2010 Vision and Goals

GROW IN GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE
A task force was formed to work with the Rector in formulating 2010 Vision and Goals for Calvary-St. George’s.  Its purpose was to foster spiritual, numeric, and financial growth in our congregation, and expedite plans to address immediate and critical issues.  

OUR VISION
God is forming Calvary-St. George’s Church into an oasis of Christian sacrifice and spirit-inspired courage, for the purpose of becoming:

A Beacon of the Gospel in the City of New York.

We rejoice in the Liturgical, Sacramental, and Biblical tradition God has given us in the Episcopal Church and believe that it provides the framework for a strong evangelical witness to the God who has revealed His truth, beauty and sacrificial love in the fullness of his son, Jesus Christ.

STRATEGY
We will fulfill this vision through several distinctives:

• Consistent, spirit filled, biblical preaching, lovingly offering the gospel of Christ.
• A strong commitment at all services to express God’s character through beauty and excellence in worship and music.
• A culture of generosity expressed in every member’s stewardship, community outreach, and global mission.

OUR PRIORITIES
The task force identified the following priorities:

• A community praying together for God’s guidance, inspiration, and anointing, with regular prayer gatherings and individual devotion.
• A powerful sermon is a key portion of the service on Sunday morning. It edifies and unites people, has the ability to increase church attendance, and is central to Christian growth. We therefore recommend that Rev. Greg Brewer preach at both Calvary and St. George’s 11:00 Sunday services, and suggest adjusting the time of the services to accommodate that priority.  We believe this is a better course than to divide the parish into two independent churches or to dissolve one.
• Music should inspire and lead our congregations into worship.  We propose to refine and deepen our music program to the glory of God. The music program will consistently be managed to standards of excellence in all of our Sunday services.
• We intend to increase attendance through a significant investment in marketing and other community awareness initiatives, the ministry of warm greetings to every newcomer, and an opportunity to get involved in active programs and discipleship.
• It is not enough to merely increase attendance numbers. Our people must grow spiritually, or as Peter says, ‘grow in grace and knowledge.”¹   We propose to develop and expand programs to make teaching the Word of God a priority, with classes available to children, teens and adults of all ages.

      Acknowledging that all we have is from and for God, we seek to practice biblical tithing and stewardship. We propose to:

• continue to increase financial oversight and transparency;
• make responsible decisions for reducing spending when needed, and
• significantly increase our income through teaching tithing and generosity, working and praying for a spiritual revival among the membership.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

1. Promote a Call to Prayer:  We will promote the Tuesday 7:30 am prayer meeting (and at least one other) to all parishioners to encourage attendance, and also teach and promote the responsibility of individual prayer.
    
2. We will establish consistent preaching presence at both late morning services. We recommend moving the St George’s 11:00 service to 11:15 and the Calvary 11:00 service to 10:00. After consultation, we would propose this schedule at the annual meeting Feb 7th and recommend limiting it to a one  year trial period, starting February 21ST, the first Sunday of Lent. In June we will evaluate our progress.  We will measure results, and propose to make this schedule change permanent if attendance and income increases in a consistent upward trend during that trial period. If this strategy does not result in the hoped for results we will revisit options such as discontinuing one of the Sunday morning services. Such drastic steps are being considered because of a significant budget shortfall, and in the interest of financial prudence.
    
3. By March 1 starting at the beginning of the Lenten season, we will organize four sustainable Community groups that will continue to meet through the year.
    
4. We plan to expand our Sunday School program to cover children from nursery school through high school. All of the children of this parish will be given the opportunity for a Christian education.  We cannot expect to expand our membership without considering the needs of children.  We would focus first on St. George’s to get the full program in operation before Easter and then shift our focus to setting up Sunday School classes at Calvary.
    
5. We have begun forming a marketing committee to draft a marketing plan by March 15, 2010. Budget will be allocated to begin executing the plan by April 2010 or sooner if possible.
    
6. We will support the efforts that have begun in recruiting and training a robust meeting and greeting team for each church to engage and involve new visitors from their first visit.
    
7. We will conduct an evaluation of our staffing needs and thus create a staffing model by March 1 that will support our growth objectives. Our approach will be to match skilled staff to the needs of the church and make decisions based upon that thoughtful analysis. We will act upon those recommendations with urgency, in order to provide support we need to fulfill our vision for growth.
    
8. We recommend educating parishioners to their responsibility of godly utilization of their resources to achieve a level of stewardship that fully funds church operations. We believe God’s expectation is for every Christian to tithe their income (1/10th).  

Each vestry member will be named to chair one of these actions and will take responsibility for accomplishing it.  If teams are required, the vestry member will drive the recruitment of volunteers for their action.

¹  2 Peter 3:18 - But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Proverbs 29:18 - Without a vision the people perish.