Priorities

I just posted a summary of a Church Times article by English laywoman Sue Johns.  One of her exhortations about planning diocesan ministry work struck a chord with me:

If we were starting from scratch, what would our aim be, and how would we set about achieving it?  Let’s draw up a strategic plan that has real targets and measurable milestones.

(Emphasis added.)

I can relate to that.  I was on my parish's vestry a few years ago.  Another member and I repeatedly tried to get the vestry to define specific goals and timetables for the parish's work.  We particularly urged adopting concrete, measurable milestones.  We wanted the clergy and lay leadership to be able to monitor our progress, judge our effectiveness, and make mid-course corrections as needed.   We asked that the rector and senior warden appoint a committee to start developing these tools.

We never got anywhere.  The rector had other things on his mind at the time.  He was working to build support for gutting and renovating our main church.  We'd had a series of troubles with the physical plant.  The building committee's recommendation was to do a complete renovation.  The attendant capital campaign was for some $16 million, if memory serves.  That's a lot of money.  It needed a big "sales job."  So the rector was definitely preoccupied.

Under diocesan canons, the rector chairs all vestry meetings.  He always nodded agreement with my colleague and me.  He said that goals and milestones were something we definitely needed to study.  But his emphasis was unmistakably on the renovation and the capital campaign.  I don't recall the subject of concrete milestones making it even to the vestry's discussion agenda during my term.  It certainly was never an agenda item for specific action.

Now we have a renovated church, with a new, world-class organ, splendid acoustics, and beautiful appointments.  The rector and his staff did a terrific job of making it all happen.

And our average Sunday attendance has been essentially flat or even down a bit for years.