Visioning Process Updates

Visioning Process Updates

November 2021

Earlier this year, many members of our congregation participated in a church survey and a Vision Summit to express our hopes visions and goals for our church going forward. The Strategic Renovation Team took these ideas and developed them into ten goals for St. Paul to be accomplished over the next three years. A Vision Team was formed consisting of ten members to help facilitate the efforts of staff and ministry teams working in these areas. Each member has taken responsibility for one goal.

Following is a list of each of these ten goals, the member of the Vision Team with responsibility for that goal and their email addresses. Feel free to reach out to any of the Vision Team members if you have any questions or suggestions.

  1. Vision Team Organization. Implement a plan to ensure the Vision Team assumes ownership of St. Paul’s Vision over the next three years. Member: Ed Henson: edhenson1@bellsouth.net
  2. Align Church Staffing. Work with staff and ministry teams to ensure church staffing is structured to execute the church’s vision, priorities, and goals. Members: Carrie Burns: carrieburns@bellsouth.net and Graeme Donovan: donovangraeme@gmail.com.
  3. White House. Make a decision on the future of the white house and implement that decision. Member: Jason Ramsey: jdramsey321@ gmail.com.
  4. Senior Adults Ministry. Re-establish and implement a seniors ministry to better incorporate and support senior adults. Member: Jon Fleshman: dettofranoi@yahoo.com.
  5. Coke Memorial Partnership. Partner with Coke Memorial United Methodist Church to build a collaborative ministry (discipleship, fellowship, mission, justice, etc.) Member: Graeme Donovan: donovangraeme@gmail.com.
  6. Resource Center. Develop the St. Paul Resource Center to be operating and staffed by volunteers and a dedicated staff person and serve 300 people monthly within three years. Member: Anna Twyman: atwyman34@ gmail.com.
  7. Volunteer Involvement. By the end of 2023 have 300 people in our congregation involved in one of St. Paul’s ministries. Develop the attitude that “Every member has a ministry.” Track this participation using our church’s software. Member: Gail Henson: grhenson@gmail.com.
  8. Small Group Worship. Goal is within 3 years to have 75% of our average worship attendance participate in a recurring activity outside of worship (including small groups, Sunday School classes, Bible studies, etc.) at least on a quarterly basis. Member: John Smithers: jsmithers369@gmail.com.
  9. Young Adults Ministry. Develop our ministry to young adults and college-age adults, with the three-year goal of having 75 people participating annually in our young adult ministry and 30 people participating in a college-age ministry. Member: Tammi Kinser: tammi.kinser@att.net.
  10. Family / Children / Youth Ministry. Continue to develop our family ministry, providing resources to equip, support, and encourage families in the community to grow together in Christ. The goal would be to have 75 members participating by the end of 2023. Member: Beth Rose: bethhoperose@ icloud.com.

While many of these goals have specific number goals, the main focus is for the church to strive to develop vibrant ministries in each of these areas.

St. Paul has faced several challenges in recent years and has challenges in front of us, but never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit to continue to bring us together and move us forward for God’s purpose and to reflect God’s love.

Again, don’t hesitate to reach out to any member of the Vision Team with any thoughts, questions or suggestions you might have.

Ed Henson, Vision Team Chair, edhenson1@bellsouth.net


Vision Summit Report – April 2021

Energized, Spirit-filled, unity, hopeful, renewal… These are just a few words from the 40+ church members that participated in the Vision Summit in March. Church members filled out surveys in advance (thank you!), gathered together on numerous Zoom calls, and discerned where God is calling St. Paul UMC. It was an insightful process in which participants dreamed about the future of their church while also wrestling with some tough issues.

The end result was this powerful mission statement:
St. Paul UMC is a welcoming congregation that mirrors the love of Christ and the good news of the Gospel through service to all.

Participants also named the core values for their congregation: loving and compassionate, faithful and authentic, and welcoming and inclusive. Quite
a bit of work was done creating four 1-year goals and six 3-year goals. Those will be shared in the near future once the details are nailed down. The Strategic Renovation Team (SRT) rounded out the weekend with a final meeting to reflect on the work completed and to give God thanks for all the love, kindness, and enthusiasm that this visioning process brought to St. Paul. Many thanks to everyone who was a part of this process.

What’s next? The SRT will be forming a Vision Team, a group of people who will oversee and manage the work to be done on the goals over the next three years. The church will receive regular updates from this Vision Team when they begin their work. The church leadership is hope-filled and optimistic as St. Paul strives to fulfill their call to love and serve others in Louisville and beyond.


Vision Summit – March 13-14, 2021

Dear St. Paul Member,

St. Paul UMC is about to begin the visioning work with Ministry Architects and we would like your input. As a congregation, we want to move forward with a common vision so that St. Paul UMC can be the church God is calling it to be. 

You are invited to participate in the Vision Summit that will take place (virtually) on March 13 & 14. During Session 1, the participants will be brainstorming around the values of St. Paul UMC, the mission of the church, and three-year goals. This is when we want to gather all your ideas so we would like as much participation from the congregation as we can get. We welcome your input as members and non-members of the church. 

You can choose one of two ways to participate. Here’s how you can give us your ideas:

  1. Fill out this 5-question survey to give us your ideas about St. Paul UMC’s values, mission, and goals. Click here to fill it out by Wednesday, March 10th at NOON.
    OR
  2. Join us for Session 1 on Saturday, March 13, 9 – 11 am. You must register in advance using this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0odu2ppzwsH9Mx_RekYIA-i40jvKIH3XcW

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

You do not need to do both of these – please choose one. If you fill out the survey, your ideas will be compiled in advance and shared anonymously with the participants at Session 1. Or you can choose to share your ideas via Zoom during Session 1. If you join Session 1, be prepared to participate in breakout rooms and use Google’s Jamboard (a tool to do brainstorming via Zoom). We will give instructions on how to use Jamboard; it is most helpful if you have a Google email to do so but it is not required.

Church leaders, staff, and the Strategic Renovation Team (SRT) will take those ideas and begin to draft each document – mission statement, values, and goals – at Session 2. During Session 3, the SRT and pastors will fine-tune and finalize the documents and map out the next steps. By the end of the weekend, we will have working drafts of all three documents. There will be an update for the congregation in the weekly email that follows the Vision Summit.

For more questions, please feel free to reach out to a Strategic Renovation Team member or Sara Bailey at Ministry Architects (sara.bailey@ministryarchitects.com).

Thank you in advance for your participation!
Your SRT, 
Robert Burns, Ann Curtis, Joanne Fleshman, Ray Fore, Julie Roberts, Sal Rubino


January 2021

On February 27 and 28, members of St. Paul UMC will participate in a church-wide Vision Summit. The goal is to build clarity and consensus through a fun, positive process that involves church leaders in the congregation. This work follows the Healing and Wholeness Service held last month, in which we acknowledged the hurts of the past and turned a new page. St. Paul UMC is alive in spirit and united in God’s love and our love for each other.

We will come out of the process with three documents pertaining to the church’s ministry. We will articulate a clear mission statement that will be the cornerstone for the other documents being created. The three documents we’ll be working on are: 

Mission Statement (with results, target audience, and how) 

Core values are the fundamental beliefs of a person or organization, which

dictate behavior and shape the culture, help people understand the difference between right and wrong (or what we are and what we aren’t), help churches determine if they are on the right path and fulfilling their goals, support the vision, reflect what the church values and the essence of the church’s identity,  communicate clearly what we want the world to know about St. Paul, are things that we believe in at our core and shouldn’t change.

Three-year goals (with 1-year benchmarks)

The participants will be members of clergy and staff, the church leadership, ministry teams/committees, key volunteers, as well as all the members of the Strategic Renovation Team. Ministry Architects will assist the church in setting forth a vision for our church. More details will come soon.

October 1, 2020

Renovation Prayer Team Update

By now you’ve heard about Ministry Architects and the renovation process developed for St. Paul UMC. Two teams have been formed, the Renovation Team, which will oversee the 24-month process, and the Prayer Team, which will support those efforts by praying! Specifically, we’ll be helping the ministries of the church achieve its mission by praying regularly for the church, the Renovation Team, staff and clergy.

Prayer Team Members Include:

Carl Smith (Chairperson)
Julia Mitchell
Eilene Collins
Jimmy Switzer
Mark Johnson
Sally McMahon

The team has already met twice virtually to pick a chairperson, review our goals and discuss how we can most effectively communicate with you. You’ll receive updates through the Tower, the weekly prayer chain email and Facebook Live comments on Sundays.  

First, we will pray for the members of the Renovation Team:

Ray Fore
Ann Curtis
Robert Burns
Sal Rubino
Joanne Milo Fleshman
Julie Roberts

Join us in our prayers that team members are able to serve as a non-anxious presence in this time period, can address the immediate pressure points facing our church, can affirm a consensus for the direction of the church and create the church’s infrastructure.


September 9, 2020
Ministry Architects – Oversight Committees Named

St. Paul UMC is making progress on action steps included in the Church-Wide Ministry Assessment Report presented to us by Ministry Architects toward developing an impactful ministry at our church for years to come. As you know, this report was developed after holding listening sessions with groups of members and staff. The work will include addressing our challenges, retooling in places, as well as focusing on new ways of ministering to current and prospective members.

To do this work, two key committees have been formed. A Strategic Renovation Team (SRT) will “oversee the renovation process of the church ministries laid out in the assessment timeline; serve as a non-anxious presence, address the immediate pressure points, affirm a consensus for the direction of the church and create the church’s infrastructure.” And, a Renovation Prayer Team “helps the ministries of the church achieve its mission by praying regularly for the church, the Renovation Team, staff, and clergy.” 

Each of these teams was named after a nomination process, by first soliciting recommendations from the Administrative Board and Personnel Team members. Then, church leadership worked through a process of choosing members with some diversity in age and church experiences and agreed on lists of committed church members to fill these roles. They are:

Renovation Prayer Team

Eilene Collins
Mark Johnson
Sally McMahon
Julia Mitchell
Carl Smith
Jimmy Switzer

Strategic Renovation Team

Robert Burns
Ann Curtis
Ray Fore
Joanne Milo
Julie Roberts
Sal Rubino
Ruth Ann Whitehouse

Please be in prayer for these groups. And, watch for news of upcoming events as part of our renovation process. You may read the assessment report and/or view the presentation below.


August 4, 2020:
Assessment Report Update
We value the future of our church, and we are committed to building a sustainable and strategic ministry that is going to have a deep impact. That’s why we are developing a game plan together with the assistance of Ministry Architects. 

Ministry Architects consultants Sara Bailey and Monica Lewis led our listening sessions. Sara and Monica will spent time listening to a variety of groups within the church in listening sessions.

After spending time in these listening sessions (and taking copious notes), the Ministry Architects team report, shares with us what they’ve heard about the church’s ministry – including assets, challenges, and how we compare to other churches around the country – and where it seems that God might be taking us next. 

Below is a reminder about Ministry Architect’s goals. Here is a link to the Assessment Report and Webinar.

Here is a Copy of the Assessment Report and a copy of the Webinar PowerPoint

Click on the Link below for the webinar of the Assessment Report:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ki3KjfDlIkRmvZWrSflzrzsLBx8orMEF/view

A reminder on Ministry Architect’s goals:

  • Listening: People who care about the church’s ministry will have a chance to celebrate, share concerns, dream, identify pressure points, and talk about what they really want.  
  • A Clear Plan: Ministry Architects will provide an overview picture of where the church is now relative to where it would like to go, and then give a detailed proposal and timeline for how to move forward in building a sustainable and strategic ministry.  
  • Focus: This process is designed to build unity around the desire for change and the belief that you can change and create the openness to embrace an intentional, deliberate game plan for making those changes.  
  • Hope: Ministry Architects is saying, “You CAN have the kind of ministry God wants to lavish on your church. It’s going to take some work, but you CAN do it.” 

Why Ministry Architects?
At Ministry Architects, we believe there is a better way, a better way than one-size-fits-all training events and quick-fix searches for superstar staffers. It all starts with building intentionally. So like Architects, we don’t tell churches what they want to build. We start by listening and then show them a blueprint of exactly how they can move from where they are to where they want to be. And then we walk alongside them to make sure that they build the kind of infrastructure they will need to create the ministries they dream of having. We have made it our mission to help churches build Healthy Systems. Innovative Change. Church Future.


Learn more about our consultants by clicking the tab below this article.  www.ministryarchitects.com.