1. State of the Church
Report of the Pastor
October 22, 2013
Church of the Palms
1

2. Areas of Discussion
•
Overall view of the year
•
Vital congregation metrics
•
Implications and observations
•
Areas of focus in 2014
•
Required Pastor reports
◦Education
◦Service beyond the local church
2

3. Year of "E's"
•
Engaged Disciples
•
Energy
•
Enthusiasm
•
Excitement
•
Expanding ministries and missions
•
Extensions to the community and groups
•
Exciting new initiatives
3

4. Approach
•
Mission:
◦Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the
Transformation of the World
•
Approach
◦Connect to God, Connect to Others,
Transform the World
4

5. Strategies - Church / Pastor
•
Create and foster "needs-based community
connections"
•
Focus on "enhancing spiritual growth"
•
Discover and create "viable options for
increasing our ministry and mission
capabilities"
5

6. My focus: "needs-based
community connections"
•
Deeper understanding of the community
•
Connections with agencies / community leaders
•
More time "in" community / less time at building
•
Encouragement / support of initiatives
◦LowCountry Senior Coalition
◦Shared ministries with St. Andrew-by-the-Sea
◦Possibility of chartering Boy Scout Troop
6

7. My focus: "enhancing spiritual
growth"
•
•
Meaningful / significant worship
◦Extended sermon series
◦Expanded use of laity
◦Encouragement of added elements (prayer,
silence, visuals, special music, "gift" giving)
Teaching
◦The Brothers! / Brothers Too! Bible study
◦Youth (Revelation)
◦Mosaic Lenten study
◦Individual mentoring / Bible study
7

8. My focus: "viable options for increasing
our ministry and mission capabilities"
•
Leader mentoring / coaching
•
Communication
◦Electronic / social media / public media
•
Gift identification and application
◦ Financial
◦ Skills
◦ Talents
◦ Passions
8

9. Key Indicators
9

10. Membership Changes
•
Baptisms:
◦ Infant:
◦ Other:
•
0
0
Members received:
◦ Baptized:
◦ Professing:
◦ Transfers:
• From UMCs
• From Others
3
9
19
6
----37
10

11. 11

12. Membership Changes
• Withdrawn
◦ By request:
◦ By transfer:
◦ By death
• Roger L. Johnson
• James Kenneth "Ken" Smith
Members on roll:
2
3
2
12/03/12
12/20/12
175
12

13. Membership Trend
13

14. Worship Attendance - 149
14

15. Historical Average Worship Attendance
15

16. Membership to Attendance
16

17. Observations of Attendance
• Church has never been in this range
before
• Places Church of the Palms in
the "mid-size" category
17

18. The Tension Of Growth Is Here
•
Space constraints
◦Parking
◦Sunday school space
◦Youth space
◦Choir space
◦Storage space
◦Fellowship space
◦Volunteer / staff space
◦Kitchen facilities
18

19. More Significant Implications
•
No longer possible for everyone to know everyone
•
Not possible for everyone to be involved in everything
◦Ministries
◦Missions
◦Decisions
•
Communication becomes more important even as it
become more difficult
•
Soon difficult to all worship together in just one service
19

20. Transition to Mid-size
"The mid-size church is not a larger, more
complex version of the small membership
church, but is the entry point into a new
model of being and operating as the church."
~ Rev. Burt Books
20

21. Transition to Mid-size
•
Reaction to Pro-action
•
Short AND Long-term Planning
•
Pieces to Systems
•
Centrality of the Worship Experience
•
Importance of Structure
•
Need for Financial Resilience
•
Change in Role and Focus of the Pastor
21

22. Church Structure
•
Two changes from last year
◦Separate Youth and separate Children's Ministry
Teams
◦Combined Evangelism and Nurture Teams
•
Continued development of SOPs
•
Enhanced use of web-based technologies
22

23. Funding Requirements
•
Mission support
◦Including Appointments ($22,375 in 2014)
•
Ministry support
•
Facility care and upkeep
•
Staff care and feeding
•
Mortgage
◦Remaining: $295,000
• Loan is up for renewal in May of 2014
23

24. Financial Resilience
24

25. My Areas of Focus In 2014
•
Vision casting
•
Comprehensive short and long term planning
•
Excellence in worship - addressing capacity
•
More robust "church systems"
•
Coaching / leadership development
•
Enhanced inbound and outbound communication
•
Linkages to external resources
25

26. Continuing Ed
•
•
Sexual Ethics for Clergy (required)
United Methodist Advanced Course of Study
◦ Summer of 2013
• Jesus and the Gospels
• Book of Revelation
•
Working towards ordination by 2020
• Complete Advanced Course of Study
• 15 of 32 seminary credit hours accomplished
• 4+ additional years to get 17 credits
• Expect to finish in 2017
• 2 years of probation from 2018-2019
• Ordination in June of 2020!!!!!
26

27. Service Beyond Local Church
•
Serve on District Committee on Congregational
Development
•
Serve as Trustee of Wesley Commons in
Greenwood
27

28. Thank you
28