January 3, 2006 Meeting Minutes

From Joe Doetzl:

Brad Grill and I discussed re-forming the Youth Advisory Board. We discussed making the YAB representative in nature, having members including:

1. Pastor
2. Youth Director
3. Liturgy Committee Rep
4. Scoutmaster
5. RE Rep
6. Parkhill School Board Rep
7. St. Pius School Board Rep
8. St. Therese Education Committee Rep
9. Youth Reps from PH, PHS and SPX
10. Pastoral Council Rep

We discussed the current programs we already have in place for our youth: Scouts, School, PH, PHS, SPX, Youth Groups, Vacation Bible School, Confirmation Program, RE, Faith+1.

We identified a current calendar and communication of youth events as a key
need.

We discussed re-forming the YAB and asking its members to develop a vision
and an action plan.


From Damian:

First a note about our next meeting, January 18, 2006 @ 6:45 PM. Wayne has agreed to do Prayer for the evening. The main purpose of the meeting will be to discuss schedule and succession planning for the Pastoral Council. If there is time, we will then work in our groups again. Of course, nothing prevents us from working in our groups between now and the next meeting…

Dennis Meier, Ginny Feeney and I discussed the following objective: “Establish a plan to facilitate, encourage, and coordinate the activities of ministry, lay involvement, and hospitality.”

We still concur that the model previous presented by Ginny is valid. This model would divide our parish’s ministries into seven Communities:

1. Communications / Operations / Finance Community (Leadership?)
2. Faith Formation Community (Faith Formation)
3. Parish & Family Life Community (Community?)
4. Stewardship Community (Stewardship)
5. Pastoral Care Community (Pastoral / Social Ministry?)
6. Hospitality and Welcoming Community (Community?)
7. Worship Community (Liturgy)

We reserve the right to redesign these communities slightly, perhaps to more closely align them with the Seven Essential Elements. The words in parentheses after each Community is one of our essential elements. If there is a question mark after it, it isn’t clear whether that Element fits exactly with the Community. You will note also that Spirituality is not listed. Anyway, we like the ideas of Communities, but still have to decide whether to reconcile it with the Essential Elements.

We think it is appropriate to further the conversation with Mike Birkel and/or Fr. Mike about how staff members could be aligned with these communities. It is felt that we should have one staff member and one Pastoral Council member assigned to each Community so that communication is effective. It is felt that the Community Leaders must be brought together periodically to form as its own community and share their experiences and needs.

Along with this effort, we feel that we need to have a way to express how “mature” or “well developed” a particular Community might be. Thus, it makes sense to have a development path defined to measure this “maturity”. It might look like this:

1. The Community must be defined and have Staff & Pastoral Council leaders.
2. The Community has defined its vision, purpose, or goal.
3. The Community has conducted a needs assessment to understand the needs that are within the Parish within the umbrella of the Community vision, purpose, or goal. The Community leaders would use this information to determine what needs their ministries can address and which one will not be addressed at this time.
4. Ministries are defined to address parish needs within the Community umbrella. These Ministries have an established vision, purpose, or goal.
5. Ministry leaders have successfully participate in Faith and Leadership Formation.
6. Volunteers within the Ministry have received appropriate Faith and Leadership Formation.
7. The Ministry can measure its effectiveness towards meeting the established vision, purpose, or goal.

So, in English now…

Let’s assume we generally feel that St. Therese’s Pastoral Care Community is a relatively “mature” organization, while Faith Formation is in an early developmental stage. (This is not a statement about the efforts anyone has made, but the assumption is made to illustrate a point.) Perhaps the reason we may feel this way about Pastoral Care is because the Community (1) has a defined leader from the Staff, (2) has defined its vision, (4) some Ministries have defined a vision or purpose, (5) many leaders are well-formed as Leaders, but also in the elements of Faith Formation related to their ministry, (6) some volunteers are equally trained, and (7) perhaps some ministries can measure their ability to achieve their vision. You will notice that #3 was not addressed, which indicates that there is an opportunity that Pastoral Care has a gap in its ministry that it may not be aware of.

In contrast, we may feel that Faith Formation is in an early developmental stage because: (1) we’re not quite sure who on the Staff will lead it, (2) our goal is somewhat defined, (3) we have some sense of our needs but it may be incomplete, and (4) through (7) may lack clarity at this stage of development.

I think Ginny might tell you that the Hospitality and Welcoming Community is in a similar or farther back stage of development.

If we agree with the above developmental path, it gives us some sense of what work we may need to do first, within each Community. Perhaps we most need to focus on #3 (to identify gaps), #6 (to form more volunteers) and #7 (to measure our effectiveness) for Pastoral Care. The Worship Community might have similar areas of focus. Meanwhile, Faith Formation and Hospitality Communities might need to focus on higher level by identifying the leaders (#1) and a core purpose or vision (#2) and perhaps a needs assessment (#3). Hopefully this paints the picture well enough.

As far as action items are concerned, Ginny will approach Mike Birkel about how the staff might be organized to support the Community approach. Dennis and I didn’t have assignments, but in writing this, I want to spend some time looking at whether there is a good match between Communities and Essential Elements.

If you have any questions, feel free to call or e-mail. Have a great weekend!


From Linda Winter:

Good Morning:

With Nancy and Pris indisposed, Fr. Mike and I discussed Charge A: to review the traits and characteristics of SCC and Guess who's coming to dinner to evaluate how these groups make St. Therese parish more welcoming, and develop an action plan for integrating these traits into a majority of ministries at St. Therese.

We discussed the nature of different communities to identify what traits make them welcoming and also sustainable. We listed these traits: trust, committment, mutual goals, service, purpose, acceptance of different time committments, humor, vulnerability.

Then we attempted to identify a structure to be implemented by all organizations or ministries at St. Therese to foster a sense of Christ centered community in each of them as follows:

1. Initiate all gatherings with gospel prayer;
2. Develop a written statement of mission;
3. Develop and abide by a written leadership transition plan;
4. Participate as a group in an annual retreat experience;
5. Welcome new members intentionally by:

• Regular invitation;
• Immediate oppurtunites for participation
• Working with greeting and welcoming ministries w/in the parish, such as coffee and donuts.

All comments are welcome. Peace, Linda Winter

From Wayne Snyder:

Good Afternoon,

Tom, Linda A. and I addressed the Faith Formation issues element. We focused on the Faith Formation committee and its roles, possible membership profile and leadership within the committee. We submit these to you for comments and additions.

Role of the faith formation committee:
I. Coordination
a. This would be a process function that would suggest process or approaches to faith formation within the many communities within St. Therese.
b. A communication channel to those communities and the broader St. Therese community. For instance to address the questions about some of the faith communities, Who they are, How to join,
c. Operations suggestions
d. Provide strong resources

II. A “Scope and Sequence” role, a Theme or Rational for the broad process of faith formation in the parish. We have access to and support the”Generations of Faith” type program.
III. Evangelization – To provide leadership and structure to this basic and parish wide catalyst for community faith formation.
IV. Broad Planning function – to be responsive to and integrate into the pastoral board planning process and the Diocesan process.

Membership in the Faith Formation Committee (Possible rotating terms with permanent Religious, Staff and Pastoral Council positions)
I. St. Therese School (Can be an advisory board member)
II. School of Religion
III. RCIA
IV. Prayer Groups (2+)
V. At large
VI. Liturgy
VII. Youth
VIII. Religious Staff member
IX. Staff
X. Pastoral Council

Leadership
We felt that the faith formation role on the parish staff required a full time position or positions. We did discuss that the leadership on the Faith Formation Committee could be structured like the school advisory board (Roberts Rule of Order) where the leadership was a non-staff position supported by the staff. We assume the committee has an advisory capacity in all the roles expressed above.

The additional bullet points indicated were areas we felt the Faith Formation Committee would address but we recognize you may want to add thoughts to these elemens.

Peace,

Wayne