The Future of Trinity Church: Stewardship of our Time, Talents, and Treasures will drive us forward
This past weekend, the Trinity vestry gathered for a one-day retreat out at Oceanview at The Church of the Advent. We spent the day in their parish hall, sitting in a semi-circle around a gas-lit fireplace.
Our purpose was to not only get to know each other, but to focus on our work – collectively and individually – for the year to come. The session was facilitated by Jean Rutherford, a member of a diocesan team which helps parishes with leadership issues.
Now, why am I writing about this here, on a stewardship blog, rather than my personal blog on which I tell tales, analyze policy and promote & provoke issues near to my heart? Well, quite simply because the day reminded me about stewardship. Stewardship is the care and use of all that has been entrusted to us. It’s not just about money – and it is certainly not about fundraising (although many people equate “stewardship” with “annual fund drive” – a real mistake, if you ask me). Anyway, I was reminded about stewardship – the care of our God-given time, talent, and treasure. Serving on the vestry is, in and of itself, an act of stewardship. But that’s not what drove my mind to thinking about stewardship.
One of our key activities was to finalize our parish mission statement. At tomorrow’s usual vestry meeting, we will likely vote to approve the statement. You’ll see it all over:
After our mission statement conversation, we began to discuss goals – where do we want to put our focus in the coming year.
As we talked during both these conversations, I began to ask, “What is it that makes Trinity different? What sets us apart from other Episcopal churches in Portsmouth and in Hampton Roads? What makes Trinity Trinity?” While I live here in Olde Towne and often walk to church, other parishioners drive – and many who drive to Trinity pass any number of other Episcopal churches on their ride to 500 Court Street. Why do they come to Trinity?
Certainly, I can think of several people – well established adults – who come to Trinity because it is their parents’ church. Sundays finds generations of families sitting together. But that explains only a handful of parishioners, We have parishioners from each southside city. We have a few parishioners from the other side of the James River. Why do they chose to be a part of Trinity?
I thought of four broad areas that begin to set Trinity apart, that help make us unique, that start to define our essence – and our mission.
Liturgy. We are a liturgical parish. Liturgy is important. We have a formal liturgy, respectful, and traditional. We have traditional music, great chorale music, and a fantastic organ. We have bells, and sometimes we have smells. We have solemnity, and are, yet, welcoming of all ages at worship (including, eight-month old, raspberry-blowing babies).
The arts and cultural events. We are known for our music – our organist and choir director is renowned throughout Tidewater. Our choir is a superb, traditional, Anglican choir. But, must fills our sanctuary not just at times of worship. We host concerts – chorales, organists, string quartets and ensembles, and brass quintets and ensembles. All classical. All traditional. A well-received music program and series runs throughout the year. (About the only new thing I’d like to see is a Jazz Mass, but that’s for a different blog entry.)
Parish family, fellowship, and formation. Sure, many parish offer these three F’s. We have various activities which provide for relaxation and growth: the annual parish picnic, Mother’s Day Moms’ Luncheon, Father’s Day Dads’ Luncheon, Rally Sunday, Superbowl party, Tides baseball event, Christmas Eve party, and too much else for me to remember. We have several mid-week Bible study groups, a Sunday morning Bible study, a Benedictine study group, an Anglican studies group, an annual film & spirituality series, Lenten series, a thriving workshop-based Sunday school for children and youth, an EYC for highschoolers, a Rite 13 program for 12 to 16 year olds, and, again, more than I can remember. And, much of all this isn’t unique. But what is unique is that we create an environment wherein people want to learn more about the church and more about what they are called to do – and an examination of the priesthood falls high on the list, at least the list of consideration. I’ve been attending Trinity since the first Sunday of February 1995. That’s – oh, my word! – ten years! (Where has the time gone?) In that time, I know of 6 people who have begun the discernment process with an eye toward ordination. Six folks I know of. And, while the process hasn’t necessarily been kind to these seekers (and that is a posting for a different blog), it is Trinity Church which nurtured the calling; it is Trinity which served as the fertile seedbed to those open to a lifetime of service in the Church. That seedbed characteristic is unique.
Service to the Church and to the Community. I’m frankly, not sure this sets us off. Our internal focus is fairly strong with the usual opportunities (altar guild, lay readers, chalice bearers, transportation, lay Eucharistic ministers, teaching, guiding groups, and all the usual other “stuff”). Our external focus is, in my opinion, lacking in intensity. As a Parish, I see three key events we’re involved in.
It is, of course, this focus on service which led my wandering mind to stewardship. One thought that serviced during the retreat was establishing a gift discernment program – a program where the Parish helps parishioners figure out where they can best apply their talents. Something like this – coupled with a recognition of volunteers (commissioning and/or blessing lay persons who serve outside the Parish – a sending of parishioners out into the world to do good work) could provide a shot-in-the-arm for stewardship.
A couple of years ago, we asked every parishioner to fill out a survey of in-church service opportunity. Many people wonder what happened to that survey – let us just say that a discernment of my gifts would reveal a lack of orientation to detail or repetitive tasks and a difficulty in completing projects. (You can all thank Bill Lorkiewicz for his ably handling numbers during the annual Every Member Canvass and Jean Hanbury for her dedication to addressing cards of acknowledgement during the Canvass.)
So, back to where this post began. We on the vestry have a better sense today of where we are headed as a Parish, and over the next twelve months we will refocus our energies on two or three things which, we believe, offer us the biggest bang toward our mission. While we haven’t finalized the list, I imagine you will see – and participate in:
Peace.
Our purpose was to not only get to know each other, but to focus on our work – collectively and individually – for the year to come. The session was facilitated by Jean Rutherford, a member of a diocesan team which helps parishes with leadership issues.
Now, why am I writing about this here, on a stewardship blog, rather than my personal blog on which I tell tales, analyze policy and promote & provoke issues near to my heart? Well, quite simply because the day reminded me about stewardship. Stewardship is the care and use of all that has been entrusted to us. It’s not just about money – and it is certainly not about fundraising (although many people equate “stewardship” with “annual fund drive” – a real mistake, if you ask me). Anyway, I was reminded about stewardship – the care of our God-given time, talent, and treasure. Serving on the vestry is, in and of itself, an act of stewardship. But that’s not what drove my mind to thinking about stewardship.
One of our key activities was to finalize our parish mission statement. At tomorrow’s usual vestry meeting, we will likely vote to approve the statement. You’ll see it all over:
We are called to worship and glorify God and to open ourselves to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit so that each of us is inspired to follow Christ’s teaching to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. We will express this love by beginning in our own community to build Christ’s world where the hungry are fed, the sick comforted, and the dignity of our neighbors is as precious as our own.We had some great dialogue and conversation about this statement. In the end, we all came to a place where we saw how this statement captures the essence of who we are and who we want to be; and, we saw that it can serve as point of evaluation and validation, a tool against which to judge all we do at Trinity.
After our mission statement conversation, we began to discuss goals – where do we want to put our focus in the coming year.
As we talked during both these conversations, I began to ask, “What is it that makes Trinity different? What sets us apart from other Episcopal churches in Portsmouth and in Hampton Roads? What makes Trinity Trinity?” While I live here in Olde Towne and often walk to church, other parishioners drive – and many who drive to Trinity pass any number of other Episcopal churches on their ride to 500 Court Street. Why do they come to Trinity?
Certainly, I can think of several people – well established adults – who come to Trinity because it is their parents’ church. Sundays finds generations of families sitting together. But that explains only a handful of parishioners, We have parishioners from each southside city. We have a few parishioners from the other side of the James River. Why do they chose to be a part of Trinity?
I thought of four broad areas that begin to set Trinity apart, that help make us unique, that start to define our essence – and our mission.
- Liturgy
- Parish family, fellowship, and formation
- The arts and cultural events
- Service to the church and to the community
Liturgy. We are a liturgical parish. Liturgy is important. We have a formal liturgy, respectful, and traditional. We have traditional music, great chorale music, and a fantastic organ. We have bells, and sometimes we have smells. We have solemnity, and are, yet, welcoming of all ages at worship (including, eight-month old, raspberry-blowing babies).
The arts and cultural events. We are known for our music – our organist and choir director is renowned throughout Tidewater. Our choir is a superb, traditional, Anglican choir. But, must fills our sanctuary not just at times of worship. We host concerts – chorales, organists, string quartets and ensembles, and brass quintets and ensembles. All classical. All traditional. A well-received music program and series runs throughout the year. (About the only new thing I’d like to see is a Jazz Mass, but that’s for a different blog entry.)
Parish family, fellowship, and formation. Sure, many parish offer these three F’s. We have various activities which provide for relaxation and growth: the annual parish picnic, Mother’s Day Moms’ Luncheon, Father’s Day Dads’ Luncheon, Rally Sunday, Superbowl party, Tides baseball event, Christmas Eve party, and too much else for me to remember. We have several mid-week Bible study groups, a Sunday morning Bible study, a Benedictine study group, an Anglican studies group, an annual film & spirituality series, Lenten series, a thriving workshop-based Sunday school for children and youth, an EYC for highschoolers, a Rite 13 program for 12 to 16 year olds, and, again, more than I can remember. And, much of all this isn’t unique. But what is unique is that we create an environment wherein people want to learn more about the church and more about what they are called to do – and an examination of the priesthood falls high on the list, at least the list of consideration. I’ve been attending Trinity since the first Sunday of February 1995. That’s – oh, my word! – ten years! (Where has the time gone?) In that time, I know of 6 people who have begun the discernment process with an eye toward ordination. Six folks I know of. And, while the process hasn’t necessarily been kind to these seekers (and that is a posting for a different blog), it is Trinity Church which nurtured the calling; it is Trinity which served as the fertile seedbed to those open to a lifetime of service in the Church. That seedbed characteristic is unique.
Service to the Church and to the Community. I’m frankly, not sure this sets us off. Our internal focus is fairly strong with the usual opportunities (altar guild, lay readers, chalice bearers, transportation, lay Eucharistic ministers, teaching, guiding groups, and all the usual other “stuff”). Our external focus is, in my opinion, lacking in intensity. As a Parish, I see three key events we’re involved in.
- Feeding the hungry through Oasis (once or twice a month)
- Sheltering the homeless as a part of Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless (15 days a year)
- Offering the gift of giving to children through our annual Children’s’ Christmas Shoppe
It is, of course, this focus on service which led my wandering mind to stewardship. One thought that serviced during the retreat was establishing a gift discernment program – a program where the Parish helps parishioners figure out where they can best apply their talents. Something like this – coupled with a recognition of volunteers (commissioning and/or blessing lay persons who serve outside the Parish – a sending of parishioners out into the world to do good work) could provide a shot-in-the-arm for stewardship.
A couple of years ago, we asked every parishioner to fill out a survey of in-church service opportunity. Many people wonder what happened to that survey – let us just say that a discernment of my gifts would reveal a lack of orientation to detail or repetitive tasks and a difficulty in completing projects. (You can all thank Bill Lorkiewicz for his ably handling numbers during the annual Every Member Canvass and Jean Hanbury for her dedication to addressing cards of acknowledgement during the Canvass.)
So, back to where this post began. We on the vestry have a better sense today of where we are headed as a Parish, and over the next twelve months we will refocus our energies on two or three things which, we believe, offer us the biggest bang toward our mission. While we haven’t finalized the list, I imagine you will see – and participate in:
- an increased drive of purposeful volunteerism to serve our own Parish, our community as a Parish, and our community as representatives of our Parish;
- an increased focus on encouraging and welcoming newcomers with a special emphasis on adults in their twenties and early thirties.
Peace.
posted by Peter A. Stinson at 8:35 PM
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