Who is Cocoa? Week 4 of Congregational Meetings

Who is Cocoa?  Week 4 of Congregational Meetings

What aren’t we doing that we need to start? 

·         Connecting with the proximate community

·         Getting new people, especially young families

·         Updating the worship service

·         Evangelism training

·         Asking members to do more

·         Offering our facilities to the community

What are we doing that we need to stop?

·         Being closed-minded and resisting change, living in the past

·         Judging others (incl the RFM school)

·         Thinking we are a big church

·         Territorialism

·         Being PCUSA

·         Being the big, white church on Dixon

·         Beggaring the facilities

What are we doing that is contributing to our success & should continue?

·         Our relationship with The Sharing Center and The Special Gathering

·         Being friendly

·         Mission involvement, BIRP

·         Fixing the facility

·         Music

·         Connecting with Westminster/Asbury

·         Our Shepherd Program

·         Women’s Ministry

What do we need to fix?  Keep it but fix it. 

·         Parking lot

·         Sound system

·         Lighting in sanctuary/narthex

·         Session committees

·         “Bridges” to WIC, Boy Scouts, RFM, Westminster/Asbury

What realistically are our main sources of new members?

·         Those like us who are near us

·         Those like us who are somewhat near us (Canaveral Groves/PSJ)

·         Those we have some connection to – Boy Scouts

·         Our own personal friends, family, neighbors, coworkers

What skills are most important to getting the above done?

·         Handyman

·         Senior Adult Ministry experience

·         Multi-ethnic, transitional ministry experience

Pastor Wood comments—I inserted a few comments above already.  Many of the points need a follow up question of, “How?”  Or, “What do we have to offer them?”  As in, “Get younger families.”  And what I call “the invite factor” must be owned by every member.  I’m going to Circle, who can I invite.  I’m going to clean up day, who can I invite?  I’m going to choir, who can I invite.  Thank you, those of you who came, for all your good work. 

A Little Comment on Church

In the last post I shared what we said together about what the church is and does.  In the notes you can see we made it a location and facility.  We made it a group of people doing the will of God.  Giving it that people definition means church, while being location and facility at times, exists beyond location and facility as well. 

Under us being a group doing the will of God we put sharing the Good News.  The Great Commission says making disciples.  Same thing.  But I want to niggle us on point here and I am right there in the thick of it for being responsible for this issue.  The point can be made this way.  Let's say our business was to be a pregnancy center, let's say, helping people get pregnant and then helping those babies develop in a healthy way.  And there are a 100 of us employed there and we know that that is our business.  We like our office space.  We like our co-workers.  We like our employee banquets and our employee study sessions.  At the end of the year if no one got pregnant, if at the end of five years it was the same, and so on, then using our business heads, we'd say something was wrong.  But this is the case for church after church.  People show up already pregnant and we help them.  Sometimes it is not even that.  Most of the time, however, there are ... no adult baptisms (indicating someone who wasn't a disciple becoming one).  ie, a key, if not the key, product of our business is not getting produced. 

There are lots of complicated reasons for such a state of affairs.  They're valid.  Maybe we let it be too complicated.  I'm not sure.  If we go back to Peter Drucker's two key questions for any organization (What's your business?  How's business?) and keep the answers pretty basic and simple, then many or even most churches are not doing so well.  If we were a business, needing to pay for inventory and overhead and taxes and salaries, we'd need to close. 

I don't mean to be doom and gloom or point the finger.  I am, as I said, right in the thick of the responsibility for this problem.  It does keep me thinking about how I can reach out.  It does keep me thinking that session's should spend at least a few hours each year, before doing anything else almost, in developing this year's plan for making new disciples, getting those who were'nt pregnant with Christ, pregnant with Him. 
And, of course, then a few hours on how we can do worship really well in the coming year.  Then what this group of disciples needs equiping in. 

Peace.

Congregational Meeting Week 3

Who is Cocoa?  Week 3 of Congregational Meetings

                We already went through our thoughts on what Christians believe, experience, and do.  What are our thoughts on the church?  What is it?  Who are we and what do we do and what results are we to achieve? 

    We said that a church is

·         A place for worship and for teaching the Bible (a location and two activities)

·         A group of people who as a team does the will of God (sharing the good news & helping the poor)

·         A community for mutual support in the walk of Christian faith and in the events of life (ups and downs, breaking bread, sacred ceremonies of marriage & funerals)

·         A community offering the sacraments

Who comes to Cocoa Pres?  Our answer -- about a 100

·         Middle class people

·         WASPs

·         Old but still able people

·         Medium educated people

·         Giving people

·         English speaking

           What do we value?  What gets on our radar screen and how do we do those things?

·         Being formal /  Being informal   ??

·         Being traditional

·         Being not too big

·         Being intelligent

·         Being Presbyterian

·         Being ecumenical

·         Education

·         Praying for the sick

·         Visiting the hospital

·         Pastoral care

·         Lay ministry

·         Music

·         Children

·         Pot-lucks

·         Mission conference

·         Our facilities

·         Preaching

·         Playing it safe/conservative

·         Scouting

What doesn’t get on our radar screen that gets on others’?

·         Small group ministry

·         Men’s ministry emphasis

·         Financial type classes

·         Inward Journey/Spiritual Formation

·         Spiritual gifts

·         Social justice emphasis

The interim pastor shared first impressions as an outsider were –

·         We have more facility than we can maintain

·         There were a lot of signs

·         For all the love there is interpersonal tension between some members

·         The sanctuary and narthex are not well lit

·         Getting an ethnic pastor might be the way to go

·         Being very focused on senior ministry might be the way to go

·         This group is medium on formality and being Presbyterian

·         There have been disappointments here related to some pastors

Key Questions for the Congregation Searching;

Who are we? 

            Our key experiences – highest, lowest, for us normal means a,b,c

            Assets

            Liabilities*

To have a future as a viable congregation we must

            Start _____________________________________

            Stop ­­­­­­­­­­_____________________________________

            Continue _________________________________

            Fix_______________________________________

What realistically are our main sources of new members?

What we are called to do?

a combination of what we want to do

     what the Bible says we are to do

     our assets

     the opportunities around us

What skills are most important to get done what we are called to do?

How can we best articulate who we are and where we need to do?

How can we most innovatively search for a person with the skills we want and “win” them into coming?

The Congregation Meets -- Part 2A & 2B

Who is Cocoa?  Week 2 of Congregational Meetings – Part A

            We are working together creating fodder for a document helpful in the search for a new pastor.  It is resume of sorts saying who we are and what we want to do or think we need to do.  Given this, what skills do we need in the next pastor?  Make all that explicit – who we are, what we think we want or need to do, what skills are key – and then advertize and search. 

            Last week we looked back at funny moments, ouch moments, and proud moments.  That’s who we were and are.  We could look back all day and in umpteen ways but that bit of looking back is good enough.  We are still going to be left with, “Now what?” 

            We might say from the past successes and failures we have learned how to do or not do this or that.  We have learned.  That’s good.  We can carry that forward.  On the other hand remember the silver back gorilla.  For thousands of year he was successful by, when threatened, having all the other gorillas get together behind him while he beat his chest.  Now with poachers who have machine guns, that strategy is the exact wrong thing to do.  What we learned in the past, then, might be helpful or might not be.  So let’s go forward flexibly.

            Who we are has to do also with conscious and unconscious organizational choices we make.  Mom and pop stores cannot keep doing everything like a mom and pop store and be the size of IBM.  Nor vice versa.  Mom and pop operations had all three employees eating lunch together every day and that was super.  There’s a tear shed when that can’t happen because there are many employees and everything is busy.  It’s a loss.  But it is also a trade – for more friends, more activity, more income?  Seldom can we have our cake and eat it too.  There are choices to be made.

If we expect the pastor to be at the hospital whenever a congregant is in the hospital and no one else will do, then because the pastor is only one person with finite time, the church will grow to the size that he or she can handle.  And what members’ mindsets or expectations can handle.  If a pastor needs to be in control of everything and is not good at training or delegating, again the church will size itself accordingly.  A lot of pompons waving feverishly won’t change that.  If the parishioners needs to know everyone and everyone going on, then the size of that person’s awareness will affect the size of the church.  One size is not necessarily better than another (although all sizes must figure out how to stay viable).  But we are often self-cancelling without realizing it.  We say, “Grow!” while maintaining attitudes and choices and skill sets that say no to the growth.

Our choice exercise (done in our meeting time) overall pitted a pastor being caring by attending personally against a pastor being caring by training.  It’d be overly simplistic to say that it pitted a person being a pastor against being a leader.  It’s interesting how we define pastoral.  We import into the thoughts of tending, caretaking, soothing.  Thoughts of leading, goading, confronting are not there.  We’ll give a pastor high marks if he or she is caretaking but if he or she is demanding, watch out.  Yet won’t it take both for a church to be healthy?  to grow?  Yes.

So who are we?  We’re our past.  But we are also our organizational choices and expectations. 

Who is Cocoa?  Week 2 of Congregational Meetings – Part B

            Being a Christian is some combination of certain beliefs, experiences, and practices.  You are a Christian if you believe in Jesus Christ as being God and having died for your sins, for example.  You are a Christian if you have experienced conviction of sin and the peace that passes understanding, for example.  You are a Christian if you practice the Ten Commandments, for example.

            In table groups we listed our key beliefs, experiences, and practices.  Key beliefs are that Jesus is Lord and Savior, that he died for our sins, that he offers us eternal life, that the Bible is true, that the church is a community, and that there is one God.  Key experiences are, as said above, conviction of sin and peace from God related to our confession and trust in Jesus.  Key practices are prayer, the Ten Commandments, forgiving others, giving, teaching and sharing our faith, loving and respecting others, and helping the poor.

            Who are we?  We are also these beliefs.  We are our past, our organizational choices, and our beliefs.  Again, we could give more time to teasing out our beliefs and having more of them listed.  But this is a good start.  And maybe gets us 75 or 85% of the way.  Another four hours might get us another 5-10% more of the way.  You’ll have to decide if that time is worth the additional percentage.  Be assured, however, that we’ll never, even with months of work, get 100% of the way. 

The Congregation Meets -- Part 1

The congregation works with a study group to put together a "resume" for the church that says who we are, where we are going, what we need.  Here's week one of the congregation working together. 

Maybe 18-20 people plus me. 

Who we are is partially, not totally, our past.  So we went through the church’s history – the good, the bad, the ugly, and the good!  Some neat things to remember.  The Charles departure being the big blip on the radar screen.  Everyone is not going to know everything about that or agree.  Unfortunately, I guess for many of us, life isn’t always without loose ends.  That's the way it is.  Accepting that and moving on is important I believe.

We did touch on the congregation’s viability given shrinking size and finances against aging membership.  Continuing forward for any real length of time will require ministry that acquires a certain amount of participating members (show up and give) against expenses. 

So to do neighborhood ministry that doesn’t net members is doing ministry but there will be an expiration date for the church.  However, if more of the church was rented, for example, that would carry expenses and the membership could stay the same or shrink.  Or, if the congregation moved into just Flanniken Hall, for example, for the six hottest months, it could have a smaller membership because there are smaller expenses.  This same thinking can continue with regard to staffing … the same or less members can continue if the staff expenses shrink – less secretary, custodial, security, music, pastoral expenses.

Of course, we lowering expenses tends more to be talking about sustaining than growing.  Regrouping and conservancy can lead to growth at some point.  Or it can be how to prolong maintenance. 

Where are the likely sources of new members for Cocoa?  This is a key question.  Many noted how the community is changed and the inside membership is different than the neighborhood make up.  So will the immediate surrounding zip code be a source of new members?  Bud Timmons got us going in one thoughtful direction in observing Asbury Arms, the retirement center next door, is expanding it operation.  It would do that based on a good or expanding market of senior citizens. 

Consider this -- The potential new members leads us into considering then the profile and skills necessary in a pastor to reach them.

Hope this is helpful to someone.