St. Paul’s Vestry and Strategic Planning Committee developed a set of high-level strategic priorities, based on focus group and survey results from the full parish, which they outlined at Annual Meeting in 2019. We will regularly review these priorities to ensure they still represent the hopes, dreams, and plans of our faith community.
More about the process of developing and presenting these priorities:
The Vestry took data that the Strategic Planning Committee collected, collated, and analyzed – data that communicated what each of YOUR individual priorities are – and distilled them into language that describes what OUR priorities are as a community. Their process was grounded both in analysis and also in prayerfulness, listening with one ear to the congregation’s collective input about their hopes for the future of St. Paul’s, and with a second ear to where God is beckoning us next in our continuing journey as God’s church.
The resulting Strategic Priorities are a response to what they heard using both ears – ideally encapsulating all of your input as well as their sense of what the Holy Spirit was trying to say to our church as well. The intention is that while every part of each priority might not fully resonate with every person, at least some aspect of at least one of the priorities will touch a deeper, God-given yearning within each of us. Just before Advent 2018, the Vestry shared a draft of these priorities at our late-fall ministry leaders gathering, and was affirmed that everyone present could name something in the priorities that spoke to them at the heart level.
During the sermon time on Annual Meeting Sunday in 2019, members of the Vestry shared with the church which phrases in the strategic priorities were most meaningful to them and a bit about why. We then had time for everyone to look at the priories and begin to consider what word or phrase in the document felt like your priority. Conversations continued over the potluck lunch. Every parishioner was given a sticky note to write a brief word about which part of the priorities struck a special chord in them and why. The stickies were then added to three poster boards, representing each of the priorities, to create a catalog of “first impressions.”
Our Vestry has chosen to adopt “priorities” that they expect, with your help and God’s, will infuse every ministry, team, committee, and activity of our parish in the coming months. This differs somewhat from the way a Board of Directors of a company or non-profit might impose a strategic plan with specific action steps, defined time horizons, and measurable goals. Rather than such a top-down approach, the Vestry hopes that each ministry group in the church will spend time reflecting on how our priorities as a church might shape (or re-shape) their ministries. The Vestry has already begun this work for themselves, and they stand ready to provide support, advice and accountability to each ministry as they do so, too.