Partial Survey Results are Back !

A portion of the survey results have been returned. We started reviewing the responses this evening. There are more materials on the way that will helps us understand the reports we're reviewing.

We spent a good portion of the evening discussing our initial responses to the raw information. Plans were also made to review the Church Information Form (CIF) in light of the survey results. We're praying for additional insight from the interpretative material that is yet to arrive.

We are moving forward with anticipation and excitement.

In the CIF: Major Tasks and Responsibilities

There is a section of the Church Information Form (CIF) that asks us to describe the major tasks and responsibilties of the position. One of the challenges we face with the CIF is finding a way to communicate a portion of our personality in addition to communicating expectations and needs. Last week, we began to develop the Major Tasks and Responsibilities section. While it may change between now and the time it becomes official, we wanted to share the working copy of that section.

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Come with us on a journey of transformation. We want to continuously work to transform our lives in His name (be disciples) so that we can transform the lives of those in our community (make disciples). By the love we demonstrate for each other and for those around us, we will together further His kingdom.

Teach us to be leaders and servants, equipping and sending us, encouraging and guiding us. Along the way, we know you will help us:

• Cultivate a spiritual energy that is contagious, experiencing with us the living presence of God
• Let go of the barriers that prevent us from becoming who God wants us to be
• Create an atmosphere in which conflict is recognized, confronted, and dealt with openly
• Discover the strengths of the community and match them with the strengths of the congregation
• Develop a clear vision that elicits understanding, enthusiasm, and passion

With you preaching and leading worship, moderating our Session, calling on members, and teaching, administering, and praying, we’ll grow together in Christ.

We know God has chosen you to be in our midst. We can’t wait to meet you and get started in our walk together!

Lunch with COM

This past week our chair, David O., enjoyed lunch with the presbytery's Committee On Ministry (COM) (the committee that helps facilitate our pastoral search). They hosted a lunch for interim ministers and Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) chairs from our presbytery.

Some interesting tidbits from the luncheon:

A recommendation from another church to listen to sermons in advance of expending funds or an invitation to a neutral pulpit to listen to a candidate speak. With today's technologies, many candidates or their churches regularly provide sermon audio via the internet (we do!).

They shared that the full COM meets twice a month in order to accelerate the search process. They execute the many phases for which they are responsible during these meetings: Church Information Forms (CIF) reviews (not the COM-5 meeting), candidate reviews and pre-screening, etc.

An informal statistical study indicated that almost 80% of all calls in our presbytery were the result of self-referrals. That is, the candidate found the church. While there is a matching process that occurs in the CIF/Personal Information Forms (PIF) database, many of the calls are based on the result of the personal search of the pastoral candidate. I think that's good news. Its an indicator of an active search (database matching is passive) and the engagment of the candidate with the information provided by the church.

Finally, we confirmed that providing an expanded portions of our CIF on our website was an acceptable way to provide a more complete picture of our church than perhaps the 1500-character limit present in the online system would provide.


We had a great week. We're about half-way through the six-week survey processing period. Another three weeks should do it.

Thank you for your continued prayers and words of encouragement.

Final Numbers on Survey and Getting Caught Up

The final count on the returned surveys is 128 returned of 172 distributed; about 74%. That's a great number. The number of distributed surveys fell after we eliminated some double-counting. The number of returned surveys increased due to your efforts to get surveys back to us before we mailed them off for tabulation. For the record, the surveys were mailed on Apr 2. The usual processing time is about six weeks.

You'll notice a two-week gap in the posts on our blog. I'll confess I've missed the last couple of weeks of PNC meetings with family committments (baseball, band events and birthdays). During those meetings - and continuing into this evening's meeting - we have been reviewing the answers to the open-ended questions of the surveys.

We very much appreciate everyone who took the time to complete these sections and communicate with us. The surveys confirm we are a wonderfully diverse congregation with many spiritual gifts and experiences to help fulfill our mission.

During our discussion tonight, we had to keep reminding ourselves that the surveys were anonymous. By design, you are not identified with your responses. So, even though you've shared your talents with us and we are able to paint a picture of the congregation, the surveys did not provide a way to reach out to any one person in particular.

We encourage you to share your experiences and talents with each other (no hiding them under a bush, right?). Find something that perhaps your havent shared before - or share with someone you dont know well, yet. If there's something you really enjoy doing that helps the church accomplish its mission, there's a good chance we can find a way to make it happen at FPC.

Thank you for your prayers.

PHENOMENAL

As a committee, we were blown away by the response to the survey.

At tonight's meeting we could account for 111 of 175 surveys - a response rate in excess of 60%.

You should be extremely pleased that you are in a congregation where almost two-thirds of your fellow congregation members elected to take time to fill out the survey and return it.

Congratulations. You've done a great job.

We're going to be making as many phone calls as we can on Wednesday to see if we can't nudge the number up a little more. We won't be able to call everyone who didn't turn in a cover sheet, but we're going to make as many calls as we can.

If you still have a survey and want to get it in, drop it by the church any time on Wednesday on Thursday before noon. We want to put these in the mail on Friday. You can use the boxes outside the sanctuary. Or, you can call me and I'll come get it if I can.

Great job. Absolutely great job.

Please accept our 'Thanks' for a job well done.

Cary

Survey FAQ

I'll start the Survey FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) with some of the questions we have received and discussed this evening. I'll follow up periodically with more as the need arises - or as we get answers to the questions I've already posted here.

Q: I need to change a response. What's the best way?
A: Two options were discussed this evening, so we're going to put that question back to the company. The two options were: a) place a large 'X' over the initial response and shade in the new response; b) "white-out" of the initial response, followed by shading in the desired response. Stay tuned, there may be a more definitive answer on this item soon.
Update: 3/12 Received confirmation to use method a, the large X method, to indicate a response that should be ignored.

Q: How do we answer questions 53-56 about the pastor since we don't have one?
A: Answer those questions considering current leadership (interim).

Q: I feel some of these questions are too personal. May we leave some questions blank?
A: These are anonymous surveys. Every answer you provide helps build a complete story about our congregation. The search committee is not going to attempt to reverse-engineer your identity based on your responses. The commercial surveys will be packaged and sent for tabulation shortly after the Easter deadline - and they must all be processed at the same time. All that said, if you're absolutely uncomfortable answering a question, please leave it blank and complete the rest of the survey.
3/12 Response from survey administrators: The scanner simply records what is marked. Data is evaluated based on what people are willing to share. The trends are not skewed because of a few items in a large sample are left blank

Q: What if one uses a "regular" ball point pen rather than the "magic pen"?
Answer. That is no problem. Problems however may occur if a graphite pencil is used and the mark is faint.

I'm sure there are more questions about the survey out there. We'll be at church Wednesday night from 630-8pm to answer as many questions as we can. Further, we'll be available after church on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

Peace and Grace

Survey Distribution Begins This Weekend

The congregational surveys will be distributed this Sunday, March 9.

Some of you may prefer to complete the survey and return it that day. Others may prefer to take it home and complete it there.

We'll be accepting completed surveys on March 9, 16, and 23. We'd like as many as possible returned on or before Easter.

Thank you all for participating in this important step in the search process.