St. Andrew’s Episcopal Sets Stage for Successful Future
By Amy Lewis

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The next rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, is in the enviable position of knowing exactly who comprised the parish and what its vision for the future is thanks to the parish’s work with Church Innovations and its Congregational Development process.

Upon the departure of its rector of 14 years, St. Andrew’s created a lay-led parish profile committee that would research and define the individuals and the collective body that comprise the church of about 170 families. The information they gathered would help the rector search committee in choosing a spiritual leader who fit the parish’s profile.

According to Steve Burrall, co-chair of the profile committee, the 90-year-old parish was running smoothly but, “we felt a good self examination would be helpful. It’s very easy to be myopic in this situation. We wanted outside validation.”

Church Innovations brought an objective process and outside perspective to the profile development work. Beginning in June, CI provided in-depth demographic, psychographic and ethnographic questions to delve into the heart of the parish. The spouse of an Episcopalian minister also lent valuable insight along the way.

“CI never really gave us answers but rather lots of great questions,” Burrall says. “That deepened our thinking. The answers from the questions clarified who were are. We never would’ve gone into that depth without the help of CI.”

Parishioners were trained to conduct interviews with parishioners, former parishioners, community leaders, clergy of other denominations and staff. Those responses were reviewed and analyzed by a CI Reading Team, which reported its findings back to the profile committee. Additionally, the profile committee held open interviews after services on several occasions to give all parishioners an opportunity to participate in the profile development.

“The support of a number of parishioners made this effort possible and helped us gather an accurate picture of who we are,” says Mia Nolan, co-chair of the profile committee. “Whether they were interviewed or interviewing, parishioners were instrumental to our success.”

The parish profile committee was surprised and encouraged by the strong voice with which the parish spoke during the interviews. The thought-provoking questions elicited deep and insightful responses from all groups and shaped an honest profile that both the parish and the diocese feel accurately reflects the parish.

“It was the voices, the stories of the parishioners, that was most impactful,” says committee member Jerry Houle. “Our job was to appreciate this, share it to the best of our ability and get out of the way of their voices.”

The final report, as well as all the supporting interview transcripts, will be shared with any potential rector prior to receiving a call with the hopes that the new rector will understand the parish and where it hopes to go.

“Having CI as an outside set of eyes proved invaluable,” Burrall says.