Message from the Priest-in-Charge

Dear people of All Saints,

This is a brief note to update everyone on the work I am doing with the vestry.

As you may recall from an earlier blast, at the February vestry meeting I reviewed the results of the Congregational Vitality Assessment (or CVA), which was taken by the vestry and ministry chairs, and separately by the staff, and identified what areas of congregational life were most vital and least vital:

Most Vital: Worship & Spiritual Life
Least Vital: Vision & Mission, Change Readiness, & Context Awareness (context=community)

At the March vestry meeting (next Tuesday), we will be working with a tool that is designed to increase the congregation’s awareness of the community it serves. Called the Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report, it is an interactive infographic report that provides more than 40 points of data about neighborhood demographics, trends, and issues. Most congregations learn three things:

It confirms some things they think they knew about the community
It dis-confirms other things they thought they knew about the community
It opens their eyes to some population segments and neighborhood issues that they had absolutely no idea were there.

We call that last thing the “holy crap” moment and while the holy crap moment is different for each congregation, it always occurs and helps them see into their blind spots.