Vestry Retreat Minutes

March 5th & 6th, 2010

Friday, March 5, 2010 session

Attendees:  Mac, Aimee, Claudia, Fr. Charles, Janet, Laurel, Jay, Nancy, Jim, Judy Shannon, Ted.

Approved Parochial Report and the minutes from the annual celebration.

Fr. Charles asked for a volunteer to be the new clerk of the vestry.  Ted Clayton accepted.

Fr. Charles asked for a volunteer to be the new Jr. Warden.  Jim Jennings accepted.

Discussion of Vision Plan.

Fr. Charles asked if we as the vestry and the parishioners of St. Luke’s understand what “acting as agents of reconciliation” means.  It was brought up that Agent is an active word that means doing something. 

Do we celebrate what people are already doing in the community as there are numerous non-profits here?  If we want to, we shouldn’t wait for Fr. Charles to do it.  The Stewardship committee could possibly help with this.  Many brought up that it is encouraging and inspiring to others to see what fellow parishioners are doing on their own.

Growth in Worship and Attendance – FOCUS OF RETREAT.

Local ministries – making progress with their mission

Stewardship ministry – making progress.  Have a meeting scheduled for March 8th.

Strengthening our Friendships – new committee just formed to do this.  They are planning an upcoming parish event.

Unity Partnership – Gary Baily chairing this committee. 

Children 4th to 8th grade program – Katherine Martz and Jane Sullivan leading this.  It is quite successful.

Teen 9th – 12th grade program – Manuel Maravi heading this up.  Not much participation yet, but he is working on it.

Fr. Charles would like someone from the Vestry develop a tool to gauge how we are doing with our missions.  Grace congregation in St. George has a tool they use that is effective that we could model ours after.  Laurel (Chair), Jay and Mac will work to develop this for St. Luke’s.

Reports from visiting other churches

Shepherd of the Mountain – Lauren & Janet

They have two services, one traditional and one “contemporary” with coffee hour in between.  They missed the coffee hour as it was before the service they attended.

    Likes:  warm and welcoming

        Service was casual, they felt at home

        Nice, intimate worship space – building was inviting

        Large group of teens / children

        Children’s sermon at beginning of service

Dislikes:  yellow cards to put in offering plate stating they had given

        Automatically through an account debit.

Grace Episcopal in St. George – Mac

Mac has attended there a few times.  First time was great.  They had a newcomer bag with a coffee mug and history of church.  Second time, no on acknowledged him.  He did like that they had youth participate in the readings

St. James Episcopal in Salt Lake – Jim

    Likes:  easy to find, big signs and good parking

        Teenagers in the service

        Bulletin – all in one

        Large attendance

    Dislikes:  No one greeted him, maybe because he was early

            People were slow to introduce themselves during coffee hour.

All Saints in Salt Lake – Nancy & Judy

    Likes:  Bulletin and guest register

A stand in the entry showing the upcoming weeks activities

The building layout

Beginning welcome

Silence after the sermon

Kids participating in service

Permanent name tags   

Brief announcements at end of service before recessional

    Dislikes:  Not very welcoming.  People did introduce self, but didn’t start a conversation

End for the night.

Saturday, March 6th session

Attendees:  Aimee, Shannon, Beckie, Claudia, Jay, Mac Jim, Nancy, Judy, Janet, Ted & Steve Alder

Continue with church reports

Unity in Salt Lake – Ted

    Likes:  Very welcoming

        People introduced themselves and had conversations with us

        Nice coffee hour

       

    Dislikes:  almost too welcoming – hugs

            Standing in service and introducing yourself

            Service isn’t liturgical at all

Mountain Life – Jay and Karl

    Likes:  Contemporary Christian music with a band

        Very Friendly

        Guest parking spots right up front

        Large overhead with bullet points of the sermon

    Dislikes:  None mentioned

Mountain View – Aimee & Shannon

    Likes:    Meeting space in a bed and breakfast

        People were excited to move to a new space

    Dislikes:  People didn’t really visit with them at the service.

Shannon discussed how they are a very mission oriented church.  Almost all members participate in small groups.  There are around 10 groups.  There is an almost monthly project that they do (one group per month, so each group does one project about once a year).  They have community dinners, sledding parties, etc.  Father Charles mentioned that this is their evangelical side.  He also mentioned that he brought this same concept to the Vestry a year or so ago and it was decided not to pursue it at that time.  The nice thing about this is that it brings the congregation closer together, it focuses them outward (mission, community) and you have 85 percent of the congregation involved rather than just 15.

St. John’s Anglican – Beckie

    Likes:  3 greeters at the front door and then more greeters up by worship space

        Large overheads

        Children’s sermon

        Contemporary music

        Recognize birthdays, anniversaries & travel with prayer at end of service

    Dislikes:  Maybe too much music.

Training from Steve Alder – Deacon at St. Paul’s

    “How do we (St. Luke’s) reach out to the world and how do they come to us?

St. Luke’s was secret shopped.  Overall, we are doing some key things very well.  He felt that we are very authentic and welcoming.  He loved the coffee hour.  He felt that a few minor things that could be improved upon which are…

Better signage to front doors (entering from parking lot)

He arrived 15 minutes early, no one said anything to him, he sat in Narthex in rocking chair until Harriet spoke to him.

Difficult to know how to enter worship space, entrance is "maze" like   

Didn't know how to take communion

Steve was impressed by this.  He said we have the basics down for being open to church growth.  We had a discussion and listed the positives and negatives of growth.

            Positives                Negatives

            Money    to facilitate missions        Change

            Increased members            Don’t know everybody

            Increased diversity            loss of control

            Visibility in community        may not like the “new” us

            More influential in community    the unknown

            Reach more with msg of faith        what is your commitment?

            Develop own spirituality        more structure

            Change

Is this about us?

    Charles:  We are not evangelical.  They (other churches) are trying to save everyone.  We don’t have that

Do we see the value in living our mission?  Unity of all things and reconciliation

St. Luke’s Theology

    What do we have that is “life giving”?

    - Value in theological education

    - Reconciliation

    - Progressive

Small Groups:  If we keep trying this an only have 2 – 13 involved and 75 not involved, are we accomplishing anything?  Does this work? 

    What is the congregations’ commitment?

    People don’t volunteer…Do we need to ask them individually?

How do we get our message out?

    Don’t spend money until we have a definite message.

    Advertise to people like ourselves

Do we have “enough” to advertise?

    Reconciliation / Progressive – or do we need to still work on and look at this some more?

Think about inviting people

If we do want to go forward, we need to invest resources.  We are the resources, we need to allocate money.

Do not put “Episcopal” in all of our ads if we advertise.  Outsiders don’t know what that is.  Other Episcopalians already know.

Advertising Avenues:

    1.  Find our target market (people like us).  Steve doesn’t think the religious section of the paper works.

    2.  Judy found that advertising on KPCW brought her increased business

    3.  Articles in the paper about what we are doing.  Example:  St. Elizabeth’s coming this weekend.

Action

    Fire in the belly

    Committed to:  Progressive & Reconciliation

    Money commitment

Vestry needs to make some decisions.  Meet on a regular basis (other than regular meetings). 

    Will meet 2nd & 4th Sundays from 12:15 to 1:00 beginning 3/28.

Next Vestry meeting to discuss this is March 16th at 6:00 PM.  

The Current Financial Health of Our Parish Community

June Total Pledge & Plate Donations    $19,586        YEAR TO DATE:

June Total from Diocese of Utah           $  3,583        Total Income        $168,604   

June Total from Other Donations          $  1,105        Total Expenses    $159,385   

JUNE TOTAL INCOME                            $24,274        SURPLUS             $    9,219   

JUNE TOTAL EXPENSE            $25,446   

June Deficit                               ($  1,172)        Budgeted Pledge Income   $122,898

End of Month Cash Balance     $35,923         Received Pledge Income    $121,164

                                                                           DEFICIT                               ($   1,734)

CAPITAL RESERVES            $45,181

Expenses                               $         0

Ending Balance                     $45,181