While everything was going well in the life of our church family, Paul initiated a formal Review of the Parish and himself – by an outside professional – for the continuing health of the Parish and our church family into the future.
Parish Council concurred, as did our church family at an AGM.
And so, L G (name withheld) agreed to conduct our Parish Review in 2016.
Some people told Paul that, like Sir Humphrey speaking to Jim Hacker in “Yes, Minister” – “that is a courageous decision minister” …
CONTEXT AND PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW
After three years as Rector and with the support of the Parish Council and AGM, you now wish to undertake a Parish Review. Early in your incumbency, the parish and you established a Covenant and parishioners also identified 7 ‘dreams‘ which are actively being pursued and were reviewed in 2015.
The purpose of this Review is to take stock of the parish under your leadership and to identify areas of focus for the future. The Review is to be formative rather than evaluative, that is forward looking and by way of continuous improvement, and will hopefully identify the broad way forward for you and the parish. It is your intention for the process to be as inclusive as possible.
PROPOSED APPROACH
Step 1 – Design and Prepare the Review
- Meet with you and a Review Steering Group and /or Review Coordinator to finalise the focus, approach and logistics
- Design a short survey and cover letter for parishioners for approval of the Steering Group
Step 2 – Administer a Parish Survey
- Finalise the Survey and liaise with the Review Co-ordinator to email up to 100 parishioners
- Collate the survey results, summarise key themes and prepare presentation
Step 3 – Conduct Parish workshop
- Design the parish workshop, to be conducted for 3 hours after church on a Sunday in May/June
- Facilitate the workshop in café style (small groups at tables) to maximise inclusion
- Using an electronic whiteboard or two whiteboards to synthesise outcomes
Step 4 – Write a summary report of outcomes
- The use of a printing e-whiteboard makes this a much more efficient process.
“I found the process to be revealing in a positive way – so that seemingly small negative matters that were raised could be dealt with proactively and positively, and suggestions that were made were generally implemented – as was intended.” Rev Paul Cohen, 2016
And here are the ‘gory’ Results of the Review:
If you want the name of the person who conducted the review, please contact Paul Cohen: 6241 2034.