Parish Growth and Development LRP

Long Range Plan For Parish Growth and Development
Chair: Marian Ferguson
508-362-8225


LONG RANGE PLAN - PARISH GROWTH draft 4/24/06

I. WHERE WE ARE

A. Membership
St. Mary’s currently has about 600 resident members representing 350 separate families. In addition our rolls include 30 non-resident families and about 300 inactive members. We are considering an active resident family to be one who attends church, and/or pledges or gives, and/or has at least one family member who is active in the life of the parish and who makes the Cape their primary home.

From January 2004 – December 2005 (20 months) 38 active new families joined the parish. These are families who came to St. Mary’s in the last year of our interim and Steve’s first year; they represent about 11% of our total number of parish families. There was little or no outreach to increase membership in that period.

Our current membership has 62 families with members over 80 year of age. This represents 17% of our total resident membership. Some of these folks are not currently active due to age.

Our current families reside from Sagamore to Brewster with the following
geographic distribution.
24% Barnstable
17% Yarmouth Port
20% Hyannis/Hyannisport/Centerville
20% to the west of these areas
19% to the east of these areas

The tenure of the family membership of our current congregation is as follows
11% <> twenty years

Another measure of parish growth and development is attendance at services.
2000 - 22,138
2001 - 22,788
2002 - 20,391
2003 - 18,379
2004 - 13,130
2005 - 14,369 (Note- we dropped from four to three weekend services)


B. Congregation involvement/participation

216 families pledged to give to St. Mary’s in 2005. The pattern in years past is also significant. Our decline during interim years reached it bottom in 2004, inched up with a new rector; we hope to see continued increase in the number of pledges in our current drive for 2006.

1997 - 305 pledges
1998 - 285 pledges
1999 - 278 pledges
2000 - 279 pledges
2001 - 264 pledges
2002 - 267 pledges
2003 - 242 pledges
2004 - 205 pledges
2005 - 222 pledges (63% of resident families); an additional 38 families give without pledging, bringing our financial involvement to 74%

Another measure of congregational growth and development is participation in the life of the church. The following is based on family units, not individuals (hence a family of 4 will be counted the same as a single person household.)

204/350 or 58% of resident families attend church

119/350 or 43% of families serve in a church service related activity*

138/350 or 39% of families have at least one member who volunteers in a weekday activity.*

* There is significant overlap in these two groups. The numbers and percentages could change as we check with more group leaders and refine the lists.

73 students are enrolled in Church school representing 42 or 12% of parish families

215/380 or 55% of resident and non resident members participated in our Parish-wide Questionnaire in Summer 2005


From January 2004-September 2005, we identified 43 families as newcomers. From this group we have identified 33 new active families, of which 1/3 are involved with church school. This represents a retention rate of over 75% of those newcomers who walk in the door. Of these 28 new families:

23 are active volunteers
9 are involved with church school
23 have pledged
7 have made gifts
2 are clergy


C. Summary of where we are:

Having completed a parish wide-survey and visitation program in the spring-summer of 2005, we now have a fairly reliable sense of how many families are active within the church. There are still some issues to be resolved in record keeping, especially with regard to:

-counting active members (i.e. baptized children of inactive members who have not attended since they were baptized?)
-how do “good prospects” morph into active members?

Based on the Questionnaire returns, it’s clear that many people who had been active are no longer physically able to be. The challenge to the parish now is to develop a comparable corps of active members and leaders to build upon the efforts of those who’ve preceded us.


II. OBJECTIVES: WHERE WE WANT TO BE

GOALS
A. Retain and engage current membership – seek at least 70% to be involved parish life attend, pledge, church school, or volunteer.
B. Maintain an active membership list of about 400 families by 2008/2009. This means adding a net of 12-15 new families each year
C. Cultivate new leadership

A. Retain and Engage Current Membership

Our goals must be to focus on and organize the program and involvement desired by our current members. We have come through a long period without addressing needs in this area. The stable infrastructure will be essential to future growth in numbers and program. While some may argue that we need a larger pool of people from which to draw additional volunteers or pledges, it is not clear that we have done all we can to enlist the aid and involvement of current members. At this point, it seems wiser to spend at least a year (2006) to allocate resources in this direction while being mindful of newcomers, rather than mount a campaign to increase membership by an arbitrary percent. Note the diversity of skills the questionnaire revealed waiting to be tapped in the parish. These lists should be systematically mined for new base of volunteers, and we should develop a system of recording and tapping into skills of people new to the parish. As well we need to develop the data base capacity to keep track of these skills and interests and create a central “clearing house” for volunteers and volunteer opportunities

B. Grow to 350 Active Families by 2008-2009

Attract, welcome and incorporate new families (aim for 20 families, per year) into the life of St. Mary’s in order to sustain sufficient levels of congregation size to support both the Christian mission and practical needs of our parish (figuring attrition 20-25 individuals through death and moving each year.) In the absence of a membership drive, there is much to do to cultivate membership within those who walk in our doors; based on performance in the past 18 months, it seems reasonable to expect we may offset natural attrition in this manner. In early 2007 we should review of numbers to consider the need for a membership drive

C. Cultivate New Leadership

A third goal in parish development is the need to cultivate new leadership. Many have commented on the number of small number people who continue to carry the leadership load at St. Mary’s. We need to lighten the load on our heroes and to allow additional lights to shine. This represents a cultural shift at St. Mary’s; it won’t happen overnight. It should be discussed and modeled from the clergy, vestry, ECW on down. Aim might be to (1) identify all such leadership roles in first 6 months, (2) prepare job descriptions of each within twelve months, and (3) within the next 18 months identify second in command who will accept future leadership.


III. STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

A. Identify and recruit team to develop and execute plan over next 3-5 years; determine meeting expectations
1. Leslyn Thorne – Newcomer Events
2. Linda Hutton, Connie Phillips - Shepherds
3. Jim Cranitch – parish volunteers, data base management
4. Janis Umschlag, Evangelism committee
5. To be determined, Fellowship Committee
6. Ann Canedy, ECW
7. Link with Communications Task Force

B. Communicate to the parish the current state of membership, and goals for growth to seek their involvement in organizing increased participation,attracting new parishioners, and identifying new leadership.
1. Present overview of needs/goals to congregation via newsletter
2. Focus on responsibility of everyone to attract newcomers- “bring
a friend to church”
3. Conduct open meeting to explain status and recruit help (4/30)
4. Publish and circulate parish membership directory (done 12/05);
publish semi annual supplements of newcomers and updates
5. Publish packet for newcomers (green brochure done 10/05))

C. Identify and promote “affinity” activities within parish community to engage new and old members
1. Implement programs around movers to area, people engaged in outreach programs in general community
2. Dinners for 7 – consider making the part of a revived Fellowship Committee, responsible for church wide hospitality
3. Programs suggested by Questionnaire and visitation research (Adult bible study, current event forums, elder care, etc.)
4. Emphasize a “rebirth” leveraging new ministerial resources, re-energized commitment around Strategic Plan needs for volunteerism
5. Include targeted messages to appeal to individual needs: spiritual, educational, outreach to elderly/shut ins

D. Insure that visitors to services, church programs etc. are actively met and given information about our parish and its benefits.
1. Renew commitment to tours of facility (Russ Fales), use of pew cards, updated nametag board
2. Newcomers tri-fold to be installed at front door
3. Clergy visits with newcomers packet
4. Shepherd follow-up; program maintenance
5. Newcomer coffees/events; develop parish wide responsibility to greet newcomers every Sunday
6. Vestry greeter rotation (in place 11/05)
7. Include newcomers on dinners for 7 lists as space is available
8. Develop system to record newcomers’ interests re volunteering

E. Work with current leaders to identify second-in-command
1. Codify and publish job descriptions
2. Identify potential leaders parish-wide
3. Make volunteer lists available to leaders; update quarterly



IV. RESOURCES NEEDED

A. Clergy time for newcomer visits, program development (and leadership)
B. Data base maintenance; record keeping, identifying and thanking
volunteers
C. Shepherd program maintenance
D. Communications support: Cross Currents, Annual reports; Sunday
Bulletin; Newcomer’s packet, Directory of members
E. Volunteer time (shepherds, office, etc. etc.)
F. Parish-wide support of endeavor – “buy-in”.


V. OPEN ISSUES

A. Record keeping- Definition of “member”: How/when do you move from Good Prospect to Active Member? Related issues of member categories.

B. Optimum congregation size: 350 active resident families?

C. How to identify and enlist potential leaders? Build a climate of ownership and wider base of those taking responsibility for the parish body and programs. How to evaluate progress and feedback?

St. Mary’s Church Strategic Plan
Parish Growth and Development - Goal Tracking

A. Retain and Engage Current Membership

-Identify and Recruit Team Qrtr 1 ‘06
-Present goals/roles to in CC Qrtr 3 ’06 (Sept)
-Parish LRP meeting Qrtr 2 ’06 (Apr)
-Parish membership directory Done
-Dinners for 7 Done; update lists
- Revive Fellowship Com Qrtr 3 ’06 (August)
- Emphasize “rebirth” and Qrtr 3 ’06 (Oct)
- Introduce programs suggested by Qrtr 3 ’06 Oct)
Letters to those who expressed interest
-Target programs for individual needs Qrtr 4 ‘06


B. Grow parish to 400 active families 2009-2010

- Vestry greeters collect pew cards Done
- Update name tags Quarterly
- Newcomers’ tri-fold at front door Done
-Newcomers’ packet, clergy visits Done
-Publish newcomers names in CC Monthly
-Shepherd assignment, follow-up Monthly
-Shepherd team meeting April; Oct.
-Newcomer coffee/event; facility tours Quarterly
-Review membership list, data Quarterly
-Reconsider need for membership drive Qrtr 1 ’07, 08


C. Grow new leadership

-Generate list of current positions and teams Qrtr 2 ’06 -Maintain list of potential leaders/ workers Ongoing
-Generate job descriptions/function notebooks Qrtr 3 ’06
-All of the above to have “second in command” Qrtr 1 ’07