Envisioning
Our Community
of Faith
“Envisioning the Future” Focus Groups
Thank you for participating in the St. Albans history discussions and for filling out the questionnaires!
Now it is time to move forward with the most interesting part of the process: Envisioning the Future. We will be holding a series of focus groups to pray, share, explore what the questionnaires and research say about ourselves and our community, and dream. We hope that all adult parishioners will participate in the focus groups. The focus group process entails four sessions, each 90 minutes long. (You will have a choice of 3 different time slots). These sessions will be quite lively and will be a good way for you to reexamine your own spiritual path as well as the path forward for St. Albans.
Please sign-up on the sheets posted in the narthex for the focus group series which is most convenient for you. It would be ideal if you could attend all four sessions, because each session builds on the previous one(s). However, we would like you to participate, even if you might have to miss a session. You should stay with the same group rather than switch around.
Here are the focus group sessions. Please sign up for the session which is most convenient for you and mark your calendar!
Group 1 Sunday 11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.* |
Group 2 Wednesday 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. |
Group 3 Wednesday 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Vision Process |
April 27 |
April 30 |
April 30 |
| What do the surveys say about us? |
May 4 |
May 7 |
May 7 |
| What does research say about our community? |
May 18 |
May 21 |
May 21 |
| Envisioning the future |
June 1 |
June 4 |
June 4 |
* You may want to bring a sandwich.
About This Time of Reflection, the Transition Team, and the Rector Search Process:
The transition period between rectors is a valuable time for parish reflection and renewal. This is a time to share our ideas, hopes, and dreams about who we are as Christians, what our commitments are to each other and to our community, and how we plan to achieve our spiritual and other goals. It is only after we have developed our vision for the future that we will identify the specific characteristics that we will seek in a new rector.
We must remember that the role of a rector is to support and guide us as we work together to fulfill Christ’s mission for us as individuals and as a community of faith. It is not the role of a rector to tell us the direction in which we should be heading, but rather to help us get there. Each parish has an enduring core mission as well as certain aspects which evolve over time.
A transition team has been formed to help the parish reexamine, renew, and refresh its mission and priorities as a community of faith.
Greg Cuprak, chair
Steven Davis
Judy Gwaltney
Jerry Harrell
Ruth Norman
Jim Wolford
Rae Booth, consultant
Bill Gail, Vestry liaison
The discernment process will take three months, April - June. The process has three components: reflecting on the past, characterizing the present, and envisioning the future. The transition team has made a commitment to lead the process, evaluate the outcomes, and communicate the findings. We need your commitment as well! In order for this to be successful, we need everyone to participate actively and to keep St. Albans in their prayers. Everyone’s insights and spiritual priorities are important.
We started by reflecting on the past at a lively tabletop discussion that took place after church on Sunday, April 6. This was two hours of discussion and reflection on what the ministry of St. Albans has meant for each of us.
Following these discussions, questionnaires were handed out. Questionnaires for parishioners who were unable to attend the history discussions were mailed out on April 7. Completed questionnaires can be placed in a designated box in the narthex by Sunday, April 13 or mailed to St. Albans. All questionnaires must by received by April 14. We need to ask your help in completing and turning in the questionnaires very quickly because:
- we want to finish the discernment process before everyone disperses for summer vacations, and
- we are using Percept, a church research database service, to help us analyze the questionnaires. It takes 3 weeks for Percept to complete the computerized analysis.
Why are we using Percept? Percept has collected an enormous amount of information about communities and churches all over the U.S. This information comes from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, consumer marketing surveys conducted by Claritas (affiliated with ACNeilson), and Ethos Surveys conducted by Percept. Using a standardized questionnaire, Percept will compare the characteristics and preferences of St. Albans parishioners to those of our community. These findings will help us view St. Albans “from the outside in” -- how do we look to the community - as well as “from the inside out” - what are our own spiritual priorities. An example of a typical Percept report will be posted on the Transition Team bulletin board in the parish hall. Click here to visit the Percept website.
All questionnaires will be anonymous and will be treated confidentially. In addition to the standardized Percept questionnaire, we will include an open-ended questionnaire that will permit you to express your specific preferences and ideas. There will also be a special youth questionnaire, for confirmed youth up to the age of 18. All input will be aggregated.
After the standardized questionnaires have been analyzed by Percept and the open-ended and youth questionnaires have been analyzed by the Transition Team, we will share and discuss the outcomes with you in a series of 3-4 focus groups. This is the opportunity for envisioning our future! We will provide you with information about these focus groups shortly. They will take place on Sunday mornings (9:20 or 11:45) or Wednesday evenings (7:00) during May and possibly early June. Choose whatever time slot is more convenient.
The next few months will be very busy for us all! The discernment process is vital to our future. Thank you for contributing your time, prayers, perceptions, and creativity to this process.
Other Links:
Learn about the Rector Search Process
Learn about the Interim Rector