"Called Into God's Marvelous Light"

Questionnaires Evaluated at Assisi Heights Feb. 7; Key Areas of Synod's Focus Determined

Story by Annie Lynsen
Photos by the Rev. Todd Hawkins

Feb. 9, 2004 - Over 40 members and pastors of Southeastern Minnesota Synod congregations gathered at Assisi Heights in Rochester Saturday to participate in a major step of the synod's strategic planning process. By evaluating responses from over 5,000 questionnaires distributed to congregation members across the synod, the group was able to determine four key areas for the synod's focus in the next three years.

"Involving the synod, and listening to the synod"
As a major step in the "Called Into God's Marvelous Light" strategic planning process, questionnaires were distributed to all congregations last November, and the request was made that each congregation pass out the questionnaires during worship on Sunday, Dec. 7, offering at least 10 minutes for people to complete them.

After collecting the responses, congregations were encouraged to look through them and gain information for their own benefit, and then pass them on to the synod office, where they could be evaluated by those who volunteered to participate in Saturday's evaluation process.

Participants volunteered to take part in the evaluation process by writing their name and phone number on the bottom of the questionnaire they received in church. About 300 people requested to be a part of the process, and 40 were able to attend. Those in attendance included clergy, laity, and people of a wide variety of ages.

"The intent of this process was to involve the synod and listen to the synod, and I think we did a pretty good job of that," said Bishop Harold Usgaard. He noted that having congregation members fill out the questionnaires and go through the responses "brought legitimacy to the process [of strategic planning]."

Through a facilitated process, led by the Rev. David Daubert, participants in the evaluation process spent an entire day going through questionnaires and picking up key themes within the responses.

Daubert, the executive for renewal of congregations with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for Outreach, led the group through a process that began and ended in worship and prayer.

"We prayed that this would be God guiding us, to be able to hear what the church is saying and what God is saying to us through the church," Usgaard said.

Processing the questionnaires
After opening worship, people were seated at round tables and each table received a stack of questionnaires to go through. Everybody spent an hour reading through questionnaires, and then each person wrote down messages they got from the questionnaires they read - three things people appreciate, and three things the synod could do that it isn't doing yet.

Then people broke into groups and organized those messages into themes, and tried to come up with three overarching themes of things people appreciate, and things the synod could do that it isn't currently doing. After that, the large group came together and each small group presented their six themes. From there, the large group worked with those themes to develop the strategic directions for the synod to focus on in the next few years.

"It wasn't so much about collating or keeping score," said Usgaard. "And you didn't get a sense anybody was bringing an agenda. I was very pleased people came wanting to listen."

The synod's four main areas of focus
From the process, the group determined the synod's four main areas of focus for the next few years will be leadership, outreach, discipleship, and networking/communication.

"I don't think these four areas are necessarily surprising," said Usgaard. "These are four important areas, and I'm excited the church has identified them and sees them as important."

After developing the four areas of focus, participants began to dream about action steps to develop these areas within the work of the synod. The next step in this process is for the synod council to finalize these action steps. Action steps will be specific tasks the synod can do to focus on these areas, including who is responsible for each task and a time frame for each task.

The areas of focus and the action steps will be shared with the Synod Assembly April 23-24. At the Assembly, each congregation will receive a video or DVD with the Bishop's report on these strategic directions to take home and show their congregation. The synod office will keep congregations posted on strategic plan activity through its print communications and the web site.

"It was exciting to see the great majority of congregations in the synod participate in this process," said Usgaard. "I'm excited to get to work with the synod on this."

Photos from the day (all photos by the Rev. Todd Hawkins)