Congregational Transformation in Regina

Story by Centre Staff

I've had two congregations phone as ask what happened here. It was Barry Sudom on the phone from Regina, chair of the Rosemont United Church Board. The Congregational Life Centre had facilitated a transformation process for Rosemont, and people were hearing about it. What was it all about? How well did it work?

It's the question most congregations have in the back of their mind when they consider inviting consultants to work with them. We wanted to know too. As well as working with Rosemont, we had been facilitating a transformation process for a cluster of five other Regina congregations-Eastside, Lakeview, Wesley, Westmin-ster, and Whitmore Park United Churches. How well would a process that worked for one congregation function with a cluster?

Eastside United Church was formerly known as Prince of Peace. They were meeting in a school on the edge of the city, with little opportunity for growth. Several years ago they moved and now share a building with an Anglican and a Lutheran congregation. Lakeview is located a few blocks from the Saskatchewan Legislative building. Their gift is an incredible physical plant, their challenge an aging congregation. Wesley and Whitmore Park serve a thriving well-established neighbourhood in south Regina. They came into the process concerned about caring for volunteers and meeting the needs of youth in the area. Westminster is a large corporate style congregation close to the centre of Regina. They were looking for additional ways to meet needs in their community.

The journey for Rosemont and the cluster began in the spring of 1999 with a Presbytery sponsored workshop, followed by another in the fall of 1999. Both events invited congregations to plan and think about transformation. The formal process concluded in the fall of 2000, but contacts since have continued to be beneficial.

January 2000 brought people together in a workshop highlighting the gifts the congregations brought with them from the past. Following some basic research, congregations were given the opportunity to identify possibilities for ministry. A workshop with congregational leaders looked at modern roles for Board and program facilitators. Next came the quest to narrow all the possibilities into a unifying, energizing vision for the future. The final challenge was to design ministries that would make that vision a reality.

Music to our Ears-Rosemont

The two page article in the March 2001 issue of the United Church Observer magazine was hard to miss. “Rosemont United's new music program doesn't have 76 trombones-not yet, anyway. It does have a music man and woman, more than 40 students and about 20 donated instruments.” Looking back, the choice of a music ministry as a major focus seems almost too obvious. The minister, Rev. Jeeva Sam, plays a wicked piano. The United Church's hymnbook Voices United includes seven of his arrangements. The chair of the Board, Barry Sudom, plays guitar in a group that led the singing in worship occasionally. Identifying a music ministry as a central energizing vision, however, has been a year-long journey.

Danny Eastwood and his wife Lisa Kulchycki volunteered to lead the Music for Many program. Danny leads the band, Lisa a children's choir. Once the word got out, donated instruments started to come in. City wide support was evident in a fund-raising concert in December where many other groups donated their talent and radio stations gave free publicity.

In the meantime, Rosemont has developed its Sunday Night Live program featuring local Christian bands, including Rosemont's own group with Barry Sudom. The congregation's choir has a lot of new faces and is led by a young and enthusiastic choir director.

The congregation's vision is to see that every child with the desire has access to a music education. The way Jeeva Sam puts it, One of the major things this process has helped us do is to look outside of ourselves.

There have been other new programs. A Spiritual Gifts inventory gave birth to a Prayer Tree, a Poetry Group, and a Sewing and Crafts Group. The Confirmation Class took time to identify their spiritual gifts. Each month end is a time to celebrate the ministries carried out by members of the congregation. In order to put the emphasis on ministry, the congregation has streamlined its structure into ministry teams, coordinated by a Leadership Team of 8 - 10 people meeting once a month.

Challenges do remain. Many of the core leadership group are tired. It is hard to find volunteers with time to do the many maintenance tasks. The solution for Rosemont, as with many congregations, is to put financial resources into paying for maintenance, while preserving volunteer time for central life-changing ministries. Overall, they told us, there is a “spirit of excitement” and “the Spirit in our church is thriving.”

Joyce shares a humorour moment with Dan, Bruce and Jack Brae, chair of the sponsoring Presbytery committee.

The Cluster Results

The value of the transformation process was clarifying what we needed to do, one congregation in the cluster reported. That was to deepen faith and support spiritual growth. They had a vision statement, but were able to take some of the preachy language out of it. Givings are up. Overall, they reported that people got energized, and people got to know people better.

Another of the congregations did not get really involved until the process was underway. If they were doing it again, they would emphasize the importance of having a really good core group on board from the very beginning.

Understanding the importance of relating to the community was a result of the transformation process for a number of congregations. There has been an impact on the people who took part, and through them on the congregation. There is a lot more talk about reaching the community. The process helped keep the energy level up and there is a noticeable increase in activity, even in June, which is unusual.

The process was helpful in getting people involved. Some people who were not previously involved in the congregation took part in the transformation process, and have as a result become active.

One congregation went into the process concerned about how to care for volunteers. They now report a high energy level in general, with a few gung-ho people leading the way. They decided that no meeting would go over two hours. They have developed a web page to reach out to the community. They are planning to send out a notice via the Internet once a week to all their members who are on the web.

They are working at making a sharing time part of every meeting. They are looking at alternative models for the congregation's organizational structure-less dependence on standing committees, more use of temporary groups for special projects.

The most helpful thing named by one congregation was the affirmation that what they were doing was the right thing. The process reinforced the direction we were going. As far as the Board is concerned, it has led to taking some of the business out and putting more spirituality in.

The transformation process has resulted in a greater willingness to try things. In the past we always heard that we've tried that and it didn't work, or that won't work because …. Now maybe people are still thinking those things but they are willing to try.”

A Process that Works

This was the first time we at the Centre had worked with a cluster of congregations. Others have done so in the past, with varying success. We wanted to know how effective our process was. The results were good.

Even during the final workshops, there was excitement in the air. We did a closing interview with each congregation separately. They were positive.

Not all the expectations identified by the congregations as they entered the process have been met. On the other hand, there have been some surprising results. Our theology is that God always has a few surprises for us, if we will just take the risk.

The process has helped us develop our book, Wings Like Eagles. That we appreciate very much.

To summarize the changes that congregations experienced:
· The process gave us a way to look outside ourselves.
· It provided an opportunity for more people to be involved.
· It created a new level of energy and optimism.
· It allowed us to tap into our creativity.
· It was fun.
· We got to deepen our relationships with one another.
· We became more focused.

The communication between the congregations in the cluster was very rich. Ideas from one congregation sparked energy in others. The cluster process is more economical in terms of cost to each congregation. Perhaps most important there was a sense of "being in this together", a spirit of cooperation and getting to know one another, that will live long after the specific plans and programs are forgotten.

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