Envisioning

West End Collegiate Church

Three-Year Strategic Plan Proposal

2008-2011

Since 2005, the West End Collegiate Church (WECC), along with Marble, Middle, and Fort Washington churches, embarked upon an envisioning process to assess the needs of each of the Collegiate churches and ensure that they will have a vital and dynamic future. The four churches are enthusiastic about our future and have expressed this through a commitment to growth for our four congregations. Within this context, WECC committed to modest growth with the understanding that we will have a number of initiatives and changes happening over the next several years. The first step for WECC was to re-affirm our mission statement and develop a vision that would be prophetic and guide our congregation through this journey.

In February 2006, the Consistory established the Envisioning Guiding Task Force (EGTF), whose charge was to initiate this process with a comprehensive self-study of our church, our members and our neighborhood. Under the guidance of a consultant, the EGTF initiated research projects to help us examine the context of our ministry, our changing community, the needs and dreams of our congregation for the future and our willingness to embrace change.

During the latter part of 2007, we learned of the upcoming transition of several of our key leaders. We realized these changes will take a tremendous amount of focus and energy but ultimately can provide opportunities for our ministry. In this light, we recognize that many of our goals stated and discussed here will need to be addressed in context of the time and energy needed to find our future leaders. This will be a time of great appreciation for the past and hopefulness as we move forward.

As a kick off to the most focused part of our work, the EGTF facilitated a two-day congregational retreat in January 2007 that focused on the following areas of study and solicited the voices and insights of our members. The retreat agenda included:

• A demographic analysis of our members and our changing Upper West Side community
• A comparison study of staffing patterns with other neighborhood places of worship
• An internal study of our culture, identity and values which culminated in the video “West End Collegiate Church: a Westside Story of Faith”
• Revisiting the financial relationship with the Collegiate Church Corporation, stewardship and giving patterns of WECC
• Small group/workshop exercises and open congregational dialogue exploring the needs and desires for enhanced education programs, communication and outreach, various forms of worship and music, youth and service programs, staffing, space and environmental renovation and perceptions and emotions surrounding the issues of growth, transition and change.

The insights gathered at this retreat precipitated additional “next steps” projects for the task force agenda and the beginning of a year-long active conversation and discernment process among our congregation. Envisioning updates were discussed at monthly consistory meetings and periodically printed in our newsletter. Two additional congregational meetings were held in June and November. The following strategic plan recommendation is the product of the journey and discernment of the Envisioning Guiding Task Force and the West End Collegiate Church Consistory.

Download the strategic plan (PDF)