St.
Chad's Episcopal Church
The Little Church With a Big Heart
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The Little Church With a Big Heart |
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Building Committee Ministries
Emphasis to Guide St Chad’s Building Committee #3 Results
from Town Hall Meetings of 10 and 15 July 2007 The
Building Committee has analyzed the results from the approximately 70 survey
responses turned in following the town hall meetings. BC3’s interpretation of the results in terms of the
emphasis that BC3 should put on ensuring that the eventual, expanded facilities
have features that will enhance St Chad’s ability to effectively accomplish
those ministries is attached. In
that regard, parishioners’ responses to the 16 potential ministries fell into
4 categories: “Key ministries”, “Widely desirable ministries”, “No
shared vision” and “Avoid”. In
that sorting process, it is important to note that BC3 did not use a numerical
scoring scheme to produce quantitative scores for each ministry; rather, we
looked primarily at the number and distribution of importance responses for each
potential ministry. While
most of those categories are rather self-explanatory, a word of elaboration is
useful for the “no shared vision” category.
Although all ministries may be considered worthy and serving God, not all
parishioners accord them the same priority or emphasis.
Indeed, where a particular ministry may be seen as crucial to one
parishioner, another may see it as unimportant or even as one to be avoided for
one reason or another; other parishioners may be neutral about that ministry,
believing that if someone else wishes to do it that’s fine but they wouldn’t
object if that ministry were not part of St Chad’s program.
Such a “no shared vision” ministry may simply be waiting for a
parishioner with passion for it to grab the reins and lead it; or the Vestry may
decide that such a ministry deserves to be promoted by the Vestry. BC3
now plans to translate those ministries emphasis results into preliminary
facility requirements or design features. To
do so, we will ensure that the key ministries are well-addressed, and that
widely desirable ministries are accommodated to the extent possible.
The other ministries will not be ignored, but will not be used as key
determinants of our design efforts; indeed, as we seek to design good
multi-purpose space, many ministries in the lower two categories could still be
accommodated. In
short, the survey responses reflected the traditional hallmarks and emphases of
St Chad’s. The key ministries
revolve around worship, Christian education, and fellowship. Ministries widely seen as important include meeting the needs
of our teens, outreach to our community, special accommodations for reflection
and prayer, and people with special needs.
Parishioners were not supportive of St Chad’s establishing and
operating an accredited primary school, and current views were either neutral or
divergent about non-traditional worship settings, sponsorship of concerts or
programs for neighborhood teens, in-house outreach programs, expansion of the
Family Cooperative Pre-school, and a full-time daycare or pre-school. BC3
believes that the town hall meetings achieved what we sought – views about the
ministries that St Chad’s should emphasize, and an opportunity for
parishioners to make their views known as part of our Building Program. The
results were unanimously approved by the Vestry on August 12.
Bob Gough, Chair Click here to view the categorization of survey results. |
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