State of the Parish Follow-Up

Thank you to the over 50 percent of our parish families who came out to learn and have their voices heard at the State of the Parish Dinners last month. As a result of your input we were able to record nearly 200 comments and suggestions concerning our parish and our future! To begin the process of digesting this information into an articulated action plan, the Church Development Committee (CDC) met and summarized your input into six high-level themes defining “what” we need:

• Hire an assistant priest. Our Rector is overworked, and the overwhelming response was to provide more clergy support to meet the needs of an active and vibrant parish.
• Support and nurture newcomers and families with children. Children are the life blood of our church, and we need to put systems in place to be sure that families are being fed and children are a priority. Newcomers in our midst should be intentionally shepherded into our parish life and ministries.
• Maximize curb appeal. Let people know there is a church at this location and create a look that beckons them up our driveway.
• ECA needs to stay warm and welcoming, outside and in. We need new buildings in the near future, but in the meantime, we need to make our current campus feel safer with better outdoor lighting, signage and pavement. We should enhance our interpersonal relationships so we can know each other beyond a “hi” at coffee hour.
• Truly open our doors. ECA should be a pillar of its community. All of our neighbors should know who we are, and we should be known for providing community fun, support and services.
• Simplify the path to worship for all. We should provide alternative services and transportation assistance for those who want to worship with us but need help getting here.

The next step is to identify the “how, who, and when” to enable the themes. Within the next two weeks the CDC will further analyze your input to identify a few vital short-term action items for review and approval by the Vestry. We’ll keep you posted!