All Saints' Learning Team

Some barriers have greater strategic priority; that is, their removal might release the congregation’s potential for solving other growth-related problems. …Your congregation is more ready to address some of these barriers than others. Readiness comes from several sources: member awareness that a problem exists, lay leader motivation to address the problem, clergy motivation to address the problem, and availability of necessary information, ideas, and resources.

Alice Mann, Raising the Roof, pp. 93- 94

From the beginning of our work together as the Learning Team, it has been an important given that we are not assuming that ASC will grow numerically. Rather, we have methodically used the process for strategic planning that Alice Mann lays out in Raising the Roof because ASC’s ongoing issues are directly connected with its size (just around 200 attendance on Sunday). Specifically, issues around parish life, leadership, newcomers and mission at ASC are influenced by the parish’s ambivalence around whether to operate as a more simple, single-celled organism or as a more complex, multi-celled organization.

Following Mann’s process, the Learning Team identified barriers to growth at ASC and then discussed which barriers have greater strategic priority. The team then looked at the parish’s awareness, motivation and resources for addressing these areas. It is important to note that our discussions were not around numbers; rather, the words we used over and over again were maturity, stability, yearnings and intentionality.

The Learning Team is encouraged by the energy and liveliness radiating in the parish—the thriving Church School program (CGS, Firelight Program, Rite-13 and J2A), the attendance at via media (averaging over 30 people per session for 8 weeks), the strategic planning of the Outreach Committee, conversations about welcoming and retaining newcomers and about desiring to be better equipped as leaders. As a group, we are excited by the foundations ASC can build upon.

Out of the Learning Team’s work comes a growing sense of what possibilities are ripe, how the parish may be ready to take action, and what our response to God’s call might be. The areas of ripeness, readiness and response we see are: leadership development, meeting and keeping newcomers, mission focus, and offering small group opportunities to help members live their faith and to build community.

Leadership Development:
New vestry members are asking for training and preparation for their work as leaders. Church School teachers are interested in bringing in specific teacher training; there is critical mass for planning such training events. The parish already has a practice of using diocesan resources (staff, events) for training and assistance. The recent vestry retreat opened up profound questions about what leadership at ASC means such as: what is the job of the vestry?; how are vestry members spiritual leaders?; how can the vestry have and articulate the big picture of ASC’s life? These requests cry out for response.
Meeting and Keeping Newcomers:
New folks check out ASC weekly, but few of them end up becoming members. When new people do become part of the parish’s life, it seems as if we lose others “out the back door.” Some of this dynamic has to do with stasis at staying at the size we are, but much of it has to do with the parish’s ongoing struggle to find a way of meeting, welcoming and drawing newcomers into parish life. This issue is raised constantly by parishioners and leadership. Many members have tried different tactics—and yet the problem persists. The team suggests that there is more happening here than meets the eye. There is resistance as well as ripeness, readiness and response.
Mission Focus:
There is exciting energy here, demonstrated in the work of the revitalized Outreach Committee, the planning of the Learning Team and the excitement and awareness around Tom’s upcoming sabbatical. This area feels ripe for development.
Offering Small Group Opportunities:
The decision 5+ years ago to hire an associate for adult Christian formation, the focus on formation (which includes programs but goes beyond education and classes) and the recent success of via media all point to the desire in the parish for opportunities for adults to learn about, safely discuss and explore their faith. The team also addressed that given the size of ASC, people find community not at the worship service or coffee hour, but through involvement in smaller groups within the parish.

In addition, the Learning Team noted that staffing at ASC is a big issue. The parish is not staffed to build upon the growth it is experiencing in formation and mission or to address the needs around newcomers. According to Alice Mann, as a church Sunday attendance approaches 200, a recommended staff size is 2 full-time program staff – clergy or lay; and the equivalent of a full time position for office support and another full-time position building maintenance, and half-time musician. All Saints’ current staffing level - 1.25 program staff, and part-time office support and maintenance -is more appropriate for a smaller pastoral size church

We further noted that this area is one that the parish lacks readiness to address. Reasons for lack of readiness may include: anxiety about finances, lack of awareness of how stretched the staff (paid and volunteer) is, and an ethos in the parish of relying on able and motivated individuals to step forward and take on tasks. One sign of this tension between need and lack of readiness occurred during the vestry retreat when the vestry wrestled with the question of the scope and responsibilities of its job. Near the close of the retreat, Tom pointed out that we have asked the vestry to do oversight that staff does in other parishes and that the sense of uncertainty and discomfort leadership feels is another sign of how the parish is trying to operate in contradictory single-celled and multi-celled ways.

In terms of planning, the parish is in an ideal place to consider the complex needs of our parish life and the attendant issues of oversight. The parish’s actions will decide whether we build upon the energy that we are experiencing or let the parish shrink and operate in a more simplified manner.

The Holy Spirit decidedly is at work at All Saints’. While there are challenges and risks in our life as a parish, there is also amazing potential to respond to God’s call to us and to deepen in our life as a faithful expression of the Body of Christ.

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Members of the All Saints' Learning Team include:

Among the fruits of the ASC Learning Team's efforts is Weaving the Threads of Our Parish: A Historical and Spiritual Perspective on All Saints’ Episcopal Church. This narrative tells the story of this parish from its Founding Days to its life during the long rectorship of the Rev. Paul Twelves till the present day. We hope you will take the time to read Weaving the Threads. It is included in the latest hardcopy issue of Saints Alive!. You can also read it on the parish website go to About Us and then click on History.

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