YEAR ONE

The first year of this 3-year ministry involved parish listening, learning and distilling as we focused on three foundational questions:

1. Who Are We? - We learned about St. Philip’s unique parish identity through the St. Philip’s WordCloud and Storyboard activities. From these, we identified Core Beliefs, Values, and Practices. All was then distilled into a short list of Key Discoveries. You can read about the details of our discoveries here.

2. How Are We Doing? – From parish coffee hour discussions about congregational lifecycles and a Congregational Vitality Assessment Survey, we identified areas of parish life that are very strong and areas in need of strengthening that were distilled into a short list of Key Discoveries:

   §  Lay leadership concerns - pool size, burnout §  Strong outreach

   §  Need more cohesive communications §  Strong diversity

   §  Need to be led by clear shared parish goals and vision §  Strong worship

   §  Need coordination of schedules, planning (including calendaring meeting of ministry leaders) §  Growing

   o   Be more proactive, intentional in focus (vs reactive or distractive “squirreling”)

   3. Who Are Our Neighbors? - We reviewed a wealth of neighborhood data from the diocese and had 21 Neighborhood Expeditions teams explore areas within a 10-minute driving distance. Together, these were distilled into a short list of Key Discoveries:

   §  Diversity §  Growing population

   §  Young families with children §  Community Spaces (structures, parks, trails, etc.) and Events (+ opportunities to connect)

   §  20s and young 30s §  Areas with Public Transportation Needs (varies)