Over the course of 5 ministry meetings in July, 151 members provided feedback on our ministries and pastor options. On August 11, a Voters Meeting will be held to decide whether to call a third pastor. Please review the attached feedback summary document below in preparation for the Voters meeting.

Feedback on Pastor Options

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Listed below is a summary of the feedback on our Ministries:

WORSHIP – STUDY – SERVE – SHARE : Ministries Feedback Summary

Members provided great feedback, discussed various challenges with our current ministries, and asked many questions about our ministry plans. The feedback is organized by various focus areas commonly brought up.

• Inactive Members: Much discussion on how to increase members active in Worship, Study, Serve and Share. More follow-up may be needed with delinquent members. It’s easy for people to slip away. If we love them, we all should be reaching out to them.
• Connections: How do we better connect members with each other as well as new members and the community. Continue to focus on communications across the congregation and look for ways to engage with members you may not know well during study and service opportunities.
• Assimilation: We have seen many new faces in to our congregation. How are we keep them engaged, studying, in worships, and serving? Put more focus on our assimilation programs.
• Youth Ministries: We have some study areas in place for youth, but not full coverage of all our youth especially missing areas between confirmation age through college age. How do we keep them engagement?
• Technology: How do we better leverage technology in our ministries (website, newsletter, communications, online studies/resources) We need to have a group that focuses on communication- website, social tools.
• Financial Stewardship: Much discussion on how we budget. Do we have enough funding to support ministries and staffing? Do we let our giving drive ministries or ministries drive giving? There are plans in place for a synod Financial Stewardship program to be done this September for our congregation.
• Foundations and Various Styles: Our congregation has over 900 members which also means we have many different preferences in styles of worship and bible studies. During the meetings, there were very strong feelings brought out. Regardless of the various styles that we continue to debate and discuss, there is not a question on the foundation of God’s word in our worship and studies.  As a congregation, we need to continue to focus on God-focused worship verses People-focused worship.
• Unity: Discussion on how we continue to promote one congregation with two sites. As we grow, it seems to be more challenging in keep the two campuses feeling united.
• Church & School ties: With all the changes in staffing, leadership, and tuition support, how do we ensure strong relationship between the two; how we staff one verse the other seems to not be consistent any longer. General feeling from some that if you are not involved with School, you lose out, whether that is if you are a new member that does not have kids or has kids that don’t go to school or even families who no longer have school age kid.
• Outreach As our individual members continue to be grow spiritually through worship, study and service, a key further grow come in sharing their faith. There are many opportunities we have as a congregation to share our faith. New events have been added over the year.
• Ministries Planning: General sense of frustration with the fact that we keep passing budgets that seem to be beyond the giving capacity of the congregation. Are we a simple church? Do we plan to be? We have a bunch of new programs, but we need to fix what’s broken first.

A full listing of the feedback will be attached here in the coming days. It will be the full 17 pages that explains on each one of the core values and list various ideas and suggestions by members. The Council will be reviewing this feedback at our August Leadership Meeting. We will incorporate the feedback into our VTO (Vision Traction Organizer – basically incorporate ideas into our yearly plans), as well as outline specific quarterly Rocks (objectives) to focus on for this current fiscal year.

Thanks again for all members who participated in the feedback meetings. We pray God will bless us our ministries here in the Rochester community!

In Christ Alone,
Daryl Schultz
Resurrection & Life Lutheran President

Our ministry is at a potential turning point. Resurrection & Life Lutheran is, and God-willing, will continue to be 1 congregation with 2 sites. We have been served by more than 2 pastors since 1993, and 3 pastors fully dedicated to our ministry since 2008. God has blessed us with significant growth in recent years. God led Pastor Bitter to take a call to Florida. Our ministry has grown. Our pastoral staff is currently smaller. What should we do? It appears we are at a turning point.

Our turning point is not as big as the Industrial Revolution or the unveiling of the iPhone. It’s bigger. It’s bigger because God works through the Word and our ministry to impact the spiritual and eternal lives of hundreds and hundreds of people. No matter how many million iPhones are sold or how many years it takes to pay for your iPhone, phones don’t have the same lasting and epic impact.

How should we move forward together? We invite and strongly encourage you to join the conversation. Our Voters and Church Council wants everyone in our congregation to prayerfully consider our ministry and share their thoughts. Your vital input will greatly help us as we move forward in our ministry together.

Our ministry that impacts eternities is well worth a few moments of your time. Please give your prayerful consideration and time to:

• Read through this document and answers the questions inside it.

2019.07.Ministry and Pastor Discussion Revised v2

Included in this document are:

1. our ministry together (Worship. Study. Serve. Share.)

2. our current and projected financial status.

3. discussions on calling a 3^rd pastor (yes or no? If no, cut what? If yes, to do what?)

• Attend 1 of our open forum small group discussions of this document and our next steps as a congregation.

We will be holding small group discussions of this document and our next steps as a congregation. Here are your opportunities to participate in these discussions:

Wednesday, July 17^th, at 6:30pm on our Resurrection Campus

Sunday, July 21^st, at 9:00am on our Resurrection Campus

Sunday, July 21^st, at 10:30am on our Life Campus

Sunday, July 21^st, at 11:30am on our Resurrection Campus

Wednesday, July 24^th, at 6:30pm on our Life Campus

We’d like you to be prepared to be a part of one of those discussions. We’d like to hear your feedback, questions, and concerns.

In Christ Alone,
Daryl Schultz
Resurrection & Life Lutheran Church President