Annual Church Evaluation Completed by Staff and Lay Leaders:
On November 6th, The Church's Senior Pastor, Rev. Jewell; Program Director, Lauri Ricker; Lay Leader, Dick Schukraft; Administrative Council Chair, Marilyn Smith; and Staff Parish Relations Chair, Patricia Enders; met and completed the annual evaluation of our church as required as part of the year end evaluation process mandated by our Conference. The Church Evaluation is one part of a three-prong evaluation. The other parts are a self-evaluation by the church's pastor, which was presented to the S. P. R. C. on November 26th and that committee's evaluation of the pastor done that same night.
The Church Evaluation consists of five parts: Discipleship, Communication, Leadership/Administration, Caring/Interpersonal, and Cooperation/Team Work. In each section a series of questions are answered by rating the church on a scale of 1 to 4 with 4 equaling that we always exceed our expectation in this area, 3 meaning that we always fully meet our expectations, 2 that we meet the expectations most of the time, and 1 being that we need improvement. You then total the scores for each question to get an average for the section and then total the sectional scores to get a final number that ranges from 1 to 20, with 20 being top.
The Leadership team rated our church as follows: Discipleship- 2.5, Communication- 2.5, Leadership/Administration- 3.0, Caring/Interpersonal- 2.0, and Cooperation/Team Work- 3.0. This represented a total score of 13, which was a two point increase over last year's 11. A score of 13, according to the Conference, means that "…the congregation has a number of positive aspects to its ministry and also has opportunities for growth. There is a need to more clearly communicate and negotiate the expectations and ministry for the congregation and identify actions, training, and support needed for the congregation to excel and collaborate in ministry."
Strengths noted in the various categories are as follows: Discipleship- Our growing Volunteer in Mission Teams, our Representative Payee Program that assists people in need of maintaining their personal budgets, and our strong leadership in community social help agencies; Leadership/Administration- Several lay members have leading roles in community organizations such as REACH, and Senior Pastor is President of The Hagerstown Area Religious Council; Cooperation/Team Work- Our congregation has strong Committees and generally works well as a team.
Among our strengths to build on in the coming year in the different categories are: Discipleship- Our increased participation in Local and national mission projects, and in our Sunday school and Youth programming; Communication- To further develop our Web Site and make it more user friendly, and to offer [using Conference resources] training in inter-relational skills to further enhance our interactions with one another, particularly in meeting settings; Leadership-Administration- To address any church conflict from a wellness paradigm as opposed to a in need of critical care one; Caring/Interpersonal- To give leadership in bringing together the various downtown cultures with the hope of increasing our own cultural diversity; Cooperation/Team Work- To develop even more ministry teams and to continue to strengthen the strong relationship between the current staff and laity.
The evaluation team noted that our score of 13 placed us just one point shy of the next category up which would represent that we are "functioning very well together and are clear about our role and ministry." It is our goal of meeting that expectation in 2008.
Lay Leadership Development Committee Presents its Recommendations for New Church Leader for 2008:
At Charge Conference on November 20th the Lay Leadership Development Committee chaired by Rev. Jewell completed a year's worth of meetings and work, including an all morning retreat in May and their sponsorship of a Congregational Spiritual Gifts Inventory in June, by presenting its nominations report for our 2008 Leadership Team. The next step will be to recognize our leaders during worship in January and to begin the training of new leaders and committee members.
Additions or replacements in our Leadership Team for 2008 are as follows:
Administrative Council Chair- Bob Van Laningham
Lay Member to Annual Conference- Richard Willson
Trustees Chair- Ed Whitt
Staff Parish Relations Chair- To Be Elected
U. M. W. President- Juanita Grimes
Youth Representative to Ad. Council- Laura Bell
Co-Chairs of Memorial & Heritage Committee- Jenny Bullington and Ann Eisentrout
Scholarship Committee Chair- Wanna Lee Haught
Family Life Chair- Kevin Noll
New Lay Speaker- Greg Hoover
Cold Weather Shelter Coordinators- Ed & Donna Whitt
Staff Parish Relations Committee Class of 2010- Iris Kresge, Ann Lashley, and Donna Whitt
Trustees Class of 2010 - Dan Grove, Jerri McNew, Robert Mann
Lay Member to Annual Conference on S. P. R. C.- Richard Willson
Lay Member to Annual Conference of Finance- Karen Jewell
Finance Committee Class of 2010- Bob Bell, Dave Fisher, Sheila Collins
New Member of Evangelism Committee- Greg Hoover
New Members of Worship Committee- Pat Mesner, Caroline Harsh