Next Steps for Our Church
Assessment from Pastor Tom regarding pastoral staffing needs
The way things are right now, with our fine lay staff with Cori, Rebecca, Wendy, Sandy running our office and Eileen and Linda leading music we are in good shape. As a younger congregation we do not face all that much additional work that we currently need to have two ordained pastors for. Of course, if we choose to expand and grow our ministry in some direction the need for another pastor might become more apparent. However, the way things are right now, there is enough work for one ordained person to do, but not enough for two ordained pastors to share. This is not to say we don’t have work to do, or that I am bored. Rather, the work that we could and need to do right now can and is being well addressed by competent lay people.
Over the past few months I have heard a number of members ask when we’re getting a new pastor. I hear these words as well intended, kind expressions of concern for me so that I don’t burn out or melt. For that I thank you. But as we assess our ministry at this point I would suggest before we ask whether we need another pastor on our staff today that we ask some other more basic questions first. These questions are about who we are, how we operate and why we do what we do. Once we have a clear understanding of those basic, foundational pieces, then we will be better able to focus the best questions for us to be asking. One of those question may well be do we want another pastor. It may also be whether we want to consider some other kind of staffing options.
(The following information is a partial summary of our church council proceedings)
II. Self Study Process
The first important step is for us to get a clear and comprehensive picture of who we are. Our church is a place where we innovate and improvise, where we welcome and almost demand change or response. We are a church that seeks to be responsive, adaptive and even anticipatory of current and future needs. We have grown into a very strong mission focused/outreach expression of our ministry that continues to enrich us all. Many of these aspects have become so normal among us that we don’t notice them, yet they may be significant factors that contribute to who we are.
In order to gather the best information we can we will be asking members to respond to single questions on Sundays following worship over several months. We are also exploring some different survey tools that members can complete online or in print.
To assist in this process and to gain some expert, outside reflection, we are exploring a consultant who works specifically in the area. This person would give us reflection and feedback based on our self study results, tell us what is unique about our church, areas we could grow, etc.
III. The third phase of the study process includes establishing a more formalized Mission Exploration Team (MET) who will carry the ball with the data we have received, explore demographic data and then lead our whole congregation in dreaming about possibilities, being open to the guiding of the Spirit to open up options of ministry and possible new expressions of our ministry. (This is the really fun part.)
IV. The fourth phase will lead us into some potential conclusions, options, and ways we might apply what we have learned about ourselves, our setting, our assets and all the things God has put in our hands.
All this is to say we are not sure just yet what the outcome will be. That makes this an exciting time. During this time we will also be monitoring Pastor Tom to see if his assessment is accurate about our specifically pastoral needs.
From the Council
The question many of us are asking is, when are we getting a new pastor? That may well be a question we move toward, but we need to be careful that we don’t assume a new pastor is what we need right now.
In order to make sure we are moving in the right direction for what we need and exploring how God is calling us we’re going to start asking a number of more fundamental questions to help define who our church is, why things seems to work here.
We will be scheduling lots of information gathering sessions on Sundays after worship services for the next few months. We are also looking into providing a response method that you can complete online.
The big thing we need to define before we do anything else is who we are as a church. There are lots of ways we work and operate that have become so normal for us we don’t notice them. That makes sense because we don’t give a lot of attention to things that work. So we’re going to study those things to define what our culture is, how it works and why we do things the way we do.
The next step is we will gather the hard data – demographic information about our church, membership numbers, age distributions, and so on. Once we have that information we will compare it with the area we are in to determine whether there are gaps in what we offer vs. what the area presents. We should also probably be in conversation with other churches to see what they offer to see how we compare.
All that information taken together, our culture, our demographic information, how we operate, will help us be open to hearing God’s call for us.
We are currently exploring bringing in a consultant who is not connected to our congregation and who can give us professionally grounded, unbiased critique and assessment of our church. Initially the bishop was talking about sending in an interim pastor to help out. His role will be to help us determine what kinds of survey materials we want to use, and then study the data, write up reports and summaries for us to reflect what is unique about our church, what kinds of things we should work hard at keeping and strengthening, and areas we might want to consider improving in. The consultant we are considering has worked a lot for churches in our synod and for our synod itself. He cuts his rate in half when he works for churches.
So we will be asking a number of questions. Whether we are calling another pastor is one of those questions, it’s just not the first question. The questions we will explore are:
Who are we?
What is our culture?
How does it work?
Why do we work that way?
Who we are as a congregation – things like age distribution, contribution rates, participation rates, etc.
Where do we do ministry? This looks at our area – our market it you will, the area from which our members come. This is also mostly demographic and census data.
How do we compare with our setting? This looks for how well we match and address the apparent needs in our area. For example, are we a church people drive to from outside the community, or are we a church where most of our members live within 10 miles?
Then we will look at the gaps between who and what we are compared with our setting. This step also can compare us to other churches within 30 miles – some ELCA, some not, to see how we measure up.
The consultant will give us some feedback and reflection at this point. He will indicate what is unique about us, what seems to lead toward thriving, areas we could consider doing better or growing in,
Once we go through these steps we will be in a much better position to make a much more informed decision about our future mission and direction. That will help define how we want to be staffed in the future.
Specifically in the end we will be asking:
What kind of staffing do we need to support and grow our mission into the future?
If it is a pastor, what specifically ordained functions will that person be fulfilling, with attention to areas that may not exist right now.
If it is not a pastor, do we have enough support for Sunday mornings and the other busier times that come up.
If our decision is to call another pastor, we will form a call committee. If however as a congregation we decide our best staffing options are some other direction, we will create appropriate job descriptions and begin the search process for a qualified lay person.
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