2009 MINISTRY ASSESSMENT PROCESS (MAP) REPORT

It is with relief and optimism - both restrained, mind you - that I report on the last twelve months’ work of the Ministry Assessment Project team (Jocelyn and Peter Cass, Helen Davison, Louise Finlayson, the Rev. Neil Gray, Kathy Irwin, Peter Johnson, Joan Newman, Bess Rivett and Michael Spencer). We began 2009 with Jacquie Stinson as our Mentor. Unfortunately, Jacquie had to withdraw through ill-health. Mike Burpee is acting as stand-in.

This is the end of the second year of Holy Trinity’s Ministry Assessment Process. 2008 saw the MAP Mandate developed from your input, and approved by the Bishop. It saw completion of a qualitative self-assessment in terms of what we most value as members of this church community, again from your input at the October 2008 ‘History Event’; and it saw the beginning of a more factual assessment of how ministry happens here, what our local community is like, and what hard assets Holy Trinity can bring to the renewal of its ministry.

In 2009, the MAP team met 12 times, mainly to complete the Parish Study, whose four separate elements, “Our Building”, “Our Ministry”, “Our People and Neighbourhood”, and “Our Finances” endeavour to present as accurate a picture of Holy Trinity’s current community, practices and resources as possible. The Parish Study was written primarily for us! If you haven’t already read it, please do so. It is still on display in its blue, yellow, lilac and green covers in the church library.

The MAP team also held two whole-church meetings this year (at least, everyone was invited, even if not quite all attended!) The first, on May 27th, was a question-and-answer follow-up to Bruce Hiebert’s survey of the Church and Rectory in January 2009. His report and findings are included in “Our Building”. We were greatly cheered by Bruce’s generally positive account of the physical state of our buildings - there appear to be no serious liabilities, and those faults which he did observe have already been taken in hand by Parish Council.

The second whole-church meeting, held after our worship on November 22nd, marked the climax of the year’s work for the team, and a very important point in the whole Ministry Assessment Process. At this meeting, the MAP team presented its recommendations for our future. The fifth and last document we produced this year (after the four-part Parish Study) is called “Our Future”, and in it we propose steps by which we think Holy Trinity should seek to discover Christ’s new purpose for us in our local community, steps through which we also hope to renew ourselves in fulfilling Christ’s ministry of love. The document summarizes our conclusions from the whole Ministry Assessment Process. Its recommendations are concrete, practical, and biblically grounded. They include proposals to educate ourselves about local needs, make our building more practically useful, develop both lay and clergy ministry, reaffirm our worshipping, pastoral care and youth ministry strengths, and consult with the Church before making any radical decisions. The MAP team presented these recommendations on November 22nd, and took questions from those present. We felt that the response was positive, and, on the strength of this, and of the parish Council’s unanimous acceptance of “Our Future” at its meeting on November 17th, we have formally submitted our recommendations to Bishop Michael Ingham for his endorsement.

Copies of “Our Future” are still available from the church office. Please read it, while we await the Bishop’s response.

Respectfully submitted,
Peter Johnson