Strategic Planning
“God’s Call to Us -- Now and Into the Future”
In the early summer of 2015, the Strategic Planning Committee was formed. The committee members were Don Pogue, Diane Kyle, Kasha Kingsbury, Katherine Frydenborg, and Lisa Ste.Marie. We were (and are!) a VERY busy team! Everyone read “Holy Conversations -- Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations.” All summer, we gathered to review each section. Chapter by chapter, we discussed what each process and approach meant and how we could best implement a plan for our own parish. We quickly learned that strategic planning for a parish is a VERY different process than creating a business strategic plan!
Phase One --Questions and Answers
The need for home gatherings and a parish survey became our priority in the fall of 2015. There were nine home gatherings, with over 90 parishioners attending. The last gathering was in January 2016. The survey questions that attendees answered were simple and direct: What do you love? What concerns do you have? What would your future dreams be for our beloved parish?
Our committee took all your responses, organized everything you said and wrote, and then provided all of you with the survey summary results early last spring. Our fellowship potluck supper in May was an opportunity for everyone to actively review the results together. Here is a quick summary of your survey:
Highlights of what you loved included: a very strong sense of community; grateful for God’s love revealed in Jesus and all creation; a community of welcome, gratitude, and hope; a deep appreciation for the spiritual guidance, education, and Episcopal worship that our parish provides. Our rich history on the Green, our music, and the parish children were also often mentioned.
Highlights of your future dreams often reflected the concerns you now have... only completely improved or in the process of being remedied.
Highlights of your concerns can be broken down into four key areas:
• Secure financial growth and stability.
• Increased support for our young families. Greater youth participation!
• Service -- InReach: Better connection and support for all parishioners.
• Service -- OutReach: How we reach out to assist our community together, beyond our own church walls (within our town, within our country, within our world).
Phase Two -- New Beginnings begin with YOU
Between your survey responses and the needs addressed in our faithful “Holy Conversations” book, the committee realized there were two areas demanding our attention.
One was providing our parish with a cohesive identity that everyone inside and outside of our church community could quickly recognize. The identity process will require our own church logo to be used on EVERYTHING we do. Ideas and designs have been developing over the past few months. A second step in developing our parish identity is having a clean, simple mission statement. With all your responses from the survey and the HymnSing Evening, the committee had plenty of information to help us create a mission statement that reflected YOUR beliefs. Many, MANY meetings were spent working on this. Our new mission statement will be introduced at the annual meeting and logo options will also be presented.
Our second area to address was the four key parish concerns identified in the survey. Addressing our concerns demanded further discussion with as many parishioners as possible. With that in mind, we had four more home gatherings this past September -- one for each concern: financial growth, supporting our young families, service for both InReach and OutReach. Parishioners were invited to attend the gathering that most interested/concerned them. Once again we asked parishioners to fill out a simple questionnaire. Discussions followed.
Each gathering had different questions. Here are the results.
OutReach:
Interest in programs like: 1. Habitat for Humanity 2. Aiding Syrian refugees 3. Involving our youth in whatever church program we choose 4. Activities like the soup kitchen or Chapel on the Green. The discussion that followed had different emphases: 1. Supporting the needy locally 2. Youth have no central place to “hang-out” in town 3. Much discussion on prisons and support for struggling prisoners. All were interested in researching various outreach possibilities.
InReach:
Interested in addressing: 1. Participation in the town Newcomers, 2. Greater support for Altar Guild, 3. Name tags
4. Reach out to parish newcomers 5. Brochure 6. Organize Coffee Hour 7. Guest speakers -- at coffee hours or other times 8. Brochures to be part of town’s welcome package for newcomers 9. Connecting activities that join both the 8:00 and 10:00 parishioners, such as a pancake breakfast.
Financial:
Interested in: 1. New ideas for special event fundraisers (now not very effective, except for ECW and EECW) 2. Start a planned giving program 3. More effective marketing of our parish 4. A new approach for the annual stewardship appeal.
Young families and Youth:
The list was long. Some suggestions: 1. A dedicated person to develop/manage the middle and high school group programming 2. Better understanding of the confirmation process 3. Recruitment of new young families
4. Occasionally adjust schedule for a Saturday service and shorten the service.
Ideas for youth participation: 1. "Story Corp" idea -- teams of kids recording with their phones 2. Kids should read and usher at services a few times a year 3. Older kids should participate in Habitat for Humanity 4. Outreach into the community is critical -- kids should help pick the mission 5. Bring back the communion activity workshop for the little kids 6. Provide an illegal substance and sexual abuse lecture --from God’s view (not all ages).
Phase Three -- Ideas and Action Plans
Begins NOW! Everyone is invited to participate.
A sidebar: Don Pogue died suddenly late last fall. He loved this committee and we loved him. His thoughtful kindness and keen insights were a blessing in every step we took. He passionately believed in the development of an inclusive, faith-driven mission statement. His fingerprints are invisibly present in every word of our new mission statement.
In the early summer of 2015, the Strategic Planning Committee was formed. The committee members were Don Pogue, Diane Kyle, Kasha Kingsbury, Katherine Frydenborg, and Lisa Ste.Marie. We were (and are!) a VERY busy team! Everyone read “Holy Conversations -- Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations.” All summer, we gathered to review each section. Chapter by chapter, we discussed what each process and approach meant and how we could best implement a plan for our own parish. We quickly learned that strategic planning for a parish is a VERY different process than creating a business strategic plan!
Phase One --Questions and Answers
The need for home gatherings and a parish survey became our priority in the fall of 2015. There were nine home gatherings, with over 90 parishioners attending. The last gathering was in January 2016. The survey questions that attendees answered were simple and direct: What do you love? What concerns do you have? What would your future dreams be for our beloved parish?
Our committee took all your responses, organized everything you said and wrote, and then provided all of you with the survey summary results early last spring. Our fellowship potluck supper in May was an opportunity for everyone to actively review the results together. Here is a quick summary of your survey:
Highlights of what you loved included: a very strong sense of community; grateful for God’s love revealed in Jesus and all creation; a community of welcome, gratitude, and hope; a deep appreciation for the spiritual guidance, education, and Episcopal worship that our parish provides. Our rich history on the Green, our music, and the parish children were also often mentioned.
Highlights of your future dreams often reflected the concerns you now have... only completely improved or in the process of being remedied.
Highlights of your concerns can be broken down into four key areas:
• Secure financial growth and stability.
• Increased support for our young families. Greater youth participation!
• Service -- InReach: Better connection and support for all parishioners.
• Service -- OutReach: How we reach out to assist our community together, beyond our own church walls (within our town, within our country, within our world).
Phase Two -- New Beginnings begin with YOU
Between your survey responses and the needs addressed in our faithful “Holy Conversations” book, the committee realized there were two areas demanding our attention.
One was providing our parish with a cohesive identity that everyone inside and outside of our church community could quickly recognize. The identity process will require our own church logo to be used on EVERYTHING we do. Ideas and designs have been developing over the past few months. A second step in developing our parish identity is having a clean, simple mission statement. With all your responses from the survey and the HymnSing Evening, the committee had plenty of information to help us create a mission statement that reflected YOUR beliefs. Many, MANY meetings were spent working on this. Our new mission statement will be introduced at the annual meeting and logo options will also be presented.
Our second area to address was the four key parish concerns identified in the survey. Addressing our concerns demanded further discussion with as many parishioners as possible. With that in mind, we had four more home gatherings this past September -- one for each concern: financial growth, supporting our young families, service for both InReach and OutReach. Parishioners were invited to attend the gathering that most interested/concerned them. Once again we asked parishioners to fill out a simple questionnaire. Discussions followed.
Each gathering had different questions. Here are the results.
OutReach:
Interest in programs like: 1. Habitat for Humanity 2. Aiding Syrian refugees 3. Involving our youth in whatever church program we choose 4. Activities like the soup kitchen or Chapel on the Green. The discussion that followed had different emphases: 1. Supporting the needy locally 2. Youth have no central place to “hang-out” in town 3. Much discussion on prisons and support for struggling prisoners. All were interested in researching various outreach possibilities.
InReach:
Interested in addressing: 1. Participation in the town Newcomers, 2. Greater support for Altar Guild, 3. Name tags
4. Reach out to parish newcomers 5. Brochure 6. Organize Coffee Hour 7. Guest speakers -- at coffee hours or other times 8. Brochures to be part of town’s welcome package for newcomers 9. Connecting activities that join both the 8:00 and 10:00 parishioners, such as a pancake breakfast.
Financial:
Interested in: 1. New ideas for special event fundraisers (now not very effective, except for ECW and EECW) 2. Start a planned giving program 3. More effective marketing of our parish 4. A new approach for the annual stewardship appeal.
Young families and Youth:
The list was long. Some suggestions: 1. A dedicated person to develop/manage the middle and high school group programming 2. Better understanding of the confirmation process 3. Recruitment of new young families
4. Occasionally adjust schedule for a Saturday service and shorten the service.
Ideas for youth participation: 1. "Story Corp" idea -- teams of kids recording with their phones 2. Kids should read and usher at services a few times a year 3. Older kids should participate in Habitat for Humanity 4. Outreach into the community is critical -- kids should help pick the mission 5. Bring back the communion activity workshop for the little kids 6. Provide an illegal substance and sexual abuse lecture --from God’s view (not all ages).
Phase Three -- Ideas and Action Plans
Begins NOW! Everyone is invited to participate.
A sidebar: Don Pogue died suddenly late last fall. He loved this committee and we loved him. His thoughtful kindness and keen insights were a blessing in every step we took. He passionately believed in the development of an inclusive, faith-driven mission statement. His fingerprints are invisibly present in every word of our new mission statement.