Strategic Stakeholder Conversations #2

Sunday, October 27 will be the second of three strategic stakeholder conversations. These conversations will cover five different areas as part of a Fall Vestry Initiative.

In September, over 60 St. Markers participated in our first round of these conversations. This effort continues the Vestry’s attention on the strategic planning begun in 2022 and continuing in the Season of Transition as St. Mark’s searches for a new rector. Our hope with these conversations is to rebuild our strategic muscles post-covid with increased capacity, flexibility, and adaptability as a parish. Our intention is not to fix or solve anything. We aren’t solutions-focused in these groups. Our conversations will invite us to dwell with the core values and fundamentals of our faith and open us to the possibilities for the future as your new Rector joins the Vestry in carrying forward the strategic vision for St. Mark’s.

More information closer to the day about meeting locations and times.

Here are the five Strategic Stakeholder Groups and their foundational questions:

Care and Connection: What comes to mind as you reflect on the importance of care and connection at St. Mark’s? What could it look like for the church to take an appreciative approach to its ministry, focused on the particular lives of our members and potential members (instead of a model where the church exists to fill roles and structures that may have been designed around a different approach in a previous era)? Facilitator: Randy Smith | Scribe: Marina Martin

Christian Formation: What kinds of things might a Christian/baptized member of St. Mark’s know/practice connected in their faith? How do we creatively and joyfully form them, at any age, into these things? Facilitator:  Kathy Gilliam | Scribe: Crystal Larsen

Serving Christ in Others: What are the kinds of things the Christians disciples are called to beyond Sunday morning, what of those things are part of our calling, and what partnerships might augment our communal impact in those kinds of things for all ages? Facilitator:  Jonake Bose | Scribe: Martha Chan

Worship: How is our worship inclusive of the voices and gifts of our members? How do we redevelop the structures of liturgical ministries to be partners of the clergy in the care of worship? Facilitator:  Cheryl Miller | Scribe: Stuart Sailer

Funding our Mission: With all of the possibilities above and more, how do we resource St. Mark’s ministry on a 3, 5, and 10 year horizon? What other considerations/permutations do each of our stakeholders contribute to this planning? Facilitator:  Jonathan Luk | Scribe: Tom Jenkins