Elders Retreat Review
Transformation and Risk: What can we do to challenge the Body to live a more transformative life of faith? What does that really mean?
Generational Issues: If the church is truly one of the last multi-generational institutions, how do we make sure TFC stays that way by appealing and ministering to all generations?
Head to Heart: How can we insure the Body is “growing” as well as “learning”? What does the process of spiritual maturity look like within a Body such as Trinity?
Enhanced Engagement: How do members engage with each other in the Body? How can we offer a life-cycle of “connectedness” from the new membership through a lifetime of involvement both within the Body and to the world at large?
We spent considerable time at our Fall Retreat building a high level roadmap toward answering those questions and at our shorter, in-town Spring elder retreat we continued that process and began to generate some program and ministry changes to support the effort.
Children’s Ministry: We have developed an exciting new format for the Children’s Ministry beginning in August which will, we believe, balance the desire to create truly multi-generational worship at Trinity and also to provide age-appropriate Sunday School classroom learning for our children. This new format has been announced to the Body and plans are in place to get ready for the change during the summer, plans which include some welcome physical improvements to the children’s wing of our church facility.
Worship: The elders hope
you have already sensed some subtle changes in the Sunday morning worship
experience with the inclusion of a variety of different voices and formats
engaged in leading the Body, whether through using videos, transformational
testimonies from members, a variety of young Scripture readers, dramatic role
play, and even a wider variety of guest preaching when Carl and Keith are away.
We plan to continue that with very intentional worship planning from Carl,
Cherry and the various teams who so generously serve up front on Sundays. Our
goal is to use a variety of voices, formats, and media to tell a single
immutable story of God’s love for us.
Small Groups: The elders are
studying and discussing a number of options regarding small groups at Trinity
and exploring experiences from other churches and our own past experiences here
at Trinity. We anticipate challenging the entire Body around a major small
group initiative in late 2011.
Path to Real Life: Keith Hileman and the church staff are working very diligently on a multi-year effort to align growth opportunities and existing programs within an overarching lifecycle of intentional community engagement in building disciples and friends. This effort is called Path to Real Life and centers on a consistent path for discipleship, accessible at all life stages, unifying across church ministries, and emphasizing spiritual “celebration” moments within the church family. This is an ambitious project but we have already begun to see fruits most recentlyincluding the recent “Step to Purity” (abstinence program for youth).
Outreach: Our Food Share
America effort was terminated last year when we evaluated the program and came
to the conclusion that the value FSA provided to the poor and working poor in
our area was not as substantial as we had initially believed relative to
generally available commercial opportunities to purchase discounted groceries.
Since then Carl has been exploring other avenues within which the church may
address the physical needs of our surrounding community. We hope to have
identified a project within the next several months.
We are also very pleased that the elders endorsed the Missions
Committee’s recommendation to take part in a multi-church effort in Tanzania
under the auspices of ALARM Ministries. Information regarding this effort will
be available within the next few months.
Communications: We have made considerable progress in Trinity’s Facebook and Twitter presence as well as the frequency of Trinity blogs. We are also evaluating Trinity website improvements.
Church Organization: The elders were delighted to approve the increase of the deacon board by four which should assist the deacons in their wonderful service to the church body. In addition we reluctantly accepted David Morgan’s resignation as an elder. David needed the opportunity to spend more time with his young family which we very much appreciate but we will miss his wisdom and passion for the Body at our regular elder meetings. We thank David and Tici for their many years of service while David was an elder at Trinity.
Finally, we announced the happy news that Keith Hileman, his wife Beth, and their family will be taking a summer-long sabbatical in 2010. This is a much needed opportunity for the Hilemans to rest, re-charge, and enjoy time together without the constant daily press of ministry responsibilities before returning back to duty in late August. As a token of the appreciation and affection of the entire Body at Trinity Fellowship, the elders approved a special travel stipend to assist the Hileman family in their summer adventures.
For the past several months the elders and church staff have been evaluating Trinity’s strengths and weaknesses as we look to maintaining our fellowship, growing our ministries and fulfilling our mission to proclaim Christ to succeeding generations. As we collected our thoughts about the future of our church they largely fell within several broad themes:
Generational Issues: If the church is truly one of the last multi-generational institutions, how do we make sure TFC stays that way by appealing and ministering to all generations?
Head to Heart: How can we insure the Body is “growing” as well as “learning”? What does the process of spiritual maturity look like within a Body such as Trinity?
Enhanced Engagement: How do members engage with each other in the Body? How can we offer a life-cycle of “connectedness” from the new membership through a lifetime of involvement both within the Body and to the world at large?
We then asked the Body for feedback on how we could positively impact these issues. Through a number of focus groups and individual input, numerous members of the Body provided thoughtful suggestions and comments around each of these themes. Interestingly, several suggestions and comments were common across multiple themes. At the retreat the elders looked first at those areas.
Retreat Actions
Worship Service: virtually every focus group had comments regarding the importance of the worship service and changes that might be made to better model the future focus of TFC and embrace the priorities identified by the four themes. After considerable discussion the elders highlighted several areas to address:
- Music variety: we must encourage increasing diversity both in content and in voice and instrument ensembles in the worship team. We should be willing to take advantage of a broad range of different musical gifts, both orchestral and informal, in the Body. Cherry should be empowered to be creative and work with Carl and Keith in developing instrumental and vocal teams reflecting a wide spectrum of musical styles.
- Testimonies and stories: testimonies and stories from within the Body that specifically support the transformative work of God should routinely be included as part of the worship experience. These testimonies should not be directed at us but about how God is working through us as an encouragement to the Body.
- Pulpit: When Carl is absent from the pulpit we should make an intentional effort to have different generations and perspectives represented that support the themes highlighted
- Inter-generational commitment: the elders discussed the option of having two separate musical styles at the two services each Sunday: one orchestral and the other more contemporary. We are committed to truly inter-generational worship and rejected this idea. We need to develop a worship service that allows multiple generations to worship together, each rejoicing in the variety of styles reflected across generations and each accepting of the challenge of subordinating his or her strongly held personal preferences in deference to the common adventure of corporate worship. The elders need to communicate these goals clearly and consistently to the Body.
- Connectedness: Small groups are an important component of “connectedness” and we have been negligent in defining expectations, promoting their importance and making sure the Body is encouraged to be involved in them. The ultimate goal should be contributing to the effectiveness of the church in community and deepening relationship with God and each other.
- 2010 Plans: We must create a plan for small groups that is consistent with the themes we have identified and assign someone in the Body to be responsible for their health. The elders need to communicate this goal clearly and affirm the importance of small groups repeatedly.
- In some cases the suggestions are in contradiction. For instance, for real connectedness small groups may need to be built around generations, but that works against multi-generational interaction. What should be cross generational and what should be single generational?
- For small groups to be broadly successful they must be strongly promoted by elders and church leadership, and for that to happen there must be a consistent view of what small group ministry needs to look like, what standards should be applied to the groups and what expectations from volunteer leaders. These are impactful questions for which Trinity elders do not yet have a consensus position so we should use 2010 to develop options for redesigning small groups that could drive potential introduction either in September, 2010 or January, 2011.
Sharing Real Life
- As part of our view of a healthy future TFC we acknowledged the need for an intentional, cradle to grave ministry plan that would, through the years, meet the needs of members in every stage of life with instruction, encouragement and accountability.
- Keith Hileman presented an outline for a multi-staged ministry initiative, building on the activities of the marriage focus, which TFC could enact over time. Complete adoption of all the components would be a multi-year effort. Keith and the staff will present the elders a plan with a roadmap for adoption, resources required, and potential impact on other ministries and programs.
Sunday School
Would its role change if TFC made Small Groups a priority in 2010? Should we deliberately build Sunday Schools ("Adult Ministry") around generation divisions? Should we provide one “mixed-generational” option?
- The elders followed up on these questions and decided that we would not mandate age-specific Sunday Schools, though some, like the Life Together class, may informally develop. Instead the elders and staff will work to insure that each Sunday School class maintains a commitment to connectedness. That means each class should think of itself as an on-going community for whom different teachers and topics are required on a semester by semester basis but within which care and fellowship happen among a consistent set of attendees.
- Each recurring Adult Ministry class should deliberately foster connectedness by incorporating teaching, community, discussion and service, regardless of the specific topic being examined in any given semester.
Men’s Ministry
Are we willing to really invest in this ministry? Is it a priority? Although the elders feel it is an important ministry it is unlikely Trinity will have financial resources to fund a even part time men’s ministry staff position in 2010. We will need to continue to rely on volunteer leadership for the foreseeable future and attempt to support them as best we can.
Trinity Differentials
Our core purposes (Worship, Transformation, Fellowship, and Evangelism) are common to most churches in the evangelical tradition, but there are a collection of characteristics of our Body which, when taken together, make Trinity unique. These are our differentiators and they are important to who we are. The elders are committed to making their protection a priority as we work toward change broadly.
1) Gospel foundation
2) High view of Scripture
3) Lord’s Supper
4) Connection to historical church
5) Fellowship-“engagement”
6) Elder leadership
7) Multi-generational commitment
The elders have asked Carl to consider a seven week sermon series highlighting the Trinity Differentials.
Follow Up Activity
There are substantial issues still left to be discussed. The elders will be scheduling a follow on sessions to work through the following important issues:
Accountability and Governance: How can we do all that we are discussing? Who is responsible for progress and how can we maintain momentum over a long period? Can the elders assume an oversight position and generate more actual direction from the staff as well as more lay leadership/ownership of ministry? Can we develop, lead, and communicate clear vision that will allow organic activity within the Body to naturally align itself with that vision without explicit day to day elder management? Would this require different expectations from the elder board?
Communications: How do we keep the Body informed and engaged? Are there communications vehicles we do not take advantage of? The feedback from the Body for this exercise has been interesting and helpful; are there ways to continue to get routine input around key initiatives?
Staging: Of the things we have been discussing, what are the most important and what can we reasonably expect to accomplish in 2010 with the resources we have available?
Conclusion
We received a great blessing in the consistency of the input received from the elders, staff, spouses, and across all the focus groups and individuals who contributed across the board. The alignment of that feedback around several common themes was a great gift. It means we are not required to guess what to focus on; where change may be required.
Our second great gift was the reminder from Carl, through the seven Trinity Differentiators, that we have an obligation to rely on our uniqueness to build a special community. We cannot change TFC in a way that is unmindful of our heritage and the things that make our body special.
