Vision Update

Thank you! Because of so much dedication, we are excited to report that significant work has now occurred toward creating our common vision for our life and ministry of St. John’s! This work includes three areas:

As great as this progress is, it represents work that continues to be in formation. A major part of our vision is clarifying what we are discovering and exploring with as many parishioners as possible. This means you! Hopefully you have now seen several announcements and invitations to the next Community Gathering Sunday that will be held this Sunday, April 29^th beginning with a community potluck lunch following the 10:30 celebration of the Eucharist and then moving into our final “Advisory Session.” For our workshop, we are all invited to remain our fellowship tables and enter into conversation around what we have shared thus far, especially the preliminary “Guiding Concepts.” We wish to know how these relate to you, what you are particularly excited about and what else you feel we need to consider for the “whole vision.”

The ideas & concerns generated so far can be grouped into four distinct areas or “guiding concepts.” Even with these preliminary “Guiding Concepts,” although important as they are, there is a clear sense that our vision for future ministry has far more to with our overall sense of mission than simply bricks and mortar issues alone. These preliminary “Guiding Concepts” are:

Ø We will continue to develop our sense of “community” by working together as a parish-wide family.

Ø We will master plan for the programming and physical needs of the extended community.

Ø We will consider the worship support needs of all liturgical ministers (all the baptized).

Ø We will strive to improve our worship space to allow us and the liturgy to be embraced and shaped by the worship itself.

A complete listing of the ideas under these preliminary “Guiding Concepts” were included in last month’s edition of The Messenger and are also available on our website at www.stjohns-saginaw.org for you to down-load.

A primary step that our consultant, Christine Reinhard detailed is the need for a “feasibility study.” The purpose of the study is to explore as many if not all aspects of the present building to not only have a baseline for comparison, but all to assess the issues that will impact any further repair, modification and/or addition. This study would also assist current efforts to complete a working inventory of all capital assets in terms of structures and systems of the building (as it is presently).

At our team meeting in March, two aspects of the building and vision returned to the forefront: the state of the windows with the urgency to repair / restore them; and the question as to whether or not our goals that are emerging would best be served with the current building, a renovated space or even a new physical plant that was less costly to maintain. Simply put, we feel a need to answer the question, “What are we dealing with?” when it comes to the building in the most comprehensive sense. To this end, we feel that rather than wait until after the Vision Process is complete, we should initiate a “Building Feasibility Study” while we are still in the formative stage of the Vision Process. A Building Feasibility Study would be conducted by an architect who would coordinate an examination of all the structures and systems of the building today for two purposes:

This Study would not be a designing session, but rather the most direct way to obtain critical background needed for us to proceed in any direction after the Vision Process. It is possible that we would retain the same architect to coordinate any work we might decide to do. Through the contacts of both Christine Reinhard and Herb Spence III, we have arranged to interview three prospective architects, and anticipate passing a recommendation to the Vestry at their meeting in May. This would mean that the Feasibility Study would be underway, but probably completed after our June 3^rd parish-wide Vision Celebration.

Our “Core Purpose” is a simple statement of identity, articulating what we feel St. John’s exists to be, or what we mean by being “church.” This work began last year with our initial Vision Committee that explored what our “Core Ideology” might be in terms of purpose and values. Building on this foundational work along with what we have discovered within our current comprehensive Vision Process, we have developed an idea for the Core Purpose of St. John’s:

We are a church called to Care.

Share.

Worship.

Celebrate.

Love.