From the Rector: Our Imagine Incarnation Surveys
Dear friends,
At our retreat earlier this month, our vestry met with our architect team and our Generational Plan Task Force to review what we've learned so far in our Imagine Incarnation process. As most of you know, this is the process we're using to create a generational plan for the future of our buildings and grounds. Together, we are imagining how our campus can best serve God's mission in the next several decades here in downtown Santa Rosa.
An important part of what we've learned so far has come from our congregational surveys. Those who attended our November planning workshop were invited to complete a paper survey. That survey asked for people's perspectives on three potential "added uses" to our campus that we had discussed at the workshop: (1) new meeting rooms, (2) classrooms that could be used for a child care or preschool; and (3) affordable housing. Later, after our Annual Meeting in January, the whole parish was invited to complete an online survey with several of the same questions, as well as a question about possible improvements to our church building.
We've now got the results from those surveys to share. You can see a summary of both the paper and online results here:
Summary of the Paper and Online Surveys
You can also see a complete report from the online survey, including every single comment people submitted, here:
These are also now available at our Imagine Incarnation web page. Here are a few takeaways that stood out:
(1) In general, Incarnation people were interested in new meeting spaces and in space that could accommodate an early childhood program.
(2) Our interest in affordable housing is more mixed. The graph of responses to that question, on paper and online, looks sort of like a "W" with the peak in the middle higher than the two ends. In other words, the largest group of people chose the middle option ("could support affordable housing on our campus if there is a benefit to the church."). Then there are almost equal numbers of responses at both ends of the spectrum ("support the idea regardless" and "do not support the idea regardless")--slightly more in favor than against, but pretty close. We have a wide diversity of perspectives on this idea. A substantial number of Incarnationians would be excited about adding housing, a substantial number would be opposed, and the largest number are somewhere in the middle.
(3) Our congregation loves and prizes our church building, and while we don't want to make any significant changes to its look, feel, and historic fabric, some would be interested in exploring accessibility improvements and climate control.
I hope you'll take a few minutes to look through the reports. There are a lot of good ideas and comments to learn from.
Meanwhile, our team has also been at work over the past couple of months doing real-world research about the feasibility of all these ideas, and we have some updates to share about that research too. I'll write more about that next week.
The church, as we know, is not a building--the church is God's people. Our buildings are just one small part of who we are as a faith community. If our whole campus vanished tomorrow and we had to meet in borrowed spaces, storefronts, or people's homes, we would still be every bit as much the Body of Christ. Yet our buildings also matter, because they are tools God can use for mission, and they are also visible signs of our faith and the faith of those who came before us. In the book of Ezra, there's a powerful moment when the people of Israel rebuild the Temple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians, and the joyful shouts of celebration mingle with the weeping of those who remember what was lost:
"All the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise." (Ezra 3:11-13)
I'm grateful that we in our time have been entrusted with the care of these sacred spaces. May the Spirit keep leading us toward a generational plan that represents God's bright future for us.
In Christ's love,
Stephen
Tags: News & Notes
