ECDWF UPDATE

—LATEST REPORTS FROM—

 Education Committee to Discern the Way Forward (ECDWF)

Dear Members of the HFUMC Congregation,

The Education Committee to Discern the Way Forward (ECDWF) held its 8^th and 9th meeting respectfully in January.

For the meeting on January 12, nine of the twelve ECDWF members were present.

For the meeting on the January 23, all twelve members were present.

Synopsis of January 12 meeting:

Dennis reviewed the agenda.

1. Discussion of Questionnaire Group Work:

The group reviewed the consolidated results of the group work on the questionnaires and had a brief discussion on overall findings. We received 237 questionnaires in total. The group discussed how best to disseminate the information to the congregation. Dennis will work on a draft for the group to review and then we will post the information (like the FAQ distribution process).

The four groups had met separately since the December meeting to review a subset of the questionnaires and categorize each question as follows:

Question 1: How did you become a Methodist? Raised/Born Into; Married Into; Looking for a Church Home; Invited by a Friend

Question 2: Why have you chosen this church as your church home? Location; Invited by Friends, Family/Sunday School; Message/Worship/Pastor; Feels like home, warm/welcoming; Programming

Question 3: Are you aware of the differences that have divided the United Methodist Church for a number of years? What are they? Do any of them give you concern? Two categories of responses were noted: 1) Traditionalist; Centrist; Progressive; Not Aware/(Unable to Categorize Based on Response), and 2) Leave the Church; Stay in Church Regardless

1. Questionnaire – Resolution of 16 responses

The majority of the meeting time was spent reviewing sixteen questionnaires where the breakout groups were unable to agree upon categories for the third question. The recurring theme was that respondents’ comments in question three were not specific enough to place in a category. In those cases, the group agreed to place the respondent in the “Not Aware” category.

1. Listening Sessions – Planning

Sunday School Classes – We will initially conduct these sessions with Sunday School classes to include as many people as possible in the first round and hope to schedule these for February through March. The group reviewed Dennis’ draft letter to Sunday School classes to invite classes to participate in Listening Sessions. Committee members offered suggestions for editing. We discussed how some people have already expressed apprehension about these sessions and determined we would include the four discussion questions that will be posed during the sessions so the class presidents could provide this information in advance. We also discussed adding a request for attendees to review the FAQ document in advance of the meeting. We noted that “exit” cards will be provided so attendees can provide written feedback, and everyone will be encouraged to contact committee members at any time with any additional thoughts they may have after the session.

Youth (Confirmed young people, generally 7^th grade and above, are members of the church and are included in this discernment process.) – We will plan listening sessions for the youth. Joshua recommended that the youth have some “pre-work” with reviewing the FAQs prior to the listening session. Tracey and Dave Cleary are currently serving in teaching roles with the youth and may be good resources for conducting these listening sessions. 

Small Groups – We will contact small group leaders once the Sunday School class listening sessions are conducted and gauge interest in whether each small group wants to have a separate listening session.

General Listening Sessions – We will have one or two “open” listening sessions to allow anyone who wasn’t a part of one of the other sessions to attend

1. Listening Sessions – Teams

Each listening session will have 3-4 members of the ECDWF committee serving as a Facilitator, Notetaker, and Timekeeper. 

Team 1: Mike, Dave Cleary, Rebecca, Patrick (floater)

Team 2: Ted, Tracey, Dave Bair, Patrick (floater)

Team 3: Mary Cay, Dennis, Kelly

1. Other

• It was noted that the FAQs printed and placed outside the church office were missing every other page. Dennis will work on getting that corrected.
• It was noted that the recent newsletter was sent to 676 email addresses and 157 people clicked on the FAQ link. Suzanne mailed the FAQs to 40ish members who do not have email addresses

1. Next meeting January 23, 2023

Synopsis of January 23 meeting:

Dennis reviewed the agenda.

1. Communication Strategy
2. Questionnaire Results - Brentwood put together a 1 ½ page document that was posted to the website towards the end of the listening session period
3. Internal – We tentatively agreed to use shared Google Docs for us to share notes from each listening session with the full ECDWF committee. 
4. Listening Sessions – Results of the Brentwood UMC feedback session were included along with the questionnaire results and the FAQ in a fulsome document that was posted to the website. This was posted after the committee reported back to the Church Council. ECDWF agree we would follow a similar process of passing information to the congregation.
5. Listening Session Planning
6. Switching up the team a little – Patrick will be with Team 2 and Dave Bair will be a floater when he is in town.
7. We will ask church volunteer to create timecards for us to use in the sessions to let speakers know how much time they have.
8. SS President will introduce the ECDWF team, the facilitator will use a scripted intro to discuss the process and Dennis will draft this for our review.
9. At the end of the session, we will give people exit cards to provide additional feedback and have an opportunity to share additional feedback. Don will work with Heather on designing these.
10. We will hand out the exit cards when we are finished – maybe the class doesn’t finish and we need to have a second session, so we wait until the end of the second session.
11. We will strive to get the exit cards for each class back to the note taker for that session.
12. Should we record the sessions on our phones? Dennis will ask Sunday School presidents if the group is okay to record the comments. For the classes who are okay with this, we will remind them about this on the front end.
13. We discussed whether or not we should be on the team that goes to the class. Each team member gave Dennis a yes or no on whether or not they wanted to be a part of their classes’ discussion.
14. Joshua will help set a plan for using Google Docs and the notetaker will 
15. Listening Sessions – Scheduling
16. Would like for Sunday School sessions to be completed by end of March, churchwide sessions by end of April
17. Worked on some planning around which teams are taking which sessions
18. Churchwide Session – we need to figure out the format – try to encourage people to attend if they have not already participated in one.
19. Other:
20. Dennis will provide an update at Council of Stewards on February 19^th
21. Perhaps we can plan a time to come together for an opportunity to meet and pray together.
22. Reminder for us to review the process document and let’s make sure that we follow the process. Other two members of the team can support the efforts of the facilitator.

Next ECDWF meeting is February 13, 2023

As always, any questions can be directed to the ECDWF chair Dennis Cavin at cavindd@gmail.com

In Service to Christ

Dennis D. Cavin

Chairman

ECDWF