High Street United Methodist Church

High Street United Methodist Church Consultation Report November 15, 2014

INTRODUCTION:

We, the Consultation Team, would like to thank Pastor Dale Mendenhall, the pastoral staff, the staff, the lay leadership and the congregation of High Street United Methodist Church for the invitation to consult with this body of Christ.

The following observations and Ministry Action Plans are the result of this team studying the following information: 1) High Street Church’s self-study document provided by its leaders; 2) FCJ on-line survey; 3) interviews with pastors, 4) interviews with staff and ministry team leaders; 5) a focus group with participants from the congregation; 6) a meeting with the Church Council; 7) a MissionInsite demographic report of the area’s population; 8) Faith Perceptions Mystery Guest Report; and 9) input from Saturday’s leadership workshop.

Our prayer is that God will use this assessment experience and consultation report to help High Street United Methodist Church be more effective in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the community and the world.

1. Friendly and Concerned People Obviously, one of the hallmarks of the High Street DNA is friendliness and concern for others. Several members of various High Street classes or small groups (the Bethany Class, the Epworth Class, the Koinonia Class, etc.) commented about the importance of personal connections, concern for each other, prayer support, and joyful, friendly, life-giving relationships. This friendship and concern is also expressed through the helping work of the “High Streeters Helping High Streeters” ministry.

It is significant to note also that the Mystery Guests, overall, gave high marks for friendliness in their visits on Sunday morning. Several individual comments from these largely unchurched guests confirmed the high rating. Among those comments were these: “The people were warm and genuine.” “I felt very welcomed.” “The people were really friendly.” And, “This church was one of the friendliest I've ever visited.” We did note that a better Sunday welcoming strategy would improve things further, comments like this from unchurched people indicates that a friendly spirit is a significant part of life at High Street. 2. Willingness to Make Significant, Necessary, and Strategic Adjustments Challenges in life can bring out the best in us or the worst in us. On the one hand, we can descend into negativity, loss of hopefulness or an unclear vision. When that happens, we can become stuck in unhealthy places that cloud future decisions and possibilities. On the other hand, sometimes these challenges bring out the best in us, especially if we are looking for God’s possibilities in those moments. At “High Street and Adams” the latter seems to have often been true throughout the years.

High Street has been faced with some significant challenges since its beginnings in 1836. One of the most catastrophic was the explosion of 1978 when the congregation was faced with a huge decision about its future. With the guidance of Dr. Hunter Colpitts and the lay leadership of the church, High Street chose the path of possibility and refocused, realigned, rebuilt, and renewed their ministry. This path was a momentum builder for years to come.

1 However, we discovered this tendency to make adjustments isn’t limited to that great explosion. In recent years, High Street has also shown resiliency and vision when faced with other crossroads: the addition of a contemporary worship service, a change in the Sunday Schedule, the purchase of adjoining property for a pre-school ministry, and the ongoing challenges in facility management on the exterior and the interior of the facility. This tendency to choose opportunity rather than despair opens up incredible possibilities for future ministries including the current crossroad. 3. A Church in Mission While expressing a deep faith through meaningful service and outreach is consistent with the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, it is not uncommon for congregations to become inwardly focused and forget the importance of reaching out with God’s love. While we can always do more, we were pleased to note that outreach to others is expressed in a variety of life-changing and life-enhancing ways at High Street. Here are a few of those ways: the food pantry, the Samaritan Fund, mission trips, Habitat for Humanity, Cardinal Campus Ministry, Tools for School, Coat Give-Away, CROP Walk, Walk a Mile for Muncie Mission, Angels on High Pre-School, Older Adult Ministry opportunities, and Salvation Army.

The awareness of this outreach to and for others was evident to the worship Mystery Guests as well. They rated the “Outreach and Diversity” among the strengths they experienced. In addition to the many service offerings, they noted the diversity in worship styles and the friendliness of the worshipers also were reminders that High Street was concerned for others. One guest stated, “I do believe High Street would welcome anyone from any background into its services and crowd.” That is an indication of a church that desires to reach out and be in mission. 4. Meaningful Worship Services The “front door” to life in a congregation is often the Sunday morning worship experiences. Churches that do not put in the time, creativity, quality of the ministry of the worship hour often miss the opportunity to include and assimilate others into the life of the church. High Street has a long history of vital worship services that include strong and well-crafted sermons, excellent music in a variety of styles and mediums, as well as sacred space to find inspiration and hope as worshipers listen for God’s voice.

These excellent and relevant worship experiences continue today. Mystery Guests expressed appreciation for the pastors’ messages that were well-prepared, meaningful, and helpful. One said, “Overall it was an interesting message. It seems that they are trying to take it to heart based on my experience as a guest.” In addition, the guests expressed appreciation for the quality of and preparation for the music, as well as the range of instruments. The music, regardless of style, was described by several as “beautiful and excellent.”

5. Facilities, Location and Resources. High Street is blessed with extraordinary, historic facilities to provide for the downtown ministry. The beautiful church building dedicated in 1930, includes a gothic sanctuary, 85 rooms, and a 100-ft. tower. This is an incredible resource and visible presence. The congregation has been diligent to keep it well-preserved and maintained for ministry, as it provides sacred, artistic, and inspirational space to discover God’s presence and encouragement to live the Christian life. This maintenance is critically important, otherwise, as one member said, “it would become a pile of rubble at High and Adams.”

The location in the downtown community has been embraced by the congregants as the primary ministry field. There is a big difference between (1) being “a church that happens to be located downtown” and (2) a church that has intentionally embraced being “a downtown church.” There are many opportunities downtown to have relevant and helpful ministries meeting the needs of people.

2 Finally, the foresight of past High Street generations in creating the High Street Foundation helps insure the maintenance and demands of an older, larger facility. This is yet another indication of the strong leadership that High Street has enjoyed through the years. It is a blessing, and an encouraging witness and challenge to the current membership to always keep future generations in mind as new ministries are envisioned, created, and launched.

Concerns 1. Lack of Consistent Alignment with the Mission and Vision of the Church. High Street UMC is a community of action within the church and within the community. However, these actions lack a clear, consistent connection to the mission and vision of the Church. We affirm the mission statement, “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” and the vision of “WORSHIP - CONNECT - SERVE”. However, High Street’s ministries, staffing model and leadership emphasis are not consistently and intentionally aligned with these statements. A lack of alignment around the mission and vision of the church prevents effective support, accountability and evaluation of lay leadership, ministry, staffing, and facility use. When ministries are consistently aligned with the mission and vision, the congregation can more readily and consistently align resources to produce fruitful ministry - a result of which will be a more unified church across worshiping congregations.

2. Moving People from Welcome to a Growing Discipleship. High Street UMC desires to provide children, youth, and adults with spiritual growth through its Sunday school classes, youth group, and some short-term small groups. There are several helpful pieces already in place, including hospitality, greeting, follow up letters from the pastors, a pastoral phone call, printing a permanent name tag for newcomers, and offering a home visit. However, there is no consistent strategy for connecting, developing, and growing disciples at High Street UMC. If High Street is to mobilize mature, effective disciples to share and live their faith daily in word and deed, it will be imperative that the congregation develops and executes an intentional discipleship process from welcome into growing discipleship.

3. Insufficient Relational Connection with the Mission Field . The mission efforts are well executed and extensive as shared in the strengths listed above. However, these efforts are not connecting people to Christ or to the church in a consistent, relational, and transforming way. The consultation team only discovered one person that became connected to the church through the older adult ministry of Thursday Lunch or Update Learning. Just a few families of the 150 families involved in the preschool and/or Parents Day Out have become connected to High Street UMC through those ministries. The church’s missional engagement will require establishing relationships that become bridges for demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ in a personal and transforming way that also helps connect those we serve to Christ and this church.

4. Aging Congregation. High Street UMC has a large number of older adults as a significant part of the congregation. These make up well over half the congregation and provide the bulk of leadership, ministry involvement and financial support. Their continuing participation in the church is critical to the church’s future. However, as they age, their numbers, energy, capacity, and financial contributions continue to erode as a result. It is imperative that High Street UMC focus attention, energy, and resources to reach younger generations as well as they have older generations. The stabilizing of Sunday school for children, the forward momentum of youth group, and the recent addition of some younger adults and their families is encouraging. These ministries will need to be significantly creatively enhanced and expanded to reach the significant mission field. (Over 65% or 55,000+ of the over 85,000 person that live within 5 miles of the church are under 45 years of age. 60% or 33,000+ of those are without a significant faith community. And 5,284 preschool children and 11,789 school aged children live within your mission field.) This is a big mission, which calls

3 the congregation to expand its capacity and strategy to reach younger adults, youth, and children. The consultation team read and heard repeatedly a desired ministry focus for the sake of the mission and vision. One person remarked, “It takes more than an emotional desire to bring young families - it takes action!” Another person graphically stated, “if we don’t reach younger generations, this will be the largest Gothic museum in the country.”

5. Need for intentional leadership development plan in order to expand volunteerism. High Street UMC is blessed with staff and leaders who are dedicated to the Church and its mission and vision. However, the congregation’s ministry will be more effective by deploying staff and leaders in an intentional way that supports the fulfillment of your shared vision. A shift will be necessary for current staff and leaders to consistently move from “doing” ministry to “developing” new leaders and teams engaged in fruitful ministry. Although High Street UMC has many outstanding leaders, the church lacks an intentional process of leadership development to broaden the volunteer base, widely engage new people in ministry, and improve overall ministry effectiveness. Ministry Action Plans:

1. Aligning with the Mission and Vision of the Church. a. In becoming a church more aligned with its mission and vision, the pastor will call the leaders and congregation to a Day of Prayer, Forgiveness and Healing. The first purpose of this Day of Prayer, Forgiveness and Healing is for confession, asking God to forgive the congregation collectively and individually for not marshaling its resources to lead more people to Jesus Christ. The second purpose is to seek forgiveness and healing related to any past decisions that have caused pain within the congregation. The third purpose is to pray that God will give the leaders and congregation the energy and strategy to implement its mission and vision. This day will be held during Sunday morning worship led by someone other than the pastor, chosen in consultation with the coach, to occur on or before January 18, 2015. b. In order to more consistently align all ministries with the mission and vision of the church, each leader will conduct a ministry audit of their ministry area, under the direction of the Ministry Audit Team to be named by the lead pastor in consultation of the coach. This audit will be completed by April 30, 2015. Ministries will be evaluated by their faithfulness to the mission and vision and their fruitfulness (results). Any ministries not faithful and fruitful will be given a year to rectify. After that, any ministries that are not faithful to the mission and vision will be dissolved; any ministries that are faithful but still not fruitful will be modified and re-evaluated for fruitfulness. All continuing ministries will set goals and objectives in alignment with the mission and vision. c. In conjunction with the lead pastor and the coach, each staff person will develop a results-based job description to be reviewed by Staff-Parish Relations Committee by April 30, 2015. Furthermore, the lead pastor and Staff-Parish Relations Committee, with the help of the coach, will conduct a staff audit which will include a review of job positions and descriptions, aligning them with the church’s ministries for the mission and vision by June 30, 2015.

2. Develop an Intentional Welcoming, Connecting, and Discipling Process The discipleship process will be a lifelong process designed for everyone aligning with the vision and encourage all persons to: · connect and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ, including WORSHIP, · be transformed by studying the Bible and the principles of the Christian faith, · CONNECT with other believers for support and accountability, and · SERVE others for the purpose of the mission.

Suggested steps to accomplish this are to include but not be limited to: a) The lead pastor, in consultation with the coach will select a team by December 31, 4 2014 to develop a clear process for welcoming, identifying, following up, listening to, connecting and discipling new persons to become fully devoted and missionally-focused disciples of Jesus Christ. One possible process is outlined in the book, The Race to Reach Out. This process will be implemented by August 15, 2015. b) The lead pastor, in consultation with the coach will select a team to develop a sustainable small group ministry by December 31, 2014. These small groups will include Bible study, prayer, care, and faith sharing. A process of on-going training, spiritual nurturing and support for leaders of these small groups will also be developed. The implementation of a long-term small group ministry will have a significant impact on retention and connection and will be implemented by May 31, 2015. c) The lead pastor, in consultation with the coach, will select a team by January 1, 2015 to create a clear discipleship process for moving people from where they are on their spiritual journey to becoming maturing followers of Jesus Christ. A suggested resource for this discipleship process is Deepening Your Effectiveness and/or a workshop on this topic. This new process will be implemented at all ministry levels (children, youth and adults) by May 30, 2015.

3. Developing a Relational Connection with the Mission Field The lead pastor, in consultation with the coach, will name a Relational Outreach Team (consisting of 5-8 persons), on or before December 31, 2014. This team will both facilitate outwardly focused events and develop relational connection within those events. They will have their first meeting on or before February 1, 2105, and begin to lay out the following process to be completed by May 31, 2015. This process will include:

a) Utilizing the ministry audit of the current missional ministries to evaluate those ministries for faithfulness and fruitfulness. b) Selecting at least one member of the Relational Outreach Team that will participate in each missional ministry to identify, welcome, and connect relationally with those persons in attendance that are not currently connected to the High Street UMC. c) The Relational Outreach Team will enact a follow up plan with these new contacts to help them connect to the Discipleship Path. d) As High Street UMC expands its missional ministries, these ministries will connect with the felt needs of the community being served by utilizing the MissionInsite report, interviews with local officials and individuals in the mission field, in order to develop and design future outwardly focused events.

4. Develop Creative, Relevant Ministries with Children, Youth and Young Adults through Gifted Teams of Passionate Leaders The lead pastor and coach, in consultation with the staff, will develop teams of servants passionate about children, youth and young adult ministries who can lead High Street UMC to effectively reach and disciple young adults, youth, and children. These teams will have the authority, responsibility and permission to work with the staff in accomplishing this widely recognized, critical ministry area. These teams will be named by December 31, 2014 and will present their plans by June 30, 2015 and begin implementation by August 15, 2015. a) The Children’s Team will develop a plan that will include effective strategies to increase the number of children both in and outside the church who are involved in children’s ministries by: effectively communicating children’s ministries to those both inside and outside the church; developing additional leaders and servants in children’s ministry; and equipping teachers for effectively planning and leading exciting, engaging classes. The team will also evaluate current children’s ministries, including facilities location and decor, curriculum, equipment, and ministry model in order to strengthen their effectiveness and expand their reach. A helpful resource for this assessment will be Jen Hudson, children’s ministry consultant. 5 b) The Youth Team will develop a plan that will include effective strategies to increase the number of youth both in and outside the church who are involved in youth ministries by: effectively communicating youth ministries to both those both inside and outside the church; developing additional leaders and servants in youth ministry; and equipping leaders for effectively planning and leading exciting, engaging groups (in order to connect more youth in a large group model), and transforming mission experiences. The team will also evaluate current youth ministries, including facilities location and décor, curriculum, equipment, and ministry model in order to strengthen their effectiveness and expand their reach. A helpful resource for this assessment will be Helene Foust, annual conference staff person. c) The Young Adult Team will develop a plan that will include small groups, Sunday school, recreational and fellowship opportunities, felt needs studies (finance, parenting, marriage), hands-on mission opportunities (that include and are not limited to family and/or multi-generational opportunities). The team will also develop these ministries with specific inclusiveness of those younger adults who are single (nearly 1/2 of all the families within 5 miles of this church who have children under the age of 18, are headed by single parents).

5. Develop an Intentional Strategy for Staff and Leaders to Expand Persons Involved in Ministry The lead pastor will teach a session of the FCJ Lay Leadership Development with the help of one or two additional members of the FCJ team. The FCJ team will recruit at least 15 persons to be a part of this LLD. This process will begin by September 30, 2015. Each session will include a time of devotion with prayer for the mission field and sharing personal faith stories (experiences with God). In order to develop healthier leaders and healthier supportive structures for those leaders, the coach will lead a workshop for the staff, church council and all other leaders on accountable leadership by May 1, 2015. In order to engage an increasing number of people in ministry for Jesus Christ, the coach will lead a workshop on expanding volunteerism for staff, church council and all other leaders by September 15, 2015. In order to increase the number of leaders, the coach will provide a workshop in mentoring by May 1, 2015, so that each leader can mentor someone to lead in their area of ministry.

CONCLUSION We, the Consultation Team, want to thank you for the opportunity to serve your congregation through this Fruitful Congregation Journey assessment process. Our prayers and hope for your congregation is that God will use this process to help your church become more effective and fruitful in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. May God give you courage and strength as you move forward.

LIST OF CONSULTANTS ON THE TEAM Steve Clouse, Herb Buwalda, Doug Anderson, Jen Hudson

TOWN HALL MEETING DATES (AT THE CHURCH): Tuesday, November 18-1:30 pm Monday, November 24-7:00 pm Saturday, December 6-9:00 am

6 CHURCH CONFERENCE DATE (AT THE CHURCH): Thursday, December 11, 2014 at 7pm