(Note: Specific data and substance will be provided in a full report to the congregation later in the process. The following is attended merely as an update on what is happening and how the process is unfolding.)

Leadership Team: Sandy Berry, Ann Marie Blackmon, Gray Booker, Dave Clelland, Stephanie Ford, Melissa Holmes, Larry Lenow, Bryce Miller, Bill Pike, Becky Roish, Debbie Stocks, & Drew Willson

On Sunday, March 4, from noon until 4:00 PM our Team had our first meeting with Amy Anderson, Director of Consulting, The Unstuck Group. The meeting began with Amy introducing herself to us, giving us a snapshot of her spiritual and professional life. Our team also shared with Amy a bit about ourselves. After introductions, Amy pushed us to develop a modern timeline of Trinity. Our time frame was 1986 to the present. Using seven categories (Events, Ministries, Attendance, Those Reached, Staffing, Finances, other) we compiled a timeline to help us carefully capture the life of the church.

The next segment was titled Four Helpful Lists. Four questions related to the life of the church were the target: What’s right? What’s wrong? What is confusing? What is missing? Lists were compiled. Afterward each member was given four votes for which four items are most important. This lead to a culling to a short list of Core Issues. We did not deal with them, rather we identified them for future discussion.

Next Amy shared with us results of Vital Signs data Trinity had provided to the Unstuck Group and summarized them in the categories of Attendance Change; Ratio of Guests to Attenders; Change in Professions of Faith; Percentage of Attenders Serving; Ratio of Children to Attenders; Per Capita Giving. Based on this data, Amy identified Trinity’s position on the Church Life Cycle Bell Curve from the book The Unstuck Church by Tony Morgan (available in the Church office.)

From there, Amy gave us a brief snapshot of future meetings, and then she closed out with a prayer. Overall a successful afternoon, with a good template in place for our next meetings.

—Bill Pike & Larry Lenow