To everyone who participated in our Holy Conversations, a big thanks! The conversations were a crucial step in our journey to find a new rector for St. Michael’s and the New Rector Nominating Committee values and appreciates each and every viewpoint that was expressed.

As required by the Episcopal Church’s nominating process, the committee considered all the opinions and comments, compiled them and used that information to fill out the “Parish Life Orientation” form used by the national church offices to match rector candidates with our parish’s values and needs.  That form draws a picture of our parish that we want to share with you.  Copies of the complete form are available at the church office if you would like to look at it, but the committee has condensed the findings here.

There are seven categories in the form.

Ministry of the laity

• Our parish definitely generates opportunities for lay ministries and would like to continue doing that. We provide training for these ministries within our parish, but we would like to extend that training to include ministries out in the community and the world.
• Our small groups tend to be focused on Bible study, prayer and pastoral care, but we would like to move a bit more toward social, fellowship and fund-raising groups in the future.
• The vestry and the clergy are our main leaders, but the members of St. Michael’s would like to expand leadership roles to include other groups and individuals.

Liturgical and spiritual life

• Our services are somewhat more diverse rather than purely traditional; we’d like to push that a bit more toward the innovative and contemporary side.  In services, we participate by following the clergy’s leadership and we like doing that. Our worship is very focused on the Eucharist.
• Our parish offers some training and encouragement in prayer and spiritual life to our members; we’d like to do more of that in the future.

Educational life

• Our education is definitely for people of all ages; we’d like to make that even more the case in the future.
• We have a slight tendency to emphasize contemporary issues and topics; we would like to focus on that more in the future.  Our education definitely centers on our commitment to God, God’s peoples and the world.

Evangelism and renewal

• Our parish tends to minister to its own members though welcoming others; in the future we very much want to seek, add and incorporate new members.
• Our parishioners do reach out to others by calling, praying and offering help to others and that is important to us.

Outreach

• Our parish is somewhat self-sufficient; but in the future we’d like to be more involved with the life and activities of the diocese.  We do tend to know about and support the mission of the Church as a whole and we want to continue doing that.
• Our parish sponsors community activities and offers the use of our building; we value that. We do some work with other denominations; and we want to do more in the future.

Stewardship

• Our parish leaders do teach and practice stewardship now, but we would like to do much more of that in the future. We already use the gifts and talents of many laity, but we would like to draw in many more people in the future.
• Our parish is clearly supported by pledges of all sizes and we don’t want to change that. We do strongly rely only on pledged income; we would like to look at other avenues in the future.  Our budget and pledges have been declining somewhat in the last five years – we want to increase our budget and pledges!

People

• Our members tend to be one kind and class of people; we want to get more of a mixture of people, including more members from our neighborhood, more young couples with children and more of a cross-section of the Lexington community.
• We are definitely committed to our goals and objectives and we want someone who can lead us on that path.