because we know that we have faced change in the past, changed, and still endured. The knowledge of who we are and where we have come from can also show us where we need to go, and how best to get there. A heritage of innovation challenges us to live up to the legacy of our ancestors, and to carry forward the spirit of their vision here in our own time, in ways that they might never have imagined. This “living tradition” is what gives our faith community the continuing power to transform people’s lives for the better, while at the same time connecting us all to that long line of people – some living, some dead, some not yet born – who share this journey with us, and whose lives also have been (or will be) transformed by our dynamic, on-going relationship with one another here in this place.
I personally am delighted by the knowledge that the First Parish Church is indeed Portland’s Original Faith Community: gathered in 1674, and still going strong 333 years later. In this holiday season, as we celebrate so many of the traditions of our past, and with the approaching the New Year, and its many associations with fresh starts and new beginnings, let us call to mind once again the familiar words of the 19th century hymn composer William DeWitt Hyde: “Since what we choose is what we are, and what we love we yet shall be, the goal may ever shine afar, the will to reach it makes us free.”
When properly aligned, tradition provides the stable foundation which allows innovation to flourish. When they become out of alignment, it can sometimes start to feel like that age-old struggle between the irresistible force and the immovable object. Thomas Jefferson once advised: “In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, flow with the current.” I prefer a more pedestrian metaphor. So long as our feet remain planted solidly on the ground, our heads are free to soar as high among the clouds as they wish.
Tradition teaches us not to fear change, because we know that we have faced change in the past, changed, and still endured. The knowledge of who we are and where we have come from can also show us where we need to go, and how best to get there. A heritage of innovation challenges us to live up to the legacy of our ancestors, and to carry forward the spirit of their vision here in our own time, in ways that they might never have imagined. This “living tradition” is what gives our faith community the continuing power to transform people’s lives for the better, while at the same time connecting us all to that long line of people – some living, some dead, some not yet born – who share this journey with us, and whose lives also have been (or will be) transformed by our dynamic, on-going relationship with one another here in this place.
I personally am delighted by the knowledge that the First Parish Church is indeed Portland’s Original Faith Community: gathered in 1674, and still going strong 333 years later. In this holiday season, as we celebrate so many of the traditions of our past, and with the approaching the New Year, and its many associations with fresh starts and new beginnings, let us call to mind once again the familiar words of the 19th century hymn composer William DeWitt Hyde: “Since what we choose is what we are, and what we love we yet shall be, the goal may ever shine afar, the will to reach it makes us free.”
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