CAT Timeline
CAT Summary
During the month of February members and friends of St John’s were invited to respond to a Church Assessment Tool (CAT). 102 people completed the survey which is 56% of those invited to participate. Holy Cow Consulting, the organization that administers and interprets the survey, also completes a calculation based on average worship attendance. This calculation usually shows an average of 80%. Based on information from St John’s we had 124%. This tells us we have received a significant amount of data that can be trusted as an accurate reflection of people’s perceptions and experiences of St John’s.
The Church Assessment Tool is a three dimensional, multi-system overview of the congregation. We are looking at two dimensions, what is going on at present and clues of where we would like to be or how to focus our energy for the future.
Members of the Congregation Council and Strategic Visioning Task Force met with Michelle Snyder of Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute after
worship on Palm Sunday to learn the results of the survey. It was a lot of information, almost too overwhelming to absorb in one sitting so here is a brief overview of what we learned.
Recommendations as well as challenges and questions were identified. Completing the survey and receiving the results are just the first steps in where we go from here. In the coming months the Congregation Council and various committees will begin to develop action plans to move St John’s into the future.
In his sermon the weekend of April 2-3, as we celebrated First Communion for 14 of our kids (attendance on that Sunday was higher than on Easter) Pastor Richard shared some of the results of the CAT. He shared that St John’s is a flexible congregation open and ready to change. The results showed a desire to foster a greater sense of community to attract families with youth and children. We have the potential to grow by integrating people into the life and ministry of St. John’s, by providing opportunities for spiritual growth and service. These opportunities hopefully, will have a positive impact on people’s lives. A significant number of our families with children were present, and we need to build on their involvement, ideas, and needs.
The Council voted to have Michelle Snyder return to lead us in a planning process to develop a strategic plan with specific, attainable and measurable goals. This meeting was held on Saturday, July 23, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The congregation was invited to participate.
Highlights of CAT Confab, Strategic Planning meeting on July 23
The congregation was invited to attend the meeting which was held on July 23. We had 20 people present on this summer Saturday, which means people are invested. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a strategic plan for the congregation with Michelle Synder, from PPI, facilitating and using our Church Assessment Tool (CAT) results as a guideline.
The starting point was a brief review of "Vital Signs", our CAT results.
As the facilitator, Michelle was not there to give us the answers, but to give us the questions we need to ask ourselves. Michelle pointed out positive starting points. Our values are mostly in sync with our priorities and we have a solid foundation. We also have challenges. Our values are focused inward - "come to us". We do little for people unless they are here, and our sense of family sometimes leads to exclusion of outsiders.
We were led in a number of exercises and eventually developed a new proposed mission statement. A Mission Statement is different from the Welcome Statement we developed as part of becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation. The proposed mission statement is:
"St John's Lutheran Church exists to nurture people of all ages on the journey of faith in Jesus Christ, to support those
in need, and to reach out into the community with God's healing and love."
As a congregation, we will vote on adopting this proposed Mission Statement at our Sunday, October 16 Congregational Meeting, which occurs immediately following worship.
In addition to the new proposed Mission Statement, we set four goals:
Goal #1 - Develop an external focus through practices that encourage a missional emphasis (Jim Peterson and Brenda Neundorf - leads)
Goal #2 - Build a multi-media system incorporating technology for communication, education, and evangelism for members and the broader community (Cindy Haag - lead)
Goal #3 - To have a lasting positive impact on the lives of people and their families dealing with substance abuse by developing community partnerships and building on existing congregational resources (Brenda Neundorf - lead)
Goal #4 - Discern and meet the needs of the community as they are consistent with the passions of St John's (Sarah Lundie - lead).
While the Leaders for each of the goals may change over time, the CAT Confab developed milestones, goals, and deadlines. The Long Range Planning committee has responsibility to monitor progress and hold people accountable.
If you would like to be involved with any of these goals, please contact the Leader or Jim Peterson (LRP facilitator).
Your Strategic Visioning Task Force
- February 2016 - Members & friends respond to the CAT survey
- March 20, 2016 - Congregation Council and Strategic Visioning Task Force hear results of the survey
- April 2-3, 2016 - Pastor Richard shared some of the results with the congregation in his sermon
- May 2016 - May/June Newsletter provides a summary of the CAT results
- July 23, 2016 - CAT Confab at St. John's from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
CAT Summary
During the month of February members and friends of St John’s were invited to respond to a Church Assessment Tool (CAT). 102 people completed the survey which is 56% of those invited to participate. Holy Cow Consulting, the organization that administers and interprets the survey, also completes a calculation based on average worship attendance. This calculation usually shows an average of 80%. Based on information from St John’s we had 124%. This tells us we have received a significant amount of data that can be trusted as an accurate reflection of people’s perceptions and experiences of St John’s.
The Church Assessment Tool is a three dimensional, multi-system overview of the congregation. We are looking at two dimensions, what is going on at present and clues of where we would like to be or how to focus our energy for the future.
Members of the Congregation Council and Strategic Visioning Task Force met with Michelle Snyder of Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute after
worship on Palm Sunday to learn the results of the survey. It was a lot of information, almost too overwhelming to absorb in one sitting so here is a brief overview of what we learned.
- St John’s is a theologically conservative, highly adaptable congregation. We have the strength of adapting to the needs around us to incorporate new people. We need to make sure we do not become so flexible that we lose our own identity.
- We are largely quite happy with Pastor Richard.
- Most are very satisfied with the quality of worship, music and education programming.
- There is a sense of longing for more in terms of mission outreach with 58.5% feeling like they are “going through the motions”.
- We have a strong desire to have representative leadership and input into decision making.
- St John’s is in the Recovery Quadrant which means we have low energy and low levels of satisfaction.
- The first step to making a change is being dissatisfied with how things are going. We are already on this path. What is good is that we are ready to change and know we need to change.
Recommendations as well as challenges and questions were identified. Completing the survey and receiving the results are just the first steps in where we go from here. In the coming months the Congregation Council and various committees will begin to develop action plans to move St John’s into the future.
In his sermon the weekend of April 2-3, as we celebrated First Communion for 14 of our kids (attendance on that Sunday was higher than on Easter) Pastor Richard shared some of the results of the CAT. He shared that St John’s is a flexible congregation open and ready to change. The results showed a desire to foster a greater sense of community to attract families with youth and children. We have the potential to grow by integrating people into the life and ministry of St. John’s, by providing opportunities for spiritual growth and service. These opportunities hopefully, will have a positive impact on people’s lives. A significant number of our families with children were present, and we need to build on their involvement, ideas, and needs.
The Council voted to have Michelle Snyder return to lead us in a planning process to develop a strategic plan with specific, attainable and measurable goals. This meeting was held on Saturday, July 23, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The congregation was invited to participate.
Highlights of CAT Confab, Strategic Planning meeting on July 23
The congregation was invited to attend the meeting which was held on July 23. We had 20 people present on this summer Saturday, which means people are invested. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a strategic plan for the congregation with Michelle Synder, from PPI, facilitating and using our Church Assessment Tool (CAT) results as a guideline.
The starting point was a brief review of "Vital Signs", our CAT results.
As the facilitator, Michelle was not there to give us the answers, but to give us the questions we need to ask ourselves. Michelle pointed out positive starting points. Our values are mostly in sync with our priorities and we have a solid foundation. We also have challenges. Our values are focused inward - "come to us". We do little for people unless they are here, and our sense of family sometimes leads to exclusion of outsiders.
We were led in a number of exercises and eventually developed a new proposed mission statement. A Mission Statement is different from the Welcome Statement we developed as part of becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation. The proposed mission statement is:
"St John's Lutheran Church exists to nurture people of all ages on the journey of faith in Jesus Christ, to support those
in need, and to reach out into the community with God's healing and love."
As a congregation, we will vote on adopting this proposed Mission Statement at our Sunday, October 16 Congregational Meeting, which occurs immediately following worship.
In addition to the new proposed Mission Statement, we set four goals:
Goal #1 - Develop an external focus through practices that encourage a missional emphasis (Jim Peterson and Brenda Neundorf - leads)
Goal #2 - Build a multi-media system incorporating technology for communication, education, and evangelism for members and the broader community (Cindy Haag - lead)
Goal #3 - To have a lasting positive impact on the lives of people and their families dealing with substance abuse by developing community partnerships and building on existing congregational resources (Brenda Neundorf - lead)
Goal #4 - Discern and meet the needs of the community as they are consistent with the passions of St John's (Sarah Lundie - lead).
While the Leaders for each of the goals may change over time, the CAT Confab developed milestones, goals, and deadlines. The Long Range Planning committee has responsibility to monitor progress and hold people accountable.
If you would like to be involved with any of these goals, please contact the Leader or Jim Peterson (LRP facilitator).
Your Strategic Visioning Task Force
