Visioning

LISTENING UPDATE

As a congregation, Edenton Street UMC began 2024 in a posture of listening as we seek to discern what God is calling us to be and do in our next season. 

During this time, about 300 individuals participated in a listening session or interview and over 380 people completed our survey.  What a blessing! 

We are pleased to share the findings of the listening phase with you. We also invite you to tune in to the ESUMC podcast “Visioning Part 3: Listening Phase Recap” to hear Vision Team Co-Chairs Eric Johnson and Kathryn Holding discuss key themes from the listening phase. 

During this season of listening, we have heard your joys, frustrations, and dreams for our community. We believe the variety of viewpoints shared will lay the groundwork for profound renewal, growth, innovation, and impact. Thank you for speaking into this important process.

The vision leadership team will work together to develop the vision, mission, values, and strategic priorities for the next season of life at ESUMC.  Please continue to be in prayer for this process and our team. 

LISTENING

One of the desired outcomes of the 2023-2024 visioning effort is the opportunity to connect and listen to those who have been engaged in the life of ESUMC. We hope our process engages, involves, and excites a broad and deep cross-section of church members, staff, community partners, and those who might have stepped back from the church recently. We believe the variety of viewpoints will lay the groundwork for a season of profound renewal, growth, innovation, and impact.

We would like to invite you to provide your feedback on the strengths, challenges, and opportunities for ESUMC now and in the future.

More than 200 people participated in 10 listening sessions during January! Thank you for joining in these important conversations.

A survey will be shared in the coming weeks for completion during the month of February.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at visionteam@esumc.org. Thank you in advance for your participation!

Current State Assessment

During its first phase of work, the ESUMC Vision Leadership Team completed a data-rich "current state assessment" that was designed to give VLT members a shared understanding of where the church and our community stand today. This assessment will complement the listening phase of work that is now underway. Please review this executive summary to understand why we are undertaking the visioning and planning process, what we have learned so far, and where we are headed in the coming weeks and months. For more detail, please click here to listen to the first of two podcasts discussing the current state assessment.

VISIONing kick-off

Fellow Edenton Street members, thank you for your strong support of the kick off of the visioning process!  This summer, more than 150 church members raised their hands to be a part of this important work in some way. From those responses, we have established a Vision Leadership Team of church members that feel called to help lead the work to help our church discern what God is calling us to do in this next season.  

Each member of the Vision Leadership Team will participate in general visioning efforts and also bring their own lens and experience about certain parts of our church life.  The names and roles of each of the Vision Leadership Team members is on this page - please join us in thanking these leaders for their dedication to this work!  

Your role and active participation in this work continues to be critical.  As we kick off this season of visioning, we will be asking you to share with us what God is calling us to be and do over the next seven years.  We will be reaching out to you in the coming weeks with opportunities to share and listen. 

VISION LEADERSHIP TEAM

Laura Brewer - Formation and Discipleship (Children and Families)

Rob Brittain - Stewardship

Marisa Bryant - Lay Leader

Sarah Capel - Formation and Discipleship (Adults)

Laura Cox - Community Engagement Co-Lead

Dawn Dillon - Personnel and Leadership

Rebecca Edwards - Formation and Discipleship (Youth and Families)

Mary Susan Fulghum - Congregational Care

Dennis Gibson - Connection and Belonging

Kathryn Holding - Co-Chair

Eric Johnson - Co-Chair

Patrick Longest - Missions

Brian McGuire - Facilities and Technology

Ed Murgitroyd - Community Engagement Lead

Susan Smith - Worship, Liturgy, and Music

Maggie Stroud - Community Engagement Co-Lead

CONSULTING FIRM

After a robust RFP and interview process by staff and laity, we are grateful to God for leading us to the team at Armstrong McGuire to help support our visioning efforts. Armstrong McGuire brings a wealth of experience working with churches, faith-based organizations and nonprofits in the Triangle area. The Armstrong McGuire team supporting ESUMC include managing partner Shannon Williams and senior advisor Mendi Nieters who, along with a background at organizations like Alliance Medical Ministry, is also a member of Apex United Methodist Church. The firm has a deep bench of experts they will call on as needed to support our visioning work, and brings expertise, tools and processes to help our visioning leadership team listen and prayerfully consider what God is calling us to do in our next season.

word cloud

At the September 17th Stewardship Kick-Off Dinner, we asked members in attendance to take a few minutes to consider two questions:

  1. When you imagine ESUMC in 7 years on a Sunday, what does it look like, sound like and feel like?

  2. When you imagine ESUMC in 7 years on a Wednesday morning, what does it look like, sound like and feel like? 

More than 150 post-it notes were completed.  The below word cloud shows visually the words and themes that arose the most.  The words in the largest font appeared the most

Guiding Questions

As you prayerfully enter this season of visioning with us, we invite you to consider the following questions:

  • Where have you seen Edenton Street UMC at its best?

  • When you imagine Edenton Street UMC in 7 years on a Sunday, what does it look like, sound like and feel like?

  • When you imagine ESUMC in 7 years on a Wednesday morning, what does it look like, sound like and feel like?

Questions and Responses

If you have any questions or response to the above information, please reach out to us at visionteam@esumc.org

This page is a living document. Please continue to check back for more information.