Edwardsville United Methodist Church
CONSULTATION REPORT
March 18, 2012
Introduction
We, the consultation team, would like to thank Pastor Beverly Perry, staff, lay leadership and congregation of Edwardsville United Methodist Church for the invitation to consult with this Body of Christ. The following observations and prescriptions are the result of this team studying the following information: a) Edwardsville United Methodist Church self-study document provided by its leaders, b) interviews with pastor, staff and ministry team leaders, c) a focus group with members of the congregation, d) a meeting with the Church Council, e) a MissionInsite demographic report of the area’s population, f) input from Saturday’s leadership workshop, and g) Faith Perceptions Report, mystery guest worshipper.
Our prayer is that God will use this assessment experience and consultation report to help Edwardsville United Methodist Church to more effectively make disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the world.
Strengths
Edwardsville United Methodist Church’s greatest strengths are as follows:
1. Strong sense of church family
The people of Edwardsville United Methodist Church are friendly with one another and seek to make guests feel like family, so that guests become a part of God’s family. This is exemplified by the warmth of relationships and an overwhelming sense of care and within the congregation. Newcomers affirm an accepting and nonjudgmental spirit. Their strong sense of family is evident in the way they visit with each other before and after services and the way guests are welcomed. The Faith Perceptions report cites examples of mystery guests who experienced direct eye contact, engaging greetings, warm handshakes, and invitations to connect to ministries of the church.
2. Mission/Outreach
The church has a strong history/tradition of giving to and engaging in mission outreach. The congregation’s passion for missions is evident through their annual faith-promise campaign, which raises significant funds to support international mission work and disaster relief efforts. They have participated in many mission trips including Confrontation Point, Red Bird Mission, and John’s Island. The church and its members support many local outreach projects and activities such as Red Cross, Interfaith Community Council, and school supply give-away. The congregation is very proud of this work and the consultation team celebrates these efforts to continue looking outward.
3. Music
Music plays an important role and is taken seriously in the worship life of Edwardsville United Methodist Church. Many commented about the high quality of music in all services. Diversity of worship services is an asset because it provides an opportunity for more people to connect with the ministries of Edwardsville United Methodist Church. The Faith Perceptions Report cited music as one of the higher marks of the Sunday morning experience.
4. Facility and Location
Edwardsville United Methodist Church has been blessed with a relatively new facility, located just off a high traffic interstate, I-64. The sanctuary is attractive, ministry space is well maintained and initiatives to expand are being explored. High accessibility to a suburban area and an award-winning school system provides the church with great ministry opportunities to a growing percentage of singles and families between the ages of 25-34. It has a great proximity to many businesses, schools, parks, universities, government services, and restaurants in Floyd County. The church is also very willing to share its facility with the community through a subsidized pre-school and groups such as AA/ALANON, Weight Watchers, SI Writers group, Special People, and Floyd County Schools Back-Pack Supply site.
5. Senior Pastor
The people of Edwardsville United Methodist Church are fortunate to have the a committed engaging Pastor Beverly Perry who has the respect and support of the congregation as a shepherding pastor and is a significant draw for the ministry Edwardsville United Methodist Church. Members describe her as loveable, welcoming and laid-back; and her preaching is biblically based, relevant and engaging. She genuinely cares for her congregation and is spiritually grounded and committed to leading the church forward into the mission field. Staff shared a strong sense of confidence in her ability.
Concerns:
Edwardsville United Methodist Church’s greatest areas of concern are as follows:
1. LACK OF CLEAR, SHARED VISION
Edwardsville United Methodist Church has no clear, shared vision to accomplish an outwardly-focused mission “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” The church has written a vision statement but could not articulate their role in God’s mission to make new disciples, nor has it discovered its unique mission to the community. This seems to stem from an inability to develop measurable goals that provide for accountability.
2. LACK OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
The church does not adequately communicate and make connections with those inside and outside the church, including:
■ Communication between staff, members, leaders, potential leaders and volunteers. This seems to stem from conflict avoidance, absence of trust, and fear of loss.
■ Communication between the local church and the community. The Faith Perceptions report indicated the website was “nice looking, but sparse” and did not include adequate information about ministries for newcomers. One mystery guest stated, “I am coming to the conclusion that they may want to just keep this gem of a service their own secret!”
■ Interior and exterior signage is lacking direction for guests to the facility and in/outside the building.
3. INADEQUATE MINISTRY TO FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN
The MissionInsite study clearly identifies that children are a major portion of the population surrounding the church. There are few significant ministries to attract children and families. While there is a pre-school, enrollment remains below capacity in spite of the significant generosity of tuition subsidies. The consult team also felt that the children’s ministry and pre-school space might be misplaced and inadequate, which could be a contributing factor to low registration and participation. Children and youth ministry needs to be enhanced to provide a dynamic, quality faith experience.
4. ACCOUNTABLE LEADERSHIP AND STAFF REALIGNMENT
The leadership structure of the Edwardsville United Methodist Church is cumbersome, repetitive and lacking accountability. There are no staff meetings, consistencies in hiring practices and communication policies. One member described the structure as “over-committee’d.” Planning is not cohesive and no clear goals are present. The current system does not marry accountability, authority, and responsibility into the process of leadership and decision-making. The current policies sometimes inhibit efficiencies in the ministries of the church.
5. NO CLEAR DISCIPLESHIP PATHWAY
There is no clear system to grow disciples of Jesus Christ at Edwardsville United Methodist Church. While some attempts have been made to connect newcomers, there are no steps and pathways to move people of all ages from seekers to fully devoted and authentic followers of Jesus Christ. This is particularly clear in the gap that occurs between doing missions and building a bridge to discipleship and evangelism. In addition, there is no plan to train and recruit new leaders. There needs to be a known and effective process to build authentic relationships with new people. No one could clearly articulate how a person:
● first connects to Jesus Christ and the church?
● grows in their knowledge of the faith?
● becomes connected to other believers for support and accountability?
● becomes active in service to others for the purpose of sharing the gospel?
Prescriptions:
In order to address the above concerns, Edwardsville United Methodist Church must implement the following prescriptions:
1. MISSION AND VISION:
The congregation understands that the day this consultation report is accepted (should that be the case), this congregation will adopt, “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” as its mission statement.
The congregation will have a service of prayer and forgiveness, to embrace God’s mandate for making disciples. This will allow the membership to be fully prepared for the Lord’s vision for the future. This will be led by Paula Gast, Church Development Prayer Coordinator or someone she provides, in consultation with the senior pastor, no later than June 15, 2012.
Also, the coach will conduct a Day of Visioning Workshop for the congregation. The purpose of this day is to dream of how God might want to work through the congregation both individually and collectively to reach the surrounding community. This day will occur on or before June 30, 2012. Following the Day of Visioning, the pastor, in conjunction with the coach and the leadership of the church, will articulate a vision, which will be presented to the congregation by August 15, 2012.
Upon adopting the new mission, every ministry in the congregation must demonstrate how it will accomplish the vision. To that end, the leaders will conduct a mission and ministry audit. Any ministries not focused on the mission will be given a year to adapt in order to fit the mission statement or be dissolved. This audit must be completed by February 15, 2013.
2. COMMUNICATION:
By June 1, 2012, the senior pastor, in consultation with the coach, will establish a Communication Evaluation Task Force of 3 persons, to evaluate the effectiveness of current communication within the congregation, as well as the community. They will research and explore healthy communication practices of other churches, and present a plan for recommended changes to the Administrative Council, to address the following:
■ Communication between staff, members, leaders, potential leaders and volunteers.
■ Communication between the local church and the community.
■ Interior and exterior signage.
They will pay particular attention to: 1) e-mail, 2) websites, 3) social networking, 4) bulletins/newsletters, 5) pamphlets describing church ministries and outreach, 6) posters and digital information boards, 7) newcomer materials, 8) exterior signage, 9) any unused technologies.
The Communication Evaluation Task Force will report their recommendations to Administrative Council on or before September 30, 2012.
3. FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN:
The Senior Pastor, in conjunction with the coach will create a Children’s Ministry Task Force, consisting of no more than seven individuals on or before September 1, 2012, to do the following:
● visit at least 3 congregations as large or larger than Edwardsville United Methodist Church, such as Blue Grass United Methodist Church (in Evansville, IN) and Sellersburg United Methodist Church which have a thriving, growing, 21st century, Children’s ministry by October 1, 2012.
● create a vision for children’s ministry including a job description for a staff position, dedicated to all Children’s ministry at Edwardsville United Methodist Church by November 1, 2012 and presented to Staff Parish Committee by November 15, 2012.
● conduct an assessment of the facility, related to needs of the Edwardsville United Methodist Church Children’s ministry and make recommendations for immediate changes to the Trustee board, on or before, January 30, 2013.
● implement a new Children’s ministry by May 1, 2013.
4. ACCOUNTABLE LEADERSHIP AND STAFF REALIGNMENT
The Senior Pastor and Coach will conduct a workshop for staff (paid and unpaid) and the Administrative Council, based on Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, to help raise the staff and Administrative Council’s effectiveness in working together—dealing with conflict in open healthy ways, dealing with the tendency of staff operating in “silos,” and engendering trust, cooperation, and healthy communication. This will be completed by November 1, 2012.
The pastor, in consultation with the coach, will do an audit of the church staff making recommendations for its reorganization and alignment with the church’s mission and vision. This recommendation will be given to the Staff Parish Committee and the Administrative Council for implementation by January 1, 2013.
To improve communication across ministry lines and to unify the staff around the vision the pastor needs to be in monthly staff meeting with those reporting to her for strategic planning, goal sharing, and implementation of the ministry by both paid and unpaid staff.
All Staff and ministry leaders will be expected to set annual measurable goals that show how people are being led to Jesus Christ through their ministry (numbers), how they are developing new leaders (numbers), and how their area will grow (percentage). They will also set any other goals that determine ministry effectiveness. Results towards these goals will be reported to the Administrative Council and staff parish relations, and used in their annual evaluations. This will begin January 15, 2013.
The senior pastor and the coach will hold an Accountability Leadership workshop for all staff and leaders for the purpose of exploring simplified organizational structures with recommendation to the Administrative Council by March 31, 2013.
5. DISCIPLESHIP PATHWAY
The pastor, in consultation with the coach, will put together a five person, multi-generational Task Force to create a clear discipleship path for moving people from where they are on their spiritual journey to becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, by January 1, 2013. The discipleship path will be designed for everyone, whether a non-believer or one who is maturing in their faith. This discipleship path will represent a lifelong process. The Task Force will discern a faith development plan within a Wesleyan model that encourages all persons:
● to connect and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ;
● to help them be transformed by studying the principles of the Christian faith;
● to provide connection opportunities with other believers for support and accountability; and
● to be in service to others for the purpose of the mission.
Additionally, the pastor in consultation with the coach will provide a training process to create the necessary opportunities (i.e. small groups, classes, Sunday school, missions etc.) for entry onto the discipleship path. This new process will be adopted and implemented in the life of Edwardsville United Methodist Church at all ministry levels (children, youth and adults) by September 1, 2013.
Conclusion
We, the consulting team, want to thank you for the opportunity to serve your congregation through this Fruitful Congregation Journey assessment process. Our prayer and hope for your congregation is that God will use this process to help your church become more effective and fruitful. May God give you courage and strength as you move forward.
- Rev. Mark Gough, Lead Consultant (Director of Church Development, Indiana Conference)
- Sharon Washington, Consultant (Associate Director of Church Development, Indiana Conference)
- Greg Graham, Consultant
- Mark Eutsler, Coach
Town Hall Meeting Dates
Sunday, March 28, 2012 – 7:00 PM (Epicenter)
Thursday, April 5, 2012 – 8:00 PM (after Maundy Thursday service – Epicenter)
Saturday, April 14, 2012 – 1:00 PM (Epicenter)
Church Conference Date:
Tuesday, April 25, 2012 – 7:00 PM