Parish Profile December 2016

Parish Profile December 2016 Grace Episcopal Church Mission Statement In a busy and chaotic world, we are a church where you can find acceptance and belonging, and discover God s grace and peace. Grace Episcopal Church 209 North Pine Street New Lenox, IL 60451 815.485.6596 www.gracenewlenox.org

Prayer for Guidance Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with us who take counsel in choosing a Vicar for our parish. Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory. Guide us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Call Statement We seek a Vicar who brings dynamic vision and leadership to our congregation by: Inspiring and connecting us to God s word through preaching Engaging people empathetically and caring for us in times of need through pastoral care Increasing Grace s presence and visibility in the community Working collaboratively with the congregation to create a joint vision for our future Letter to Our Next Vicar Dear Future Vicar of Grace Church, Grace Church is looking to welcome a new Vicar with the energy and progressive values already present in our congregation. As a church, we value a leader who has an understanding of how to effectively engage the congregation while preaching and can offer compassionate pastoral care. Our new Vicar will need to communicate with parishioners and families in different stages of their physical and spiritual life cycles. Grace Church has been blessed with many active parishioners, and we are looking for a leader to help keep our church growing both spiritually and physically by increasing the number of congregant families. We would like our next Vicar to be genuine and relatable to those who have been with Grace for a long time, while also being open to new and creative ideas to attract new members to our community. Our congregation appreciates humor, joy, and enjoys a relaxed atmosphere that is welcoming for all ages, especially children. Our church s greatest successes have happened when we were guided by a flexible leader who solved problems in a collaborative manner. We would like to move forward with a Vicar who will work cooperatively to find creative solutions to new challenges, and to expand on the many wonderful traditions and programs that we have at Grace Church. Thank you for your consideration and discernment. Sincerely, The Grace Church Community One of Grace Church s young congregants Page 2 of 9

Future State of Grace with Our New Vicar Grace Church is positioned to develop a longer term vision for our future. We are nearing completion on a three year plan to renovate and restore our beautiful church facility, rectory, and grounds. As these projects draw to a close we recognize the need to go from a facilities focus to a stronger focus on the people of Grace and the spiritual growth and development of our congregation and ministries. Additionally, Grace Church has set a goal of going from mission status to parish status. We look forward to welcoming a Vicar that will lead us on this path. We are looking for new and exciting ways to increase membership and to further engage current parishioners. We recognize the need to create flexibility in our programs to better serve busy families, who are an important key to the vitality of our congregation moving forward. We want to ensure that time spent at Grace is a meaningful, valuable, and nurturing experience that will enrich the lives of our congregation and community. In order to enhance the worship experience, we are increasing our focus on the music during mass and exploring possibilities for alternative services. Grace Church is very important to many people and we would like to bring the love and sense of family that the Church provides to its congregation to more members of the community. We would like our next Vicar to inspire and connect us to God s word, engage people empathetically and care for us in times of need, increase Grace s presence in the community, work with us to create a vision for our future, and provide leadership to achieve our goals and realize the wonderful potential of this congregation. Opportunity Areas The priorities that emerged from the survey results Clockwise from top left: Golf outing sponsored by the Men s Group, Annual BBQ, and new playground equipment ribbon cutting were overwhelmingly clear and were consistent between different age groups and between those of varying frequency of attendance. Priority #1: Attract families with children and youth from our broad geographic location and incorporate them into the life of the church. Priority #2: Develop and support new ministries by providing more opportunities for education and service. Priority #3: Develop the spiritual generosity of those that financially support the ministry of the church. Page 3 of 9

Grace Episcopal Church 2016 CAT Summary In our interim period, we had the members of Grace Church take the Congregational Assessment Tool (CAT) survey in order to gain perspective on how members feel about the church currently and the direction in which we want it to go in future. Every member had the opportunity to participate, even our youth members, and we are proud of achieving a 67% response rate. The results of the CAT survey are very positive and indicative of a strong and vibrant church community, with many strengths on which to build. Grace Church last completed a CAT survey in 2011, and the results of the 2016 CAT demonstrate growth and improvement on nearly every measure. In those five years, Grace Church made dramatic improvements in its morale, governance, conflict management, readiness for ministry, and hospitality. Blue grass music service Key Indicators Our church has both high energy and high satisfaction. In addition, we have a clear sense of what we re about and our relationships with each other are healthy. This foundation allows us to be able to focus on forward thinking visioning and planning for our future. The majority of church members said: They were satisfied with how things are in our church They felt our church community is engaged and feels a common sense of purpose and meaning They attend church about the same amount as they did, compared with 3 years ago, and many said they attended more frequently They agreed that participation in church activities is meaningful to them Descriptive Indicators These are measures that tell us about the overall character of our church congregation. On the whole, our congregation is more progressive than conservative. Compared to our results on this measure from 2011, we have become more progressive since that time. We are more adaptable than not, which indicates higher vitality and potential for long term sustainability of the congregation. We are open to change, but we need to understand why the change is happening. We are interested in open discourse and we welcome intellectual curiosity. We are ultimately concerned with the rational integrity of our faith, the application of faith to life, and the faith journey through understanding and discovery, which we understand may be a meandering path. Page 4 of 9

A Brief History of Grace Episcopal Church Grace Church, New Lenox, IL draws primarily from the New Lenox/Frankfort/Mokena town environs, which have roots in farming and as shipping points for produce along the Rock Island Railroad. We still have families attending that trace their roots to the town settlement in the early 1800 s. The towns soon became suburban in the 1980s and 1990s, the farms were developed into subdivisions with new homes, with convenient highway and commuter connections to the metro Chicago area. Greening the Church for Christmas Episcopal settlers met in the Methodist Meeting House starting in 1868, and soon determined they needed a church and set about building a Carpenter Gothic church in 1868. A similar church was said to exist in Davenport, IA, from whom we borrowed building plans. A bell tower was added in the 1870 s and a vicarage soon after that. A basement was excavated out from under the church building in the 1950 s to accommodate what had become the extremely popular Ham Dinners. When the original adjacent vicarage burned in the 1960 s, land was purchased and a modern home was built across the street to replace the old vicarage. This opened up the adjacent land to become the site of a 1980 s church hall, built to gracefully attach to the well proportioned church building. The buildings have come together to appear to be original to the 1800 s, but we are actually half modern and half historical! Grace Church The Building We are very proud of our church building, which was built as a timber framed barn of the 1860's era was built, and in the "Carpenter Gothic" architectural style. It has giant timber sills, mortised, pinned bracing and connections, under typical horse hair reinforced plaster and lath walls of the day. It is literally a finished barn building with a bell tower attached. There are descriptions of the period where the church congregation could not wait to start services and shoveled snow off the deck to begin services before the roof was completed! To this day, it still has the original siding and was even built with a false ceiling inside that can be removed while maintaining correct proportions when the church is expanded. Our pride was expressed in the 2015 renovation of the interior, where a special effort was made to return the woodwork and the fine architectural finishes to accurate 1800 s hues. In fall 2016 we completed a major renovation of the Bell Tower, demonstrating once again that we take conservation of our building very seriously. Page 5 of 9

Grace Church Undercroft & Hall The church hall is a living room where our congregation can gather and enjoy social activities. We host non profit aid groups like AA and AL ANON and girl/boy scout groups of various ages during the week and evenings. We share our facility with the town through a popular hall rental program that is part outreach and part fund raising. The present hall came about Grace Parish Hall with realization that the church basement was limiting expansion of church social activities and that we had to open adjacent property onto which we could expand. Built in 1980, we have just completed the first cycle of renovation and redecorating of our hall. We rewired and upgraded kitchen services while improving traffic flow. We also completely demolished and rebuilt the restrooms to bring them to 2014 ADA compliance. The undercroft became church offices and education rooms with a rebuilding of the church foundation in the mid 1990 s. During the work on the foundation, worship continued while our timber framed church was supported on stilts and jacks for a month. Grace Church Vicarage Grace has lots of room for a Vicar s family! We have a 3,000 SF, two story, 2 1/4 bath modern brick & frame home with full basement, attached cedar screen room, and a two car garage. It is a large, comfortable home for a family and a spouse that might commute to downtown Chicago from a convenient train station just 2 blocks away. Don t need that much room? We are very flexible (and we have just recently) aided housing expense off site, whilst we rent out our executive class home. Page 6 of 9

The Communities of Will & Southern Cook Counties Grace Episcopal Church is located in the Village of New Lenox (http://www.newlenox.net) which is a family friendly community located in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago. Will and Southern Cook Counties are growing and vibrant communities and Grace Church draws from a wide geographical area. Our population has grown to almost 26,000 residents and as of the 2010 census more than 30% of the population is children under 18. Grace also has parishioners residing in many of the surrounding communities including Joliet (http://www.cityofjoliet.info/), Orland Park (http://www.orlandpark.il.us/), Tinley Park (http://www.tinleypark.org), Mokena (http://www.mokena.org/), and Frankfort (http://www.villageoffrankfort.com/). New Lenox owes much of its early growth to its location along the Rock Island train line. While the Metra line which grants easy access to the City of Chicago is still a drawing point to the Village, community investment is now the main draw for New Lenox. The village sponsors many events though out the year including Proud American Days which is a festival held each summer featuring music, carnival rides and various games. Summer in New Lenox also brings the Triple Play concert series which brings touring musical acts to the village commons. Our park district runs The Sanctuary Golf course which advertises as the best golfing value in the Chicago aria, as well as sponsoring many youth activities. New Lenox is in the Lincoln Way High School District (http://www.lw210.org) and local school district 122 (http://www2.nlsd122.org). Both are rated well in statewide surveys. Joliet Junior College services our community and is recognized as the first junior college in the country (http://www.jjc.edu). Page 7 of 9

The Village has benefited recently in business and Health Care investment as well. Silver Cross Hospital built a new campus in New Lenox in 2012. This state of the art hospital features services from Children s Memorial Hospital, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago. New businesses continue to open in New Lenox complementing the already vibrant business community. The local commercial districts feature a mix of local family owned business and big box stores. There are also planned large scale shopping centers that will bring even more convenience to the area. Grace Church Leadership & Administration Vicar Search Committee Grace Church s Vicar Search Committee is led by Co Chairs Dave Poole and Barb Plantz. The committee members are: Erin Gardella, Mary George, Jason Hermanson, Janice Kooi, Jim McMillan, Karen Pedigo, and Ana Rossetti Sloan Bishop s Committee Structure The Bishop s Committee that provides leadership for Grace Church is chaired by a Senior Warden and includes the following roles and areas of responsibility: Junior Warden, Buildings and Grounds, Fundraising/Stewardship/Financials, Christian Formation/Youth, Parish Life/Fellowship, Outreach/Pastoral Care, and Worship/Evangelism/Communication. Grace Church Administration Grace Church has a Parish Administrator, Meghan Chlebowski, and also a Treasurer. Financial Brief Income & Expenses Pledging Units $180,000 60 $160,000 $140,000 $120,000 $100,000 50 40 38 44 45 52 $80,000 $60,000 30 29 $40,000 $20,000 $ 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 (Projected) Operating Income Operating Expenses 20 10 0 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 (Projected) Page 8 of 9

Our Diocese Brief The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago is led by Bishop Jeffrey Lee and has 123 member congregations, spreading from Lake Michigan on the east, to the Wisconsin border on the north and the Iowa border on the west. The Diocese is known for its leadership initiatives designed to support congregational vitality. To this end, the Diocese focuses its energies on four key programs: The College for Congregational Development, Fierce Conversations, Project Resource, and Living Compass. The Nicholas Center, located on the fifth floor of the Diocesan office building in downtown Chicago, provides classroom space and accommodations for these programs as well as other leadership events. To apply for this position, please submit a resume, cover letter and OTM portfolio through the Clergy Information Form for Transitions found on the diocesan website: https://episcopalchicago.wufoo.com/forms/m1poxgz40cwsj2w/ Closing Prayer Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for Grace Episcopal Church, our parish family. Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those of us who shall choose a vicar for this parish, that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Blessing of the backpacks Page 9 of 9