“Evangelism” / “Vision” Team Meeting
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

7:00 p.m.

Present: Carl Cleveland, Dee Duncan, Lynda Fickling, Ken Fong, Laura Kuhl, Jerry McLeland, Rev. Fred Venable

After an opening prayer, Carl Cleveland explained that he was facilitating this meeting once again, but someone from the group should facilitate the next meeting. The team roster was circulated for any corrections.

The Team reviewed the mission statement from the last meeting, which read:

“The mission of the __________ Team is to articulate the spirit of St. Luke’s, communicate that to the target audiences, resulting in growth in membership attendance and spirit.”

After discussion, the Mission Statement was finalized to say:

“The mission of the Evangelism Team is to articulate the spirit of St. Luke’s and communicate that to multiple audiences, resulting in membership, participation, and spiritual growth.

The name of the Team was discussed and filled into the above mission statement. After brainstorming several different possibilities, the Team was able to rationalize that “Evangelism” best encompasses all of the ideas presented in the mission statement. Thus the name of this committee is the Evangelism Team (or “ET” for short). There is however, the recognition that we will need to educate people as to what the term really means for St. Luke’s as opposed to some of the negative interpretations.

Next the team refined the vision statement that Carl purported in the previous meeting’s minutes, which read:

“St. Luke’s has reached and maintained at least 80% f the congregation being connected and actively involved in programs beyond the worship services, our facilities are consistently fully utilized in service to our congregation and the community, we are readily recognized and have established a clear presence in our community, and we are achieving a 10% annual growth rate.”

After discussion, the Vision Statement was finalized to say:

“St. Luke’s maintains at least 80% of the congregation being connected and actively involved in programs beyond the worship services. Our facilities are consistently fully utilized in service to our congregation and the community. St. Luke’s is readily recognized and has a clear presence in our community. We achieve a 10% annual growth rate.”

Carl then opened the floor for nominations to key positions on the Team. The nominees of existing Team members are Jim Wolff and Laura Kuhl. Jerry McLeland suggested that Steve Riley be contacted to determine his interest level in becoming part of the team. Carl will continue to take nominations for the key positions and new members from the Team in the next two weeks. At least one more candidate is needed from the Team in order to fill the Chair, Co Chair, and Recorder positions. Laura Kuhl will contact Jim Wolff to determine his interest in one of the positions since he was nominated without being present at the meeting.

Fred Venable stated a prophecy that many of the ideas compiled so far in the work done on the St. Luke’s vision and identity will come to life and there will be a whole new energy starting on May 16, 2004, which is the target date for the new pastor, Rev. Janet Forbes, to arrive. This is due to the fact that Janet is a strong and energetic leader.

The Team then brainstormed several goals of what needs to be done in order to move toward the destination of the Team’s Mission Statement. The ideas were as follows:

• More team members

• Understand the “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” information

• Contact district/conference for resources and ideas

• Clarify and articulate the “Spirit of St. Luke’s” identity statement

• Gather demographic, membership, and stewardship data

• Define target audiences

• Conduct ministry audit

• Hire consultant

• Write action plan

• Identify specific actions for growth (as defined in Mission Statement)

Carl reminded the Team of the SMART goal acronym: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant (consistent with Team’s mission and I.R.M.), and Time-Bound.

The Team identified three short term (within the next month) goals from the above list of goals, defined the actions to take to reach those goals, and determined which Team members should be responsible for each, as follows:

• Clarify the St. Luke’s identity statement: All team members will talk with several people of St. Luke’s of their choosing to ascertain what makes them come here, why did they choose/join St. Luke’s, etc.. Each member is then to create an individual drafts of a St. Luke’s identity statement; and create brief “elevator speech” versions as well as other versions of varying lengths as you may deem necessary. Those are to be communicated to the rest of the team as soon as available and will become the basis of an effort during the next meeting to develop the identity statement to be used.. Ken Fong will send out an e-mail to the Team listing the “reasons for joining” from of a document that Lynda Fickling provided with reasons why some new members joined St. Luke’s. The Team may keep in touch via e mail with their ideas between tonight’s meeting and the next meeting. All ideas will be presented at the next meeting, and draft of the St. Luke’s identity statement will be created at that time. Success will be measured by people resonating/responding to the message of the identity statement. Success may also be measured by test marketing the statement(s).

• Contact the district/conference for resources and ideas: Laura Kuhl will “lightly” (at Fred’s suggestion) request information from the district/conference on “What is the master plan for the United Methodist Church presence in Highlands Ranch?” Also, identification of resources to aid in church growth will be obtained. Ken Fong will handle the other “conference” piece of understanding the “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” information. Both Laura and Ken will keep in touch via e mail with the Team on their progress and bring information to the next meeting.

• Define target audiences: Ken Fong will do this and report his ideas to the Team.

The Team succeeded, once again, in getting through the greater part of a very full agenda. Three mid range and three long term goals still need to be identified and broken down. This will be done at the next meeting. Key Team roles should be filled at the next meeting, also, as well as reporting on the progress on the goals identified above.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2, 2004, 7:00–8:30p.m. Lynda Fickling will book the Conference Room for the meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 8:38 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Laura Kuhl