Final Transition Team Note

From the transition team:

Priorities, guiding queries, and recommendations moving forward

Thank you all for your participation throughout the transition facilitation process, including our final congregational conversation by Zoom! Below are priorities, guiding queries, and recommendations based on all that you shared during the discussions over the past year. If you have questions, you are welcome to contact a member of the transition team: Shawn Hawkins (chair), Mike Ward, Sally Smith, Gloria Hodges, David Weatherspoon, Robin Miller, Cherish Mathis, and April Blankenship.

Hospitality – all are welcomed

Priorities

• Love one another well so that we can be ready to welcome others
• Create new ways to bring people into church
• Let newcomers know we are glad to see them via signage and personal touch
• Prepare ourselves to love our next pastor (and family, if applicable)

Guiding questions in planning ministries

• Whose needs might this ministry meet?
• How might a newcomer find a way into this ministry?
• What might we tweak the ministry and/or the space where it takes place to make it accessible to other demographics?
• What would allow our new pastor to get off to the best possible start?

Recommendations

• Now
  • Set wheels in motion for the formation of a pastor search team
• Near term
  • Create easily editable picture directory, accessible online and with hard copies available for those without convenient internet access, to build recognition among church members and to give them confidence approaching people they don’t know
  • Invite congregation to join pastor search team in brainstorming ways to make the new pastor feel at home
  • Revisit website to make sure key first-time visitor information is easily accessible
  • Wear name tags on Sunday mornings
• Longer-term
• Host open gym opportunities
• Increase outdoor lighting, particularly on Parkway side
• Improve outdoor and indoor signage, including Sunday School and worship times and which door to enter
• Have people available and trained to welcome and walk newcomers to Sunday School classes and worship
• Conduct an accessibility audit to pinpoint challenges for those with impairments

Community – all are valued

Priorities

• Increase opportunities for interaction across groups and generations
• Open the channels of communication between committees/leadership groups and congregation
• Prepare ourselves to welcome the leadership of our new pastor
• Make it possible for new groups to launch and stick
• Notice who is falling through the cracks

Guiding questions in planning ministries

• How might we get the whole church involved in – or at least informed about – this ministry?
• What might God be up to through our new pastor?
• Who might this ministry provide care to?
• Who might not feeling cared for? What work needs to be done so that those people do have a source for care?

Recommendations

• Now
  • Hold a series of online prayer meetings around focused topics (e.g., formation/work of the search team, the pastor who will eventually be called to FBC)
• Near term
  • Implement online pieces of the “letting people know who the leaders are” document (in folder shared with transition team) for improved communication between committees/groups and the congregation (can complement online picture directory)
    • List committees/small groups and contact people on website.
    • Make use of social media for committee/small group news, event announcements, calls for participation, and person to contact for more information.
  • Create, build consensus around, and continue to educate about (“here’s what we’re looking for, so here’s what we can expect from this person”) pastoral priorities
• Longer term
  • Implement other pieces of the “letting people know who the leaders are” document (in folder shared with transition team) for improved communication between committees/groups and the congregation
    • Make good use of bulletin boards.
    • Highlight a committee/small group each week in worship with a 1-3 minute Ministry Moment. (For added impact, have someone record the Ministry Moment on a smartphone and share the video on social media.)
    • Highlight a committee/small group each month in Together.
    • Create an easily accessible “mailroom” for committees/small groups where church members can see the names of committees/groups and leave suggestions or questions in that group’s mail slot.
  • Look for natural opportunities to bring whole church together around special days or emphases, forming a standing social committee or ad hoc task groups to plan those events
  • Set up helpful feedback loops for pastor from the outset
  • Appoint a Christian education committee to start and support new spiritual formation opportunities for groups whose needs aren’t currently being met, such as younger adults
  • Assess now (“assessing current ministries” – document in folder shared with transition team) and on an ongoing basis (“ministry reflection form” – document in folder shared with transition team) the need for/viability of committees and groups to ensure all church members have a solid place to plug in and build relationships

 

Service – all are served and given a chance to serve

Priorities

• Get to know people we share space with – from landlord/tenant to ministry partners
• Consider best use of building in service to our church, partners, and community
• Get in touch with our denominational identity
• Offer cross-generational mission opportunities

Guiding questions for planning ministries

• How might we involve our ministry partners in what we’re planning?
• How might we show God’s love through what we are planning?
• How is our campus serving our community well? How might it serve the community even better?
• How is what we’re doing good news to CBF? How is what CBF doing good news to us?
• What could it look like for our whole congregation serve the community together?

Recommendations

• Now
  • Affirm that while the church is located in Midtown, it draws from and serves the whole city
  • Consider space-sharing opportunities as they arise with churches/organizations whose values align with FBC’s and who could be true ministry partners, not just tenants
• Near term
  • Communicate who is using the building and when via building maps and church calendar
• Longer-term
• Look for all-age service opportunities, whether set up by the church or through events planned by other organizations
• Learn more about who CBF is, what it does, and how we can be involved from those closest to it:
  • David Weatherspoon, CBF-endorsed chaplain
  • Jason Callahan, member of CBF Global Governing Board
  • Shannon Malone, member of TN CBF Coordinating Council
  • Rick Bennett, TN CBF Coordinator

 

Dialogue – all are heard

Priorities

• Continue rebuilding the culture of trust across the congregation as a whole
• Involve more people in leadership

Guiding questions for planning ministries

• How might we ratchet up the safety of this ministry so that all people feel they can fully be themselves?
• How might we bring others along in this process?
• Whose gifts are being under-utilized?
• Whose gifts are being stretched too thin?
• Who might our group mentor for future leadership?

Recommendations

• Now
  • Implement conversational covenant (in folder shared with transition team)
    • When listening, assume positive intent in others, avoid interrupting, separate ideas/viewpoints from people, and acknowledge there may be more than one right idea/way.
    • When speaking, attempt to be honest and fair in what you share, ask rather than assume, seek common ground, and filter all statements through the two greatest commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
  • Increase transparency around church finances, including non-liquid assets
• Near term
  • Hold a deacon election for a new class of active deacons
  • Implement a rotation of active deacons
• Longer-term
  • Have conversation about what the church learned from the pandemic, including what it wants to focus on and what it wants to shed
  • Increase number of church conferences to 3-4 per year, with different groups reporting at each.
  • Use “fist five” document (in folder shared with transition team) to check temperature along the way to big decisions
    • A fist means, “I vote NO.”
    • 1 finger means, “I’ll just barely go along” or “I don’t like this but it’s not quite a no” or, “I think there is lots more work to do on this proposal.”
    • 2 fingers means “I don’t much like this but I’ll go along.”
    • 3 fingers means, “I’m in the middle somewhere. Like some of it, but not all.”
    • 4 fingers means, “This is fine.”
    • 5 fingers means, “I like this a lot. I think it’s the best possible decision.”
  • Hold regular open deacon meetings at which any church member can observe what deacons are working on
  • Streamline committee structure so that it fits the church’s size
  • Consider hiring a part-time administrator to facilitate communication among groups and between groups and the church

As we change gears from the transition facilitation process to the pastor search, here are some ways you can continue to be active in preparing for FBC’s next season of ministry:

• Share how you’d like to be involved with any of the above. Contact Randy or a transition team member to get connected to the right person or group to offer your gifts.
• Participate in the election of the pastor search team. See details on this process from deacon chair Tom Marchand.
• Pray for:
  • The priorities listed above
  • FBC as we elect the pastor search team
  • The search team as they do their work
  • The yet-to-be-called pastor
  • The yet-to-be-called pastor’s loved ones
  • The yet-to-be-called pastor’s current ministry setting
• Write a note or draw a picture of welcome to give to the yet-to-be-called pastor. Keep it in a safe place or drop it off at the church office to hold it until the time to share it arrives.
• Continue to support the church and its ministries. FBC desires to continue serving its members and neighbors in a variety of ways.