Team Meetings

The Long Range Planning Team meets twice a month at 7pm:
every 1st Tues. and every 3rd Weds.

Next Meeting

Our next Meeting is March 17, 2010 at 7pm in the sanctuary.  We'll add people to planning areas, and start developing plans for our goals – 3yrs, 5yrs and 10 yrs.

Long Range Planning Team

If you a part of our church family we invite you to take our survey.

Long Range Planning Meeting Summary 3/2/10

Participants:  Dorothy Rogers, Joyce Horn, Iris Supcoe, Diane Snyder, Jason Grooms,  Bet Barber, Bob Barber, Chip Wood, Bill Brewer, Kathleen Stuckey, Jeff Adams, Alan Swartz.  Kathleen recorded notes (thank you!).

Dorothy opened our meeting by lighting our candle and praying to remind us that God is with us always, and will help us see the vision for our future.

The group discussed the various ministry areas we have at Horne Memorial and grouped them into four major areas to focus our long range planning efforts around:  Worship; Outreach; Resources; and Nurture.  (Not all the ministry areas are spelled out beneath the focus areas.  It was just an attempt to quickly get several listed as a start.)  We also realized there were “Meta Ministry” areas (“M&M’s”) that we need to consider in all of the four areas.

Worship:   Bet, Bob, Linda
·         Music
·         Arts/drama
·         Worship

Outreach:   Jason, Chip, Jeff, Bill, Kathleen
·         UMM
·         UMW
·         Scouts
·         Front Door
·         UMYF
·         Missions

Resources:   Bill, Phil, Bob, Jason, Jeff
·         Communication
·         Stewardship
·         Finance
·         Trustees

Nurture:   Dorothy, Joyce, Iris, Diane
·         Congregational care
·         Discipleship
·         Lay leadership

*Alan, Joyce, Rich, Diane will consult in all areas as needed

 Meta Ministries (M&Ms) (these will be discussed in all of the 4 areas identified):
·         VBS
·         Preschool
·         Learning Lab
·         Children
·         Youth
·         Adults
·         River of Life
·         Coordinate with Conference (Alan)

We discussed River of Life – which is an extension of Horne Memorial and we need include that effort in our plans.  Pastor Alan gave some history of decisions in the past and their affect on Conference actions.  All agreed it is essential that we have continued communication with the Conference to ensure our planning efforts are understood by them, and we understand the Conference plans.

Workgroup members indicated which areas they would like to work on in smaller planning groups.  The whole workgroup will discuss plans for each of the four areas, but we agreed to break out to do brainstorming and do the initial planning in these smaller groups.

Those who could not met with us need to consider which area(s) they would like to participate in the initial planning stages.  Also, prayerfully consider if you would be willing to lead a small area.  Linda will develop a tracking sheet to use to record our planning ideas for each area. [draft attached]

Pastor Alan closed our meeting in prayer.  He then gave a quick explanation of using Google Docs.

Long Range Planning Team Meeting - January 20, 2010

Participants:  Billy Rhodes, Cindy Dray, Jason Grooms, Kathleen Stuckey, Holly Patton, Diane Snyder, Phil Culpepper, Kendal Houston, Dorothy Rodgers, Alan Swartz, Grant Warren, Linda Culpepper. (If I missed someone's name, please remind me.  I'll get a roster circulated during the next meeting.)


Meeting Summary 
 
Logistics 
We decided to meet at 7pm on the 1st Tues and 3rd Weds of every month.

Several people had conflicts with Weds nights while it was good for others. We thought if we met different nights, more people could participate over all.  Use the meeting summaries to catch up on the news if you can't make a meeting.

[Sarah has reserved Room 213 for us on Tues, and we'll meet in the sanctuary on Weds.]

Linda opened with a prayer - open our ears, our hearts and minds to help discern God's will for our church future.

Mike Marvel will not be serving as co-leader but will participate.  If anyone is interested in co-leading, please let Linda or Diane know.  Otherwise, there are so many strong leaders on the Team that Linda will ask for someone to step in if she is not available. [Also will have leadership roles in the smaller groups we will divide into.]

Several youth are invited to participate with us.  There is concern that if we met every other week during their Weds program, it would pull them away too much.  Linda has suggested an alternate is to have a few Team members go to a Weds Youth program and share the Team's ideas with them in late Feb./early March.

All the youth can hear what's going on and share ideas.  May be more practical to have a few youth join us if we break into smaller workgroups to look at specific areas of planning.  Holly & Linda talked with the 56'ers tonight and gathered their thoughts - want to make sure we reach out to all different ages.


Major Discussion Points

Linda's long rambling thoughts - we are doing important work for our church family. Just as with any family, there will be different points of view and that is okay.  We may even agree to disagree.  Team members have lots of great ideas, and it is wonderful that so many people are willing to share their time to help plan our future.  Just ask that we seek to understand each other's viewpoint. 

The sanctuary is not the ideal room to be able to hear each other or use the flip charts, but it's the best we have since we have great programs using the classrooms on Weds. night.  Asked that folks speak freely during the meetings. One thing that won't make us successful is holding our thoughts and only sharing our disagreements with individuals after the meeting. It is hard to resolve differences if it is not brought out in the Team discussion.  This is going to be hard work, but we're up for it!

Shared and Discussed Responses Gathered:

What brought you to Horne?

  • Invited and felt welcomed
  • Methodist Church
  • Traditional service
  • Cup Ministry
  • Children's Ministry
  • Friends
  • Purpose - helps define the church identity
  • Looked like a church
  • Stain glass windows

What made you want to stay?

  • People - the congregation is a family
  • Opportunities for involvement
  • Kids Programs
  • The way the Word of God is presented
  • Encouragement to be involved
  • Connected - feel a part of the community.  Plugged in.  Ex: Cup Ministry  Past example: Fellowship Friends
  • Mission work

What would make you a better Disciple of Christ?

  • Sunday School at different times - for people in the Contemporary Service.  Discussed need to have program for the children as well as adults.
  • More Bible studies
  • Small Groups - they can focus their activities to meet their busy schedules
  • More intentional mentoring
  • Circles
  • Take individual responsibility to be engaged
  • Bring people & get them hooked
  • Find a way to get people connected
  • Joint activities among churches across denominations.  Ex: Men's Bible Study and other activities w/people from other churches
  • Provide opportunities for a variety of worship activities, or if we cannot offer it, help people find what they need. Ex: youth athletics, since we don't have it, encourage families and help them find that particular activity within the Clayton community.  People in other congregations bring their children to our VBS.
  • Focus on doing it well - including supporting other projects in the community beyond Horne.
  • Facilities - gym/multipurpose space

Generally - the individual invitation and warmth felt when you meet the church family is a very important focus for us.

Also very important is getting people involved as soon as they walk through our doors.  Several areas listed brought us to discuss potential solutions which we are all anxious to do.

That led us to ask how should we focus our attention in planning.  Linda suggested using our ministry areas as a way to organize our thoughts. This would help with implementation of ideas - use the existing infrastructure (our ministry teams).  They have people serving on rotation so you get continuity throughout the years.  White Plains chose to have every team's Vice Chairperson serve on the Long Range Planning Team, once the initial plan was in place.  This way they did not have the weight of chairing a team and could better participate.  Also, it gave them insight across the church ministry areas as they took on a Team Chairperson responsibility the next year.  Dorothy indicated most teams have someone serving as Vice Chair or similar role.  It is something to keep in mind as we move forward.

Action Items 

Linda will take re-look at the planning information generated during last year's Leadership Retreat along with the above ideas gathered, and try to make the first cut at organizing initial planning thoughts based on ministry areas.  


Everyone - think about which ministry area you would be interested in work with, realizing everyone is going to be involved across all the areas eventually. The smaller workgroups can bring their thoughts to the whole Team for discussion.  Keep thinking in terms of how we will implement each recommendation to make them happen.  Keep talking with people to seek their ideas.

Draft agenda Feb. 2nd 7pm in Room 213:           

Welcome any new participants. (We're getting into the meat, so join us if you're ready to work hard!)

Discuss options on how to organize our planning efforts
                -  look at it by area of ministry
                -  consider other methods

Start working with recommendations from the 2009 Leadership Retreat and generating new ones - using the 1, 3, 5 year time zones.  Consider what actions will lead to the objectives.

Discuss our involvement in the Feb. Leadership Forum 

 

Thanks for reading through to the end of the summary, and keep praying for our Team,

Linda