“Following Jesus Into The Future”
A Proposal from the Futures Task Force
Trinity
Anglican Church, Streetsville ,
Ontario
February 10, 2008
Agenda
- Introduction
- What is our current reality?
- Trinity Survey
- Vulnerabilities & Strengths
- Seven Opportunities for Trinity
- What about this idea of growth?
- Further Considerations
Introduction
At the invitation of the Rector and the Parish Executive Committee, the Futures Task Force was asked to recommend a strategy that will help move Trinity to the next level of fulfilling Christ’s mission. Our assigned time frame was 3-5 years. The Task Force was comprised of a cross section of Trinity parishioners based on length of time at the church, leadership experience, cultural diversity, age, profession, and the capacity to work as part of a team. Team members are Jenn Agard, James Chung, Ida Dundas, Kareen Eckersley, Denny George, Liz Leake, Clare Riepma, Don Weiss and Dave Toycen as Chair. Our goal was to have a proposal ready for the 2008 Vestry Meeting.
The Week of Prayer
A Trinity Week of Prayer was
offered from January 14-19, 2008. Our goal was to ensure we are listening
closely to God and basing our plans on His purposes in the midst of our busy
lives. The Week of Prayer was designed to help us focus on what God is saying
to us as a congregation. The attendance
averaged approximately 20 people. Others
who could not attend the prayer time at the church were invited to pray at home
or at their workplace. Here are some key
comments:
“continue to be a people of praise”
“church to be a place of safety and peace”
“care for others – their souls and lives”
“prayer for passion for God”
“to cry out for God’s intervention in places of great injustice”
“care for those who are abandoned or isolated”
What is our current
reality?
1.
We have Core Documents:
a)
“A community of ordinary people learning to follow Jesus in our time”
b) Key Purposes
A. Share The Good News
B. Worship That Invites, Praises and Adores
C. Bring To Faith And Disciple
D. Community That Loves And Cares For Each Other
E. Ministries of Local/Global Mercy, Compassion and Justice
F. Helping Other Churches Be Effective
c) Philosophy of Ministry
d) Core Values
2.
Research
a) Our attendance is stable, though down from an attendance peak 4 years ago. We are replacing not growing. One exception is the youth groups that have had dramatic increases over the past two years.
b) Our financial situation is stable with single digit percentage growth most years.
c) Our welcoming strategy has delivered reasonably high and consistent rates making visitors into newcomers, regular attenders and members
d) Attrition appears most affected by people moving away
3. What
are the attitudes of parishioners towards the church, their satisfaction and
their overall involvement?
We organized a parish wide survey that has received 308 responses. It was available on the Internet as well as in print form.
Here is a brief summary:
·
32% under 4 years attending
·
21% 5-9 years attending
·
47% 10+ years
·
Most travel 10-30 minutes to attend
·
Weekly church attendance of 53%
·
98% attend 9am or 11am Sunday Service
·
50% spend 2 or more hours in church activities
·
48% involved in small groups
·
80% have attended a course
·
74% are satisfied with the church meeting their spiritual needs
·
72% have invited new families to attend
·
67% have a close friend at trinity
·
68% feel better or are fully satisfied with Trinity.
·
76% attend church with someone
·
81% attend Trinity Parish Life Social Events
The reason they joined...
·
Showed up and liked it
·
The Minister/Rector
·
The sermons
·
The worship style
·
Friendliness of the Congregation
The reason they
stay...
The Minister/Rector
The worship style
The sermons
Friendliness of the Congregation
The music program
Church is inclusive and culturally diverse
The small groups
20%
may move in the next few years
Age seems close to average age in
Strengths at Trinity:
+ a come-with-me church
+ a growing church
+ a caring church
+ an inclusive church
+ a diverse church
+ an intergenerational church
+ an outreach church
+ a follower of Jesus church
+ a global church
+ a local church
Vulnerabilities at Trinity:
· Want more faith development – bible study, go deeper, special courses
· Looking for more community involvement
· More care for members in crisis – health, bereavement, counseling, special needs
· Members feeling less attention than the newcomers and visitors
· Concern about the Rector’s eventual retirement
· Not sure how to connect and find their place, volunteering, leadership
· Concern that youth seem not to be connected with the worship and adult congregation (quote)
· Few disappointed, but over 1 in 5 think there is room for improvement at Trinity (chart)
· Some think we are not Anglican enough
· Others think we should move away from the Anglican tradition
· Is Trinity the end or a means to an end?
How do we turn this into
opportunities for Trinity’s future?
We decided to take the positives and the concerns and put them into some Key Objectives:
1. Generate
a congregational care ministry that addresses spiritual brokenness, bereavement
and illness in Trinity and the wider community.
A. Define Trinity’s philosophy of congregational care
B. Determine what is required to deliver effective congregational care
C. Consider the expectations and concerns raised in the Trinity Survey
D. Set goals for each of the next five years. Consider phasing in the various elements
E. Establish a plan that includes staffing, volunteers, training and leadership.
2. Faith
development that encourages spiritual growth and Christian maturity for those
seeking to be fully devoted followers of Jesus.
A. Define the characteristics and practices of a fully devoted follower of Jesus
B. Identify the activities, programmes and experiences that nurture living out the faith at home, in the workplace and the community.
C. Consider the responses to the survey and the wider community context.
D. What is the faith development goal for the Parish over the next five years?
E. What is the plan to reach this goal over the next five years?
3. Increasing the number of visitors who want to become newcomers on the road to following Jesus at Trinity.
A. Determine the critical elements in attracting visitors to Trinity.
B. Determine the critical elements in transforming visitors into newcomers
C. Consider the survey responses and community context
D. Estimate the achievable growth for visitor attendance and newcomer commitments over the next five years
E. Establish a plan to reach this goal over the next five years
4. Increase and expand Trinity’s
hands-on volunteer engagement with the local community.
A.
Develop
Trinity’s philosophy and approach to volunteering in the local community
B.
Research
the needs and opportunities in the community
C.
Identify
a community program need that Trinity parishioners can serve
D.
Engage
the Trinity membership to resource and implement the program
E.
Define
an action plan that includes five year goals, assessment, training and budget.
5. Create a long term leadership development and succession plan.
A. Ensure there is consistent leader development so
that new positions can be filled and existing ones will have replacements.
B. Establish a process to identify, recruit and train
both staff and lay leaders for the various roles in the church to ensure that
there is leadership development as well as preparation in the case of leader
departure or retirement.
C. Identify the risk staff areas for Trinity and make
the appropriate plans to mitigate them.
D. Provide recognition and appropriate incentives to
keep high performance staff. Utilize
contractual agreement wherever it is appropriate.
E. Special concerns regarding the potential retirement
of the Rector
6. Be
known as a transparent Christian community that makes it easy for people to get
involved and grow in their contribution to the work of the Kingdom.
A. Define Trinity’s philosophy of parish engagement and communication
B. Demonstrate transparency in Trinity’s business operations and decision-making processes.
C. Improve effectiveness in communicating Trinity’s opportunities, activities and challenges.
D. Identify new and expanded opportunities for involvement.
E. Increase ability to coach, train, empower and recognize those getting involved.
7. Children and youth programmes that are inclusive, nurturing and witness to Christ
A. Review and consider the
concern regarding the connection between the youth and the adult church – space
issues
B. Review the attendance of the
Sunday School programme
Do these ideas
contribute to our goal?
Our Goal – Invite and assist as many people as we can to grow and be fully contributing and devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
What about this idea of growth?
“I want to challenge you to grow your own parish by two per cent a year. Two per cent! That is modest, and it’s achievable, sustainable and measurable.”
-- Archbishop of Toronto Colin Johnson’s charge to Synod in 2007
We believe in four kinds of growth: numerical, maturational, incarnational and organic. Numerical means growing in numbers of people. Maturational means growing in to a mature Christian. Incarnational means growing in how we demonstrate the love of Christ to others. Organic means growing Trinity’s organizational strength and community.
Trinity must remain a growing church!
Further considerations:
- Parishioners offered numerous practical, specific suggestions that are worth consideration by the PEC and church staff. They will be made available for further review and consideration. It may be a helpful approach to identify those that are implemented quickly as “quick wins” and communicate this to the Parish.
- It will be necessary to prioritize the proposed objectives. Further review and analysis may reveal that the pace of change required is more than staff and volunteers can manage. We suggest that the most critical to the success of meeting Trinity’s mission be addressed first.
- In an effort to expedite the proposed Objectives, it would be helpful to assign a task force for each one. This ensures strong parish participation and draws out additional resource to meet the challenge
- The internal management of planning and implementing this strategy poses the greatest challenge to Trinity leadership. It is essential that a thorough analysis be completed to identify who will manage what and the process that will be followed. Trinity is no longer a small church. It requires a level of management that currently does not exist. The staff and structure need to be reviewed.
Conclusion
We are grateful for the opportunity to make this contribution to Trinity. We have sought to address the concerns of the congregation while at the same time respecting the foundational documents of the church. There are some hard choices to be made. We recognize that Trinity cannot be everything to everyone. We have done our best to listen to the suggestions, respect the survey and look at the opportunities through the lens of the Key Purposes. Our best is not great, but with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and God’s blessing, we believe that Trinity can do something even greater in this community and the larger world. To God be the glory!
For we are what God has made
us,
created in Christ Jesus for
good works,
which God prepared
beforehand to be our way of life.
-- Ephesians 2:10