St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Parish Profile
OUR VISIONING & PLANNING
Over the past four years, our parish has been involved in two major church conversations, both of which have taught us much about ourselves.
The first conversation, which took place over many months and was completed in August of 2015, focused on developing a vision and plans for our future. We wanted to learn who we are, what we do well, and where we see opportunities for growth. We began that conversation by surveying our parish.
That process confirmed that our congregants want to extend to all who enter our doors the same warmth, welcome, and acceptance that most said they had felt at Saint Stephen’s. “I am wanted here—I matter,” one parishioner wrote. Others offered such comments as, “This place is loving, caring, and invites me to get involved and share and grow” and that Saint Stephen’s “feels like home or family.”
Information gathered during this period also showed that:
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We value liturgical worship that offers a source of healing to the body, mind, and spirit, and that brings us closer to God. Many value our Open Table at the Eucharist.
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We consider Christian formation for all ages—classes, Bible studies, knowledgeable and insightful speakers, and the like—to be essential to the enrichment of our faith and to our spiritual growth.
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We want to continue our tradition of reaching out to those in spiritual or physical need. Asked in the survey whether they remain committed to our mission statement’s pledge to “strive to be the hands, feet, and heart of Jesus in our neighborhood and the world,” 201 of 211 respondents said that they did. And 207 of 215 respondents to a question about involvement in outreach at Saint Stephen’s said that they either gave to or participated in outreach and volunteer activities.
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We value our youth program, and we want to support it as a safe community where young people can develop into disciples of Jesus. We consider our youth valuable and contributing members of our parish, as shown by the fact that two young people are members of our Rector Search Committee.
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We value and want to continue providing compassionate pastoral care to meet the needs of our members.
We cherish our “genuine, loving, and inclusive environment, with Christ at the center.”
We are blessed with a “friendly, open,
accepting, and vibrant community.”
The visioning process also showed us where we have work to do. Despite the comments of many that they feel welcome and accepted at Saint Stephen’s, the number one weakness identified was in our efforts to integrate all our members. Comments spoke of the need to work to involve our newcomers, develop younger leadership, and get a larger number of people “plugged in” to the life of our parish. One comment suggested that our Sunday schedule of four different services perhaps makes it more difficult to know many of our fellow parishioners. Whatever the reason, we see that we need to strengthen the connections among our brothers and sisters of Saint Stephen’s. These deeper connections to our church will provide pathways to a deeper relationship with God. The visioning conversation also revealed the following areas in which we believe we have room for growth.
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Parishioners were eager for better communication about parish news and events. Saint Stephen’s communicates with its members primarily through email, electronic newsletters, Facebook and Instagram. These methods perhaps are not as easily accessed by some parishioners.
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Pastoral care, particularly of our eldest members, was the second most frequently mentioned weakness. One parishioner commented that Saint Stephen’s pays too much attention to its youth (although there were comments during our rector search process that our youth programs needed more emphasis). We have discussed increasing our intergenerational activities, such as our Stop Hunger Now events, which allow parishioners of all ages to work together and package food for the hungry.
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While Saint Stephen’s currently offers Christian education in several forms, a number of members would like to see more small groups, Bible studies, and other educational offerings. Many of our current programs do not continue during the summer months, and some were concerned about the intermittent nature of our formation efforts. Interestingly, our Tuesday morning Men’s Bible Study Group decided two years ago to continue meeting through the summer months with lay leadership. As a result, participation increased and the connections among members of this group have deepened.
OUR CONVERSATION ABOUT A NEW RECTOR
In the fall of 2015, after Reverend Russell Kendrick became Bishop, the vestry of Saint Stephen’s appointed a Calling Committee to begin the process of calling a new rector. The first part of that process was a conversation we had with the parish to confirm our values, character, strengths, and wants of the Parish.
That conversation resulted in the creation of this Parish profile. The process was cathartic as well as informative. We were able to exchange ideas and thoughts in a healthy way, and the exercise has helped the Parish prepare for change. The Calling Committee is confident that this profile expresses who we are as a Parish and that the opinions of every demographic group within the Parish are represented and were solicited.
As we began developing this parish profile, we again talked with our members, seeking to discern our hopes for a new rector. We gathered this information in two ways. One was a series of meetings with representative groups ranging in age from children, who expressed themselves by drawing a picture, to our most seasoned members. We also distributed a brief survey in which we asked parishioners to rank a list of 10 qualities of a new rector, from most to least important.
Our survey results indicated that the quality rated as most important by a wide margin was “preaching/sermons,” which was described as “delivering sermons with clarity that makes the Gospel relevant and understandable.” We heard similar talk in our small group discussions, with skill in preaching emerging as a very high priority in almost every group we interviewed. The second most highly rated quality was “spiritual leadership.” The survey defined this quality as “fostering the development of spiritual life; teaches Biblical and life lessons that are understandable.” These survey and interview responses underscore our hope that our new rector will be a strong spiritual leader, one who is able to preach the Gospel and encourage us in our walk with Christ in such a way that we may be doers of the Word, not just listeners. We consider those qualities foundational to all of our ministries at Saint Stephen’s.
Not surprisingly, our membership ranked the quality of being “inviting” just after preaching and spiritual leadership. Our survey defined this quality as “being accepting and respectful of individual differences (race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, and physical abilities).” “Pastoral care,” identified during our visioning conversations as a relative weakness, was the fourth most highly valued quality. The survey defined this quality as “skilled at caring for and counseling parish members; crisis minister.”
Interestingly, our members did not rank outreach as highly as expected, despite the fact that Saint Stephen’s devotes significant time and money toward meeting the needs of those outside our parish. Because this result seemed surprising to those of us on the search committee, we asked different groups about these results in follow-up discussions. The consensus seemed to be that at Saint Stephen’s, outreach is so essential to who we are as a church that a continued emphasis on it was assumed by most to be a given.
We at Saint Stephen’s look with tremendous optimism to the future. With the Holy Spirit guiding us, we welcome a new rector who will lead us to face the challenges and opportunities of the future as we continue to grow in our faith, work to help those in need, and offer the sanctuary we envisioned in our earliest days.
“Commitment to continue being a strong, faith filled, welcoming church.”
“Bless us with a faithful pastor who will care for the Saint Stephen’s family and equip us for our ministries.”
