Wednesday, May 13, 2009

PHASE ONE Final Meeting

We have reached a point where we end our work together and invite a new group to take over.

One resource Bonnie Marden shared with us was a 2001 document entitled “Preparing to Grow Your Church” in which she suggested we ask the following questions:

Purpose Questions

Identity: Who and Whose are We?

Belief: What do we believe?

Call: What is God’s call for our faith community?

Vision Questions

New Calling: What new ministries is God calling us to?

Changing Methods: What needs to change to meet a new call?

Mission Questions

Strategies: What new ministry methods will support the vision?

Improving Current Methods: What changes will support vision?

I think we have accomplished the purpose questions above. We have reflected on the nature of the church (to serve, to be authentic, inclusive, etc.) and defined what currently energizes our people (children’s ministries, basic human needs, etc.).

The next step would be for a small task force to analyze potential NEW CALLING or new ministries (such as daycare) and consider CHANGING METHODS (such as worship or building use changes).

And the third step would be an implementation Team to create STRATEGY and IMPROVE METHODS.

You all have worked longer than I imagined we would work. Thank you for your time! Bonnie suggested to us at our last meeting that we should have one more meeting to formalize our findings and to celebrate what we have done (with ice cream??).

I’d like to propose a final meeting on MONDAY, June 1st at 7pm at the church.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The End is Near!

Summary of Vision Team Work and Recommendations
Hudson UMC



The purpose of the Vision 2012 Team is to help the church identify what sort of church First United Methodist Church can be in 2012—the year of the building’s one hundred year anniversary on this site at 34 Felton Street, Hudson.

The team worked through the Fall of 2008 into the Spring of 2009 with consultant Bonnie Marden of the New England Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The group included Dorris Rosen, Jim Niro, Matt Williams, Jayne Beairsto, Christie Vaillancourt, Mary Collins, Carolyn Paskavitz, Rosanne Roberts, and Pastor Doug Robinson-Johnson.

Using input received at the Stone Soup gatherings as well as the each team member’s sense of what is best about our current ministry at 34 Felton Street, the team selected six Categories (see previous blog post from March) and then identified Affirmations or Recommendations deserving further consideration by the Council or visioning team. These recommendations are listed as 2009-2010 short term goals or 2012 long-term goals.

The Affirmations are listed below with the suggestion that they be used through the next year in communication pieces to affirm the congregational input. When shared, an explanation of the source of these affirmations is encouraged. For example, “Congregation members attending the Stone Soup gatherings affirmed our children’s ministry: Sunday School is fun and safe. We have good space for kids.” Carolyn was identified as someone who could work with communications systems and integrating these affirmation statements with adaptations as needed.


Affirmations Summary
Sunday school is fun; safe…we have good space for kids
Children’s time in worship
Intentionally welcoming of families with children
All inclusive Communion, especially the way children are involved
Youth Group makes all feel welcome
Children’s programs (Sunday school, VBC, etc.)
Family – all of the individual families, church family

Encouraged and challenged to be best that I can
Sense of community and genuine warmth
Everyone is welcomed; How people greet each other.
Coffee Hour
Sincerity of community – sense of caring
This church has a “can do” attitude, people always step forward
Everyone seems friendly - they love me
How we take care of each other in times of trouble
Sharing joys and concerns

The dedicated staff that go above and beyond their job requirements
Food and music is pretty good
Feels like a giving church – Care Team, Open Door, Agape Café
Agape Café and the way people are invited to socialize
Reaching out to the community with Outreach
Being at Pumpkin Fest – good to be visible
Known by our actions, not just our words
The way sermons relate the Bible to modern living
The look of the sanctuary

2009-2010 Recommendations, based on Stone Soup gatherings from Fall, 2008:
Proposed action items are in italic with the name of the team identified, current status described and next steps proposed.

1) The expansion of opportunities for young people in music.
Staff-Parish Relations Committee has discussed options with Music Director.
Next Steps: Lay Leadership Committee works with staff to find committed volunteers and a practical plan for youth bell choir, children’s choir and youth band.

2) Create a ministry ‘book’ for the pews allowing people to see volunteer opportunities
where they might serve.
Next Steps: Form should be created by staff and updated by church council.

3) More small group Bible study.
Next Steps: Adult Spiritual Life Team should set goals for greater number of
offerings.

4) Increase communication about changes and clarify how to have voice in decisions about programs and ministries
SPRC co-sponsored conflict training workshop held March 14 and additional follow up underway.
Next Steps: Council should work to promote transparency in all committees while the Communications Team should work to make decision-making processes more accessible.

5) Create prayer partnerships
Next Steps: Adult Spiritual Life Team should create a plan for one-on-one prayer partnerships.

6) Expanding visitation and care of the sick, homebound and those in crisis.
Care Team will continue care for sick, homebound and crisis while Stephen Ministry Team is
created.
Next Steps: Stephen Ministry should assume responsibility for longer-term visitation while Care Team focuses on shorter-term visitation including inactive members and newcomers. Staff-Parish Relations Committee should monitor the pastor’s visitation with the sick, homebound and those in crisis.

7) Increase training and participation in hospitality ministries especially to newcomers
and visitors.

Next Steps: Each Council Member whose team connects with the public should create intentional plans in each ministry area for making the most of first-time visitors which would include intentional hosts (such as ushers and door-keepers), personal connection with a long-timer and follow-up within 24 hours.

8) Make it easier for more and more people to come for food and expand Angel Food type
ministries

Next Steps: Jim and K should continue and expand Angel Food ministry and other co-op programs.

9) Constructive suggestions about increasing lay speakers involvement, exploring
worship styles for different ages and more contemporary worship music.

Next Steps: Worship Committee should review suggestions and plan with staff.


2012 Recommendations, based on Bible study and Vision Team members’ discernment.
The following recommendations are longer term goals that will benefit from further exploration and assessment. The Vision Team offers the five recommendations below as priorities as we continue to discern how God is guiding us toward the future through the ideas and visions of our members.

1. In 2012 FUMC could be the place neighbors in need turn when they are in trouble!
Next Steps: A community needs assessment should be undertaken by a small, passionate team of researchers, coordinated by the Pastor, who will talk with social workers, city planners, business leaders and local residents. This research would allow FUMC to respond to actual, unaddressed needs and even plan for changes on the horizon.

2. In 2012 FUMC could offer a week-day, Christ-centered, affordable program for school-aged children in the community!
Next Steps: Building on data from the community needs assessment, a team of planners, coordinated by the Education Coordinator, should develop a business/ministry plan. The congregation would be welcome participants in that process.

3. In 2012 FUMC could have in place a plan for stewardship of this 100-year-old building for the next 20 years!
Next Steps: The Finance Committee should work in harmony with the Trustees to develop a strategy for raising capital, retiring debt, scheduling maintenance and improvements to 34 Felton Street so that, by 2012, church members fully understand and can be invested in the long-term well-being of this building.

4. In 2012 FUMC could be a church where everyone loves their job!
Next Steps: A combination of follow-up on 2009 recommendation #2 and the consistent application of personal mission or gift-assessment surveys should be in place by 2011. By 2012 all members should be participating both in church and in professional/family work that is deeply fulfilling because it is based on real needs and authentic calling. In the short run, “Project Partnerships” should be formed so that newcomers in the church can apprentice with long-timers in roles such as TV ministry or Sunday School Teaching, for examples.

5. In 2012 FUMC could have new interior space for personal prayer, a café, and worship!
Next Steps: Plans for building expansion are currently on hold, but the data collected in 2003-2004 should be analyzed and updated by a short-term team focused on interior space use in the current building footprint. New data should be presented to the church for action in the coming three years.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

March NEXT STEPS


Here are some of the next steps I offer for your consideration when we meet next - March 24, 7pm.

1. We need to review the categories to see if we think of any categories that need to be added - did we miss anything in this process of sorting congregational input?

2. How could the affirmations be used to communicate these positive messages?

3. Have the action items referred been sent and accepted by the named teams? If they have, do we want any further input from them?

4. Review the remaining action items and sort as long term or short term and who should receive these items for consideration?

5. Stepping back and looking at all these ideas and possibilities, where do we feel God is leading this congregation? What is the emerging vision for the future?
We have begun to name and assign some of the action steps that surfaced, but we also need to be looking for those qualities of the church that must be present in the future vision for the church and what language begins to describe that future vision today.
Looking forward to a good spirit-filled conversation next week!

Blessings, Bonnie

February Meeting: Stone Soup Responses

Summary of Congregational Input

(March 2009)

The Vision Team chose to sort congregational input from last Fall’s congregation-wide “Stone Soup Stewardship Groups” into the six (6) categories listed below. Input received included both affirmations of current ministries and new possibilities. Proposed action items are in italic with the name of the team to receive the information in parenthesis ( ). The Vision Team will continue to explore possibilities and how God is guiding us toward the future through the ideas and visions of our members.

  1. Children
  2. Fellowship
  3. Caring/Hospitality
  4. Food
  5. Engage Community/external
  6. Worship

1. CHILDREN

Affirmations

Sunday school is fun; safe…we have good space for kids

Children’s time in worship

Intentionally welcoming of families with children

All inclusive Communion, especially the way children are involved

Youth Group makes all feel welcome

Children’s programs (Sunday school, VBC, etc.)

New Vision

  1. Children’s choir and/or children’s musical (like Climbin’ Simon)-(SPRC)
  2. Offer affordable, Christ-centered daycare for children

2. FELLOWSHIP

Affirmations

Family – all of the individual families, church family

Encouraged to be best that I can

Sense of community and genuine warmth

Everyone is welcomed

Coffee Hour

New Vision

  1. Create a ministry ‘book” for the pews allowing people to see volunteer opportunities where they might serve – (Nominations)
  2. More small group Bible study- (Adult Spiritual Life Team)
  3. Increase communication about changes and clarify how to have voice in decisions about programs and ministries (SPRC – sponsor conflict training workshop [held March 14] and additional follow up)
  4. Evaluate current debt and options for retiring debt (Finance)
  5. Continue to focus on helping others, get people involved

3. CARING/HOSPITALITY

Affirmations

Sincerity of community – sense of caring

This church has a “can do” attitude, people always step forward

Everyone seems friendly - they love me

How we take care of each other in times of trouble

Sharing joys and concerns

How people greet each other

The dedicated staff that go above and beyond their job requirements

New Vision

  1. Create prayer partnerships – (Adult Spiritual Life Team)
  2. The Caring Team is a new resource. How will this team help prioritize pastoral care and visitation to ensure pastoral contact is made where needed? (SPRC)
  3. Providing care for people-spiritual, emotional and physical (SPRC)
  4. Especially care for people who have fallen away from fellowship, reach out to inactive members and those who we have not seen recently
  5. Helping create social capital-mutual responsibility for one another in an otherwise fragmented society
  6. Create a private space for people to meet together for prayer, etc.
  7. Program to help us feel comfortable reaching out to newcomers, etc. Even a loving church needs to get out of its comfort zone to grow.

4. FOOD

Affirmations

Our food ministry (Meals on Wheels, Agape, Friendship, fellowship time) is a great example of Christ’s love in action.

New Vision

  1. Make it easier for more and more people to come for food
  2. Expand Angel Food ministry

5. ENGAGE COMMUNITY-EXTERNAL

Affirmations

Feels like a giving church – Care Team, Open Door, Agape Café

Agape Café and the way people are invited to socialize

Community of people

Challenges me to be a better person

Help the community around us

Reaching out to the community with Outreach

Being at Pumpkin Fest – good to be visible

Let’s be known by our actions, not just our words

New Vision

1. Get out of the building and into the community, especially with seniors

  1. Continue outreach
  2. Find new ways to be helpful to each other and the community
  3. Focus on immediate neighborhood – evangelism

6. WORSHIP

The way sermons relate the Bible to modern living

All inclusive Communion, especially the way children are involved

The look of the sanctuary

Sharing joys and concerns

New Vision

  1. Utilize lay speakers more-(Pastor/SPRC)
  2. Explore different worship styles for all ages
  3. Incorporate praise music or more modern music at 10:45 service
  4. More skills for focusing on newcomers – passing the peace, invites to coffee hour, etc.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween Visioning!


Part One

We agreed that the relationship with our consultant, Bonnie, should be continued. Bonnie “set the direction” by “priming the pump” with “good questions” and did a good job of “leading without pushing” . The next time we meet with her we would like to learn more about how other churches are engaged in “Visioning,” though we do not want to “know their results.” We want our process to be authentic to our context.

Part Two

We looked for a foundational definition of “Church” in scripture.

We studied Matthew 16:15-19; Matthew 25: 31-46; Luke 9:1-6; Acts 1:6-8; Acts 2:41-47 and Acts 16:13-15.

We learned that the purpose of church is:

  • To listen to God
  • To offer forgiveness and reconciliation
  • To lighten people’s burdens—taking care of disadvantaged people
  • To look for Jesus in every day life
  • To travel light
  • To heal
  • To share good news
  • To be witnesses of the good that has happened
  • To be empowered by the Holy Spirit
  • To baptize and break bread
  • To promote the three-legged-stool: Piety/Action/Study
  • To live a common life
  • To gather to pray
  • To gather to listen to preaching
  • To meet in homes…and where the people are

Part Three

We claimed “church growth” books from a table and explained why these books piqued our interest:

“Why Men Hate Going to Church” (Because it seems true!)

“Unlearning Church” (Because it seems like we have to do things very differently now!)

“Looking in a Mirror” (Because it helps us to know what kind of a church we are!)

“Sundays in America” (Because she visits lots of churches.)

“Church Transformation” (Because the author (Bill Kemp) came to our area recently.)

“Bowling Alone” (Because society has grown more private!)

Next Steps:

1. Doug will offer an overview of each book to see if the group is interested in reading one or two of them.

2. We will ask Stone Soup Groups to discuss visioning questions: A) What is the most important thing to you about this church? B) If God asked us to start something new, we should start with what?

3. Results of the above discussion will be shared with consultant Bonnie whom we hope will help us to synthesize the following three streams of data:

A) Our first discussion of what team members felt was most important about FUMC Hudson (see blog #1).

B) Our Part Two learning about the purpose of the church.

C) Stone Soup Group’s responses to visioning questions.

An editorial comment: The Stone Soup Groups will be finished by November 16th, but since this is a holiday period, results may not be ready and thus a meeting may not be possible until January 2009.


Thanks for a great meeting everyone!

Doug

Monday, October 6, 2008

What Kind of Animal Are We? Sept. NOTES


Attendance: Jim, Matt, Sammie, Jane, Christie, Mary, Carolyn, Rosanne, Doris, Mario (graphic artist), Doug and Bonnie M (consultant)

Doug offered some historical stories and resources and prayer to ground us as we look toward the future.

Bonnie introduced the Circle Process and invited input from the group on several questions. Her goal was to elicit the groups input and thoughts about how to manage this work.

Question One: What do you cherish about this church?

Responses: welcoming, felt quickly at home, youth group, lots of children, people know each other, anonymity isn’t possible, open, all accepted, love and caring, praying church, acceptance, prayer warriors, taught me to deal with change and go to church, walk in and be yourself, total acceptance can be fleeting- cherish it, beautiful space –visually stunning, anything is possible, no nay-sayers

Question Two: What is our task and our challenge?

Responses: Discerning God’s will and moving toward that in the next 5-10 years, need to offer my input, envision future ideas and how we get there, don’t need to know it all – it will come together, feeling excitement about what might be available for my children, we are diverse-discern God’s will knowing that God speaks to us in different ways, psyched to be part of a group actively seeking God’s will, God calls prophets to hard things – how will we be stretched?, we are hard workers for God, how share what we learn?, hope to be a participant and able to speak honestly and openly.

Question Three: What type of animal are we like and what might we strive to become?

Responses:

Chameleon - different at different times, new challenges and multiple passions

Kangaroo – comfort and bouncing

Phoenix – something rising again

Mother tiger – fierce, protective, responsive to crisis

Human – communicating with God so we can make a difference

Large cat – beautiful, independent, draws others closer, follows God

Colony of ants - can we take flight and become a hive of bees?

Zebra - daring to be different, stand for what we believe in

Sand plover – darting to and fro, coming back, opportunities, constant movement, fragile

Flamingo – balanced, centered, pink reflecting what is eaten (who we are/what we are)

Bird – going where needed, working and playing

Question Four: Name an outrageous thing God may be calling us to do

Responses

Become like Harvest Café – connected and reflective of the community

Expand ways we help people in need and in the community, change government

Be instruments of God’s grace – strengthen connections with the community

Move beyond this space (sell?) and build/find space to meet human needs (daycare, meals, feeding program) and also worship

Explore ways to assist with skills training and employment

Be a clothesline connecting the community churches – ecumenicalism

Become a table where gathering and “feeding” happens

Offer a spark of enthusiasm and faith

Show community who we are

Bonnie also shared a visual of the lifecycle of a congregation which demonstrates the need to revision during the prime of ministry to discover the next new call and to avoid going into ministry boredom and decline.

The group offered these hopes for their work.

God’s work can be big and scary, don’t cower, accept, let go and run with it

Avoid being irrelevant, be active on the fringes

Effectively discern next call like the last vision and building groups did

Create actionable goals

Don’t fear action

God leads us to be open to change

We drafted the following criteria for this visioning work.

Ø Balance creative exploration with concrete tasks

Ø Conduct both internal and external data collection

Ø Communicate, communicate, communicate….

We created a letter to the congregation sharing words of affirmation, challenge, hope and promise. Rosanne collected the cards and will create the letter. The group can review the letter and use is as a communication piece to the congregation at any time.

The group agreed to try the blog again, with assurance of coaching from Doug.

Bonnie agreed to send a summary of tonight’s input along with some samples for congregational and community input. Her recommendations for next steps are noted below.

Next meeting: October 28, 2008

Carolyn will serve as the Convener

Monday, September 29, 2008

Meeting September 31st PREVIEW

Vision 2012 Team: Happy Fall!

Our second meeting will be Tuesday, September 31 at 7pm in Pastor's Office.
In August we agreed to reflect on three things:

1. What is our mission as a Church?
We agreed to write a statement to be shared at our next meeting.
2. Who are we as Hudson First UnitedMethodist Church?
We agreed to talk to people about how they perceive this local church and report back.
3. What is our local church context?
We agreed to think about area businesses and organizations to consider which people we ought to talk with about Hudson/Marlborough area needs.

When we meet next time, we will be lead by Rev. Bonnie Marden who will offer us tools to help us organize our ideas.

The purpose of this next gathering is to come to better clarity on our identity as a local church.

I invited Mario DiMare, a graphic artist in our congregation, to sit with us and sketch some of the images he hears us sharing. The communications team hopes that we will be able to produce some kind of logo which expresses our identity.

In preparation, you may want to look at this website which demonstrates effect church logos:
http://churchrelevance.com/resources/top-church-logos/

See you soon!
Doug