The Pastoral Nominating Committee along with ELPC Session, pastoral staff, and program staff spent June 10 with Michelle Snyder, the consultant ELPC contracted to assist in interpreting and understanding the data received from 301 people (yay for you!) via the CAT Scan (Congregational Assessment Tool). It was fascinating, revealing, and enlightening to begin to learn what many of you are thinking about where we are as a church presently, where we might consider heading to in the future, and what your thoughts are about new pastoral leadership.
In the coming days, ELPC’s Session will prepare a summary of the CAT Scan results. The summary will be made available to our congregation to provide an interesting snapshot of the responses given. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to speak with any member of the PNC or with Pastor BJ.
The PNC’s next step will be to review the data we received and to determine where we need more information from you. Stay tuned to hear about the possibility of focus groups/listening sessions this summer, and consider your willingness to serve in this way. (These groups will be open to all in our congregation; completing the CAT isn’t a pre-requisite for your participation in this important work.) It would be a huge help to the PNC to learn about your views on ELPC as we work our way toward writing the MIF (Ministry Information Form).
After completing the MIF in the fall, we will submit this job/church/congregation/activities description to the Presbytery for dissemination nationally for clergy in all 50 states to see who and what ELPC is and what we are looking for.
Additionally, Jim Eng, Sara Hackett, and Linda Lane talked with some of our youth on June 12 to hear their thoughts about our church. We are working as hard as we can to learn as much as possible from all active participants in the life of ELPC.
So there you have it! Please keep us in your prayers as we continue this important work for OUR church, and also feel free to speak with any of us individually. We feel honored to serve on the PNC and we are committed to doing the very best job we can so that ELPC can continue to move steadily forward in our community.
—Polly McQueen
ELPC Pastor Nominating Committee: Doug Booth, Bill Buchanan, David Carl, Andrea DeVries, Jim Eng, Linda Lane (Chair), Rebecca McGregor (Secretary), Polly McQueen, Antwone Wright