Policy Meeting,
led by Reverend David Sargent The Context
"The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St. Paul's Church organised an Away Day in November in which we would to consider together the ‘hallmarks of a healthy church’. We wanted to come to some consensus on the key qualities that would reflect a community living in response to the words of Jesus "You are the light of the world." It is hoped that the results of this will lead to a gently formulated strategy for the worship, mission and witness of this church over the next 5-10 years.
Many of us had wide experience of planning days, vision-building sessions and the mechanisms of formulating mission statements through our employment. We were aware of the limitations of many of the facilitation techniques we had encountered over the years. Some of us had grown not a little cynical about the possibility of significant progress!
I have been in post for less than two years. Prior to that, the parish had no change of incumbent for nearly 30 years. There was a general sense in the church community that we are ready for something new, but we were not sure what "new" might look like. Most peoples previous experience of church life was somewhat top-down and hierarchical, with very limited shared decision-making.
Coming from an employment background that included some limited exposure to Pinpoint Facilitation™ skills, I was able to attend a two-day workshop, introducing the principles and practice of Pinpoint Facilitation™. Following this, we began to plan the Away Day with new ideas in mind.
Programme
To date, we have held 2 sessions - and learned some useful lessons in the process:-
- Session 1 : Away Day : November 2002
- Session 2 : Follow-on : December 2002
Session 1 : Away Day
Instead of the familiar "breaking into small groups and scattering to various work-rooms", forty of us stayed together for the morning to address the key question:-
"In relation to God, each other, our community and the world, what would be the key characteristics of a people seeking to live in response to Jesus’ words "You are the light of the world"?" We used Pinpoint Facilitation™ to bring us to 7 key characteristics for churchgoers. They will be a people who:-
- Worship
- Take risks
- Are committed to world outreach
- Listen to and serve their community
- Pray
- Use skills wisely
- Express a living faith
In the afternoon session, we went into 7 small groups in separate rooms to try and tease out the "So What?"response to these high ideals. The process proved difficult, at times frustrating and it was interesting to note the number of folk saying "we should have done more of the Pinpoint™ in the afternoon session too". The session seemed to reinforce the difficulties of group work that Pinpoint™ serves to avoid!. The day finished with worship in the chapel in which we used the morning’s Pinboards and the afternoon's summary sheets as a focus for our prayers and thinking. It was a day well spent and very much the starting blocks for the next stage.
Session 2 : Follow-on
We decided that a follow-on session was needed soon. Having invited everyone to an evening session, we agreed to revisit the key characteristics and use the opportunity to put flesh on the bones and move towards specific actions. This time, we were assisted by Mike Warnock from Pinpoint and used the Pinpoint Facilitation™ process throughout.
The difference from the Away Day afternoon session was quite dramatic; partly, I believe, because people had been given some time to reflect on the Away Day and had been given copies of everything on the boards.
However, the whole process of the evening Follow-on brought much, much more forward and has given us specific ideas and people starting to come forward to begin to make things happen. Some will be quick-win ideas that are hardly rocket-science, but it was great to see individuals taking on significant responsibility and very encouraging to have a session where the articulate, confident speakers were not at an advantage over the quieter, more reserved members of the group.
We clustered the suggestions from the Away Day, added to them and had an Ideas Gallery in which everyone had an opportunity to comment on, question or add to the different Pinboards. With mulled wine and mince pies in hand, we then gave people time to indicate their possible commitment to taking on some of the specific initiatives.
It was exciting to see a group of people who were more used to sitting in a big committee (rubber-stamping decisions others have made) getting up, staying involved, interacting and starting to own the purpose, potential and possibilities of their Church!
Other uses of the Pinpoint Facilitation™ process.
Since the Pinpoint™ Workshop, we have found all sorts of unexpected opportunities to use some of the basic principles and techniques of Pinpoint Facilitation™. We have found lots of new material open to us in:- - Marriage preparation workshops
- Baptism preparation - we had much more input from men than we have ever had before!
- Teenagers’ Confirmation Group
We are very much beginning to explore and develop the applications for such facilitation skills, but are certainly excited and hopeful for its use in all sorts of aspects of our ministry. We would of course be very willing to speak directly to anyone who would like further feedback on how we, a very ordinary parish, are finding new initiative and new energy in this process.
Rev. Dave Sargent
St Paul’s Church Parish Office
Chester Road
Childer Thornton
Ellesmere Port
Cheshire
CH66 1QF, U.K.
E-mail revdave.sargent@talk21.com
Phone +44(0)151 339 2020
