Dear Friends,
The French writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, wrote, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
Life in the contemporary church is full of lots of wishful and, sometimes, even magical thinking. We wish for change, hope for change, and believe change will happen, regardless of our own agency and actions. Sometimes we pray for change in the belief that God will make it happen, no matter what. But unless we plan for change to happen, and work to make those plans a reality, I believe nothing will change.
We cannot merely wish for more people to come to church. We cannot merely hope for more people to become engaged with our parish and join us in the Christian way of life.
We do not live in the time of our grandparents or great-grandparents. We do not live in a time when most Christians attend worship regularly. We do not live in a time when the majority of weddings or funerals take place in a church. Most people are not affiliated with a church and very few of them feel badly about that fact. Many, if not most, people do not know anything about a Christianity which is strong on grace and short on guilt.
Sometimes the shifts in our culture have been so subtle, we forget the shifts have actually taken place. It’s easy to dream of the St. Bart’s of the 1960’s or the 70’s or even the 1980’s or 90’s. It’s a nostalgic pleasure to remember when more people attended church, when more people brought their children to church, and when the church played a more central role in our common life. But while it is pleasurable memory, it does little to address the challenges St. Bart’s (and every other church I know) currently faces.
The Vestry, clergy, and staff of St. Bartholomew’s have engaged in a strategic planning process so that we do not merely have a “wish” for the future of our beloved parish, but we have a plan. This plan has six “pillars;” six foundational goals upon which the strategy is based.
Pillar #1
Building Organization to Support Growth.
No church I know of has turned around its circumstances by simply cutting its budget and staff. Our Vestry has decided to make strategic investments in our organization to support spiritual, numerical, and financial growth. We invested in a Director of Stewardship to help us raise giving to the church. We invested in a Chief Operating Officer to more professionally manage the business side of the church and to increase revenues from the various activities which support our mission; the restaurant, the athletic facilities, the preschool, building rentals, etc. We have also invested in positions that will help us increase membership and cultivate participation.
Pillar #2
Achieving Financial Stability and Increasing Giving
The Vestry and staff of St. Bart’s are focused on the ways in which we can achieve financial stability and increase giving. In the past year we have changed investment managers to be better stewards of our endowments. We believe that if we increase revenue from our mission-supporting activities, increase giving from the congregation, and increase the number of major gifts given to the parish, St. Bart’s will at long last achieve the sustainability which will allow the parish to continue to impact the City and the world for good.
Pillar #3
Growing and Diversifying Membership
We believe people benefit from the worship, education, and outreach we lead from this parish. We want everyone to be connected to this radically-welcoming parish. We want young and old, rich and poor, people of color, and people of every identity to be members here. We are developing strategies to grow and diversify our membership and our significant online congregation is helping us achieve these goals.
Pillar #4
Boosting Parish Engagement
We know that it is not enough for people to say “I attend St. Bart’s.” We want people to say “I belong to St. Bart’s.” We want people to become deeply connected to one another through small groups, educational activities, pilgrimages, support groups, and a myriad of social gatherings. We are creating more and more opportunities for people to become more deeply engaged in the parish.
Pillar #5
Fully Leveraging Buildings and Mission-Supporting Activities
We have engaged consultants and completed a series of evaluations to determine how we can best leverage our National Historic Landmark building to generate the greatest possible revenue. We are carefully examining how our Mission Supporting Activities can produce greater returns to support our primary mission as a uniquely positioned progressive mainline church located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.
Pillar #6
Capitalizing on Digital Trends
This unique moment invites us to utilize existing and emerging technologies to help us meet all of our objectives. On any given Sunday, people from across the nation and from around the world are connecting to our ministry. We are only just beginning to comprehend the implications of these trends, but we believe they will have as much impact on the modern Christian movement as Guttenberg’s press had on the Protestant Reformation.
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near one.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
We realize we “live near live dragons.” There are forces that will resist our efforts to build a dynamic, sustainable, parish church where people come “To know Christ and to make Christ known.” We are not naïve. Hopelessness. Depression. Negativity. Fear. All of these will be our constant companions in this effort. This is really difficult work and if it were easy, it would already have been done. We are committed to forging a way where there is no set path... and we believe that our strong faith, accompanied by a good plan, will help us succeed in this endeavor.
At this year’s All Parish Meeting, we will discuss these plans and the challenges we face. I hope you will join us.
Faithfully,
The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe, D.D.
Rector