Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Two years ago Salem's Leadership Board accepted an invitation to participate in the Healthy Church Initiative (HCI), a process of renewal for growing healthy and fruitful congregations in the Iowa Annual Conference. Initially, only a handful of congregations were recommended for this opportunity. We completed the first steps (a clergy group and a lay group) and are now ready to prepare for a church consultation. I have begun meeting with the Peer Mentor group, the continuous learning community that leads us into and supports us through the consultation process of HCI.

 The ultimate purpose for consulting is to help a congregation more effectively join God in God’s mission for the Church. We have a clear process to follow as we prepare for the consultation. We need to create a Prayer Team that will commit to pray regularly for the church and for changes. We also need a vision team to help develop urgency and create vision. Our Leadership Board will oversee the process and implement any changes.

 Over the next several months, it is likely we will have mystery worshipers in our midst. We will not know who is a mystery worshiper and who is a real newcomer to Salem. Much like mystery shoppers, they will gather information for the consultation based on their experience with us.

 We are responsible for completing a self study. A year ago, we spent considerable time preparing a very similar study for our building project. Thankfully, the document that we prepared for that will work for our consultation. We will only need to revisit the Study Committee’s work and make a few additions.

 About six weeks before the consultation we will have a pre-consultation workshop to make sure everything will be ready. Then sometime between February and April next year we will have our weekend consultation.

 On Friday morning, the consultation team will meet at the church to pray and prepare for their assignments. They will interview the pastor and tour the facilities. The bulk of the day will consist of interviews with staff and lay leaders. That evening the lead consultant will have dinner with me and my wife. The first day will end with a focus group of church members.

 On Saturday the coach, who has been assigned to Salem, will meet with the Leadership Board about key issues and topics that have come up in the interviews the day before. Everyone in the congregation will be invited to a workshop from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm led by the lead consultant and coach. The rest of the consultation team will begin work on the consultation report. After the workshop the lead consultant and coach will join their team and they will finalize the full report and then share it with the pastor.

 On Sunday the Lead Consultant will preach and then read the consultation report at the end of worship. There will be a time for questions and answers but the merits of the report will not be discussed at this time. Everyone will receive a written copy of the report. It will be posted on the website and made available in the church office. The report usually consists of five strengths, five concerns, and five prescriptions with deadlines for implementation. Several of the prescriptions are meant to cause the congregation to be stretched in their behaviors if the report is adopted.

 Within a month of the consultation, two or three town hall style meetings will be scheduled to discuss the report and the prescriptions. This time of holy conferencing will be followed by a scheduled church conference with the district superintendent to vote officially as a congregation. The only agenda item will be the vote on the five prescriptions as a whole. We either vote yes on all of them or it doesn't pass. If Salem votes to accept all the prescriptions, the Annual Conference will commit to walk alongside Salem for a minimum of one year to help us implement the prescriptions.

 This will be an interesting time on our adventure! Again, the ultimate purpose for consulting is to help Salem more effectively join God in God’s mission for the Church.

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