Recalculating Life Downtown Proposal

RECALCULATING DESTINATION: LIFE DOWNTOWN
Trip Team Report Out & Proposal
Team
LIFE DOWNTOWN
LIFE DOWNTOWN Team Members
•Jack Focht
•Ben Grisamore
•Lisa Guinn
•Jeremy Hanna
•Bonnie Laycock
•Marlys McFarland
•Sarah Newcomer
•Wendy Ramsey
•Steve Rogers
•Debra Seeley
•Nancy Smith
•Tom Tanner
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Process
LIFE DOWNTOWN
VOICE OF THE CONGREGATION – WHAT WE HEARD FROM YOU
•You would like more opportunities to be engaged in mission at home
¾ Greater variety of projects with differing time commitments and groups served
¾ Ways to serve our own church family
•You would like First United Methodist Church (FIRST) to be more involved in the activities and life of
downtown Wichita
¾ Serving more than just the homeless
¾ Reaching out to engage the “lofters”
¾ Greater use of Mead’s Corner
¾ Being engaged in other downtown activities
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Process
LIFE DOWNTOWN
WHAT WE DID WITH WHAT WE HEARD
• Research
¾
What activities and services are already occurring in downtown Wichita
• Contacted many agencies located in or serving downtown
¾
Who are we trying to engage and in what way
¾
What ministry and growth opportunities are seen for Mead’s from the Mead’s staff
¾
What are we doing well already but may not publicize
¾
What may not work so well in our current processes
• Formed 4 roads based on your input and the research
Four Roads formed from your input and the research. These roads seek to develop a culture within our
church where all can serve our own and our neighbors in downtown Wichita.
The 4 Life Downtown Roads are -¾
Downtown Events
¾
English as a Second Language (ESL) & Educational Missions
¾
Mead’s
¾
Balanced Approach to Missions
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ROAD 1 – Downtown Events Involvement
STRATEGY:
To make downtown events a part of FIRST’s DNA (culture) such that ALL church classes, committees, groups, etc., seek
opportunities to be involved in or to support downtown Wichita events as a means to highlight Life Downtown and
welcome them to join us.
OBJECTIVES:
1.Form a Downtown Events team reporting to the Commission on Missions
2.The team will coordinate and facilitate FIRST’s involvement in downtown events.
•Will help create the DNA (culture) within FIRST
•Will coordinate and connect with all downtown community events and determine if the opportunity is relevant and in
line with our mission and goals and define how FIRST may engage
•Will connect with organizations engaged downtown, to investigate opportunities to collaborate
•Will seek to instill a visible presence of FIRST at events
•Will recruit participation and actively markets and promotes opportunities
3.The team will identify and coordinate the appropriate tool or method of engagement for each event
•Something that highlights a cause or message we champion at FIRST
•Communicates a simple message, like “Join Us”
•Provides immediate gratification for the recipient
•Grabs attention in a relative, trendy way
•Leads people to ask “Who is FIRST Church?”
4.The team will revisit FIRST branding (logo, standard message, advertising, etc.)
•Needs to communicate a clear and distinct message
•Needs to be relevant and recognizable
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ROAD 2 – ESL & Educational Mission Opportunities
STRATEGY:
Develop practical ways to serve our Hispanic neighbors and offer educational opportunities to those in our neighborhood
with the greatest need.
OBJECTIVES:
1.Form an ESL & Educational team reporting to the Commission on Missions
2.The team will collaborate with agencies who offer General Education Degree (GED) classes and other related services in order
to refer individuals in need of them
3.The team will develop practical ways to fill the adult educational gap between what is needed and already provided to those in
greatest need downtown
•Identify what is available and needed
•Help promote services that are available
•Collaborate with Open Door to examine if services can be expanded
•Prepare FIRST and other volunteers through sensitivity training
4.The team will develop a comprehensive Hispanic ministry that will allow the congregation to be immersed in our downtown
Hispanic community and to help us understand their needs
•Offer adult ESL program with our Park friends and provide faith-based quality children’s programming/childcare for their
children during class
•Offer Spanish classes for FIRST members
•Offer relevant language immersion experiences at least once a year
•Evaluate our current summer programs and revise as necessary to be cross-cultural
and inviting program
oAlternatively, may consider a new cross cultural Vacation Bible School (VBS) program
•Expand our ESL preschool to be fully dual language
•Develop additional programs for Hispanic women that models the Park Mom’s program
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ROAD 3 – Mead’s Ministry
STRATEGY One:
Re-develop a parallel ministry side of Mead’s that links to Mead’s operationally and seeks to reach the needs of its customer
base. Provide a place to develop relationships with each other and with God.
OBJECTIVES:
1.Form a Mead’s Ministry team that reports to the Commission on Missions to implement the strategies and objectives
•
Enhance hours of operation to better meet customer demand and desire to have a safe place to connect
o
Open 24 Hours Friday – Sunday
o
Open all holidays
•
Address all compliance and use issues so upstairs can be more functional
•
Provide an easy method (dress/badges) for customers to identify staff & volunteers as Mead’s personnel
•
Increase awareness and advertising of Mead’s within FIRST and the community
•
Share the human interest side of Mead’s ministry
STRATEGY Two:
Invite and enable persons downtown to start and build upon their relationships with God and each other through
connections at Mead’s.
OBJECTIVES:
1.Implement a ministry of presence at Mead’s
•
Begin a faith-based hospitality team focused on relationship building
•
Offer an opportunity to identify and connect with the “Lofters” community
o
“Lofters” - a term describing a generation ranging in age between 30-50 years old, who
are children of the “Boomers” and are also called the “Busters”. They seek relationships,
purpose and a deeper meaning to life. Many live in downtown loft type apartments.
•
•
•
•
•
Equip volunteers to appropriately engage with customers
Create a prayer room/space upstairs
Add a very late night worship service
Create a space upstairs for study and small groups
Expand “Arts” at Meads – include social justice issues and expand music
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ROAD 3 – Mead’s Ministry (continued)
STRATEGY Three:
Make Mead’s a “Gateway to Mission”
OBJECTIVES:
1.Organize, advertise and plan regularly scheduled local mission opportunities based out of Mead’s
• Collaborate with other Teams on Mission Commission
2.Begin a small scale book and gift store that unites social issues, fair trade merchandise, awareness and involvement
opportunities. Staff with volunteers
3.Support/expand mission education and opportunities with short-term studies, speaker events, on-line forums & social
media
4.Establish Mead’s as a “Safe Place”
• Train staff and volunteers to recognize at risk people and help them connect with appropriate resources (to be
a referring point to help them find needed services).
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ROAD 4 – Balanced Approach to Missions
Analysis:
Your input suggests two areas needing focus:
1.Provide more local mission opportunities to balance the number of mission trip teams
2.Provide more variety of opportunities to serve in local missions (more projects, differing time commitments, etc.)
What we learned:
1.FIRST currently reaches more volunteers, projects and beneficiaries locally than outside Wichita
2.FIRST is not effective at promoting, publicizing or celebrating results of current local activities
What we did:
1.Reviewed current local mission activities and those ideas submitted from the congregation.
2.Created two specific strategies described in the following pages that incorporating what we learned
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ROAD 4 – Balanced Approach to Missions
STRATEGY One :
Market, communicate and testify to local missions Downtown
OBJECTIVES:
1.Add a role/position focused on communicating mission activities, results, human interest stories, developing relations
with the media, etc. This role/position will be under the direction of the Director of Missions.
STRATEGY Two:
Provide a balanced mission approach to be in service to our Downtown community
OBJECTIVES:
1.Form teams that oversee, coordinate and plan local missions – Neighborhood Outreach team, Homeless & Low Income,
Prison Ministry, School Partnerships, Mead’s, Downtown Events, ESL and Educational, Downtown Events
• These teams will collaborate with each other
2.Maintain a variety of mission opportunities that are dynamic and change as community needs evolve
3.All current local mission activities will be incorporated into one of the new teams.
• See Current & Proposed Mission Projects (next page)
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ROAD 4 – Current & Proposed Mission Activities
Team
Description of Mission
Notes
Neighborhood Outreach
Stephanie’s Small Comforts
No changes proposed at this time
Neighborhood Outreach
Wesley Dolls
Propose: Expand so more can be involved
Neighborhood Outreach
Joint activities with other churches
Propose: Be in mission for downtown churches to help them grow and fill gaps as requested
Neighborhood Outreach
Spring Fling
No changes proposed at this time
Neighborhood Outreach
Monthly Service Projects (Spring Fling type projects)
Propose: Adding a monthly service project week night and/or weekend where small projects with short time commitments (1‐4 hours) are done
Neighborhood Outreach
Parking Lot activities that attract our neighbors to join us in fun and fellowship
Propose: Increasing frequency of parking lot activities to 4‐5/year. Ideas – ice cream socials, movies, concerts, petting zoo, cookouts, etc.
Neighborhood Outreach
Van transport of neighbors to church activities
Propose: Creating “bus routes” to provide transportation to FIRST activities
Neighborhood Outreach
Handy Man ministry to serve FIRST members
Propose: Adding a handy man type service to do small repairs and projects. Services by FIRST member for FIRST members. Neighborhood Outreach
Gym Activities
Propose: Open gym. Collaborate with Open Door, Mead’s, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Salvation Army, Boy & Girl Scouts, to arrange structured gym activities. Also have open gym time.
ESL & Education
Spanish classes
Propose: beginning Spanish classes to help bridge communication gap with our community
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ROAD 4 – Current & Proposed Mission Activities (Continued)
Team
Description of Mission
Notes
Prison Ministry
Hope Class
No changes proposed at this time
Prison Ministry
Kairos – Women
Propose: Awareness to increase volunteer participation
Prison Ministry
Kairos – Men
Propose: Adding a men’s program that mirrors the women’s program
School Partnerships
Park Elementary Partnerships
Propose: Expanding by adding another school
School Partnerships
Park Mom’s
No changes proposed at this time
Homeless & Low Income
Habitat for Humanity builds
Propose: Volunteering 1‐2 times/year
Homeless & Low Income
Homeless overflow shelter
No changes proposed at this time
Homeless & Low Income
Serve communion & sandwiches at Open Door one time/week
No changes proposed at this time
Homeless & Low Income
Serve lunch at Open Door the first Friday of each month
Propose: Supplementary funding to help Sunday School classes offset costs
Homeless & Low Income
Open Table or Circles of Hope
Propose: Restarting program in 2014
Homeless & Low Income
Food & clothing drives to support Open Door
Propose: Increase awareness and participation
Homeless & Low Income
Support Open Door and Kansas Food Bank Warehouse
Propose: Increasing awareness of volunteer needs
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Who will do this?
LIFE DOWNTOWN
The Life Downtown roads will be driven by seven teams led and supported by laity. The teams will replace the
current Commission on Community Outreach and Social Concerns. The teams will meet individually to plan
activities in their area. At least monthly, the team leaders will meet with the Director of Missions to report on
activities and to collaborate activities between teams.
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How will this work?
LIFE DOWNTOWN
Director of Missions
Commission on Missions
The Commission on Missions function will change and it will become a governing ministry body to ensure a
continued balanced approach to missions, locally, nationally and globally and will be led by the Director of
Missions. In this proposed structure, the Commission on Mission will be composed of the local and global
team leaders and will meet monthly. The local and global teams will meet separately at least monthly (see
previous slide). Periodically, they will meet together to collaborate on visions, strategies, activities, etc.
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What will it take?
LIFE DOWNTOWN
HUMAN RESOURCES
In order to implement the entire proposal optimally, the following number of people resources is recommended:
•Director of Missions (currently a staff position)
•Seven team leaders (recommend these to be lay positions)
•Team members (recommend these to be lay positions)
¾ 4-5 Members per team
•Communications (could be incorporated into a current position or be a lay position)
FINANCIAL RESOURCES
A rough estimate of annual financial resources for each team is below. Each team will be challenged to raise funds
through various activities like mission luncheons, donations or through collaborating with other organizations for
donations of supplies. We also propose FIRST will underwrite up to $4,000/year to be spread between the 7 teams as
approved by the Director of Missions
Team
Est Annual Expense
Prison Ministry
$500
Downtown Events
$500
Neighborhood Outreach
$2,500
Homeless & Low Income
$1,500
ESL & Educational
$1,000
School Partnerships
$500
Mead’s Ministry
$3,000
NOTE: Mead’s Ministry will benefit from making the upstairs of the building usable by
addressing fire code and ADA issues. This will need further study to determine
current code requirements, costs, building owner’s buy-in, and congregational approval.
The cost could range between $30K-100K depending on building codes and work scope
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When can we start?
LIFE DOWNTOWN
THE FOLLOWING IMPLEMENTATION PLAN IS RECOMMENDED:
•Forming teams
¾ The work to identify and form teams and team leaders can start immediately. Ideally, they will be selected by the
FIRST Lay Leadership Committee and be approved and ready to start work January 2, 2014.
•Restructuring Commission on Mission
¾ This work can start in the Fall 2013 and be ready to implement when the new teams are installed January 2014
•Mead’s Capital Improvements
¾ A thorough analysis of what is required to meet ADA requirements and address fire code issues is needed.
¾ This has been reviewed before, so pulling the past data and updating it is the first step and can begin in Sept/Oct.
with the support of the Board of Trustees
¾ A proposal should be prepared and presented to the congregation to determine how to proceed.
¾ Once approved and associated funds raised, renovations can begin
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Why should you vote “YES”?
LIFE DOWNTOWN
The FIRST Mission is “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”
¾ Our deeds, as we reach out to the unchurched of downtown Wichita, is how we plant the seeds of our
faith and begin the harvest of new disciples.
• “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? James 2:14
• “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” James 2:18
• “You see that his (Abraham) faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by
what he did.” James 2:22
•FIRST members have a rich history of service, both locally and globally. The Recalculating activity highlighted your desire to
do more and to expand how we reach those downtown.
¾ This proposal does that by maintaining what is working well and adds or expands to that by -9 Getting us more involved in the activities of downtown Wichita
9 Rekindling a Mead’s Ministry to reach those who find Mead’s Coffee Shop an inviting place to develop
relationships
9 Offering avenues to reach our Hispanic neighbors in mutually beneficial activities
9 Offering many different types of mission activities that fit the lifestyle and interest of the volunteers
9 Helps us better meet the needs of members
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