Planning Update

Join Us for Prayer-Conversation-Planning

• Weekly on Saturday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 (we WILL meet this coming Saturday, April 3 - agenda items outlined below)
• Aldrich Church, 3501 Aldrich Ave S, Minneapolis
• http://www.aldrichchurch.org/
• Enter using the door facing Aldrich Avenue on the south end of the building and follow the signs I’ll post
• 8:30 gather for coffee and informal conversation
• 9:00-10:00 assemble for Morning Prayer, Q&A, planning

One of the distinctives of this worshiping community will be the use of classical Anglican liturgy, so we started our meeting on March 27 with Morning Prayer. We’ll continue to do so – it is a well-spent 15 minutes that helps frame and shape the subsequent discussion. And the beautiful surroundings of Aldrich Church’s sanctuary really makes it feel like “doing church!”

After Morning Prayer we talked through an outline of tasks we need to complete in April and May (assuming that we want to start some kind of worship services by Memorial Day), making a few adjustments and additions to my draft list – you can find the list at the bottom of this blog posting. We then talked about a name for this church – some of the folks in the core group had provided “campaign speeches” for a few of the names, so we discussed that input (send an email to me at MplsAnglican@aol.com if you would like a copy of those name pitches). "Trinity" continues to lead in the voting. We spent some time discussing pros and cons of various worship times for the summer. I provided some feedback from meetings I’ve had with various clergypersons and other folks over the past couple weeks. We looked at a list of books we might want to read together (see http://anglican1000.org/?/main/page/C7 ). And we discussed other questions that are on participants’ minds.

Next Saturday we’ll meet at the same time and place, and I’d like us to:

• do Morning Prayer
• finalize the church name
• continue to discuss possible worship times (and possibly select one) – this will drive ensuing discussions about where we worship
• continue to refine our description of who we are, our purpose/mission, a tagline, etc.
• begin to build definition of "critical mass" - what absolutely needs to be in place before starting public weekly worship services (BTW, it dawned on me today how spectacular it would be if we could start Sunday worship on Pentecost, May 23!) 
• assign “due dates” to April tasks, and identify who will drive each one

Last week I had great conversations with a couple clergypersons in other denominations, and have a couple more scheduled for this week. The encouragement, insights, recommendations, cautions and promises-to-pray that I received from these folks are so valuable and heart-warming, and all of them are very excited to hear about the developments in our little corner of God’s kingdom.

Finally, here is our current list of tasks to be accomplished in the next two months (or, in any case, before we start regular weekly worship). Where would you like to be involved?

April

• Finalize the schedule for these planning meetings

• Select target date for startup of weekly Sunday worship. Decide whether to start as a core group worshiping community before advertising to the public. (Define critical mass of worshipers and leaders of core ministries to be in place before starting public worship.)

• Select time of day for weekly Sunday (or other day) worship

• Select a church name

• Confirm desired geography (SW Minneapolis or other?)

• Draft decision-making processes, identify leadership

• Articulate distinctives, vision, mission, purpose, etc.

• Draft 1-year income/expense budget

• Select a book to read together?

• Liaise with ACNA, DioHS (or a new geographical diocese)

May

• Find venue for weekly worship

• Develop immediate and future plans for

   o Altar and Communion materials and supplies

   o Liturgy

   o Preaching

   o Eucharist

   o Hymnody, chants, choral/instrumental music

   o Visual and other arts

   o Visitor and new member information and integration

   o Children’s Worship

   o Adult Education, Discipleship

   o Youth Education and other programs

   o Children’s Education

   o Nursery

   o Pastoral Care
   o Prayer Ministry

   o Fellowship

   o Communications, bulletins, newsletters, emails, tweets, etc.

   o Outreach, missions

   o Facility acquisition and setup/teardown, liaise with owner

 • Incorporate

 • Develop logo and style sheet

 • Design website

 • Select administrative/financial tools

 • Write job descriptions; develop staffing plan