REPORT OF THE
RAISE THE ROOF
LEARNING TEAM

CONTENTS

The Report

Appendices

Appendix A: Demographic Indicators for the Quad-Cities from United Way of the Quad-Cities.

Appendix B: Report from Dan Hotchkiss on his visit of February 27-29.

Appendix C: Notes from the Church Meeting with Dan Hotchkiss on May 23, 2004. This includes a church history time line, comments on member perceptions, and information on church size.

Appendix D: Notes from the Church Meeting with Dan Hotchkiss on June 13, 2004. This was a guided discussion on the role of our church in our lives and why it would or would not be a good idea to grow.

Appendix E: Summary of interviews of community leaders as conducted by members of the Learning Team, August and September, 2004

BACKGROUND

        The Raise the Roof Learning Team was formed by the Board in early 2004 with the charge of exploring the dynamics of church size and examining if and how our church might pursue intentional growth. The team was guided along the way by the program designed by Alice Mann of the Alban Institute in her book Raising the Roof: The Pastoral-to-Program Size Transition. The original Learning Team was chaired by Dee Canfield and consisted of Lawrence Allen, Kim Gibson, Don Moore, Connie Sauer-Adams and Judy Stengel. The team began it's work in February 2004 with a retreat led by consultant Dan Hotchkiss of the Alban Institute. (The retreat was also attended by the Reverend Roger Butts and Board Chair Joanne Maciejko.) The day following the retreat, there was a meeting of the Learning Team, the Board, and Dan Hotchkiss.
        In the following months, the Learning Team met on a regular basis to work through the processes in Alice Mann's book. Frequently, other members of the church community were invited to share their expertise in particular areas. In May and June, Dan Hotchkiss returned and led two congregation-wide workshops. Family obligations required Kim Gibson to leave the team early in the process. After chair Dee Canfield left the area in August, the team continued to work under ad hoc leadership. John Bowman joined at this time. In November 2004, the Learning Team led a Sunday morning forum to reacquaint the congregation with our mission and progress and to gather additional input from the congregation.
        In the following report, we summarize our findings following Mann's suggested outline. In the first section, we look at the demographics of our community, with primary attention to those factors that might affect the potential of our church to grow. In the second part, we examine who we are as a church and how we function. The third part is a summary of the primary barriers to growth in our church. Part four discusses our state of readiness to grow. Finally, in part five the Learning Team gives its recommendation and a detailed list of suggestions as to how our church might proceed from here.

June 2005 Learning Team Members: Lawrence Allen, John Bowman, Don Moore, Connie Sauer-Adams, Judy Stengel