The Transition Team reported to Congregational Council at its meeting on June 11, 2018.
Over the past several months, the Transition Team met with 13 focus groups and heard directly from other individuals in a process that engaged almost 100 members of Trinity. The six members of the team (Loie Angelsten, Roz Horn, Sulma Rubert- Silva, John Trobaugh, Mary Tarquinio and Pastor Nathan) prepared summaries of each of the Focus Groups and presented these to the Council, as well as identifying the Top 5 most commonly expressed themes across the groups.
“Top 5” themes reported to the Council. Members stated:
- the importance and desire for community engagement and outreach
- the importance of communication – both internal within Trinity and from Trinity to the neighborhood – and underscored the vital role Social Media plays in communication
- fear of the congregation dwindling away, dying out, and losing relevance
- appreciation for the ministry staff of Pastor Nathan, Cantor Mark, and Director of Youth & Family Ministy Jena Hardy, and a desire to utilize their talents
- support for education and programming that can engage families with children and meet the spiritual needs of the congregation
Next steps for the Transition Team:
- Reports for Ministry Teams … While the team identified the top 5 themes in its report to Council, there is still great wealth of information that was collected in the focus groups. The Transition Team will now review all 13 focus group summaries and provide to Ministry Teams a summary of all the comments, ideas, and suggestions that fall in their respective areas (see Council President report for Ministry Cabinet areas). For example, comments such as “no one should be sitting alone during coffee hour”, and “we need points of entry for new members to become active outside of worship service and we need points of connection for existing members when they want to get more involved”, will be provided to the Chairs for consideration as they go forward in their work.
- Interactive presentations to Congregation … The Transition Team will join Council in planning interactive discussions with church members in the next few months for further conversation of the findings of the Transition Team. To see summaries of the Focus Groups, and/or for more information about the findings and process, please speak a member of the Transition Team. Focus group materials and summaries are always available for members to review.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Tarquinio (chair)