COTTAGE MEETINGS & FOCUS GROUPS REPORT



Cottage meetings were held after the Congregational Survey was complete. The search committee decided to promote discussion using these three questions:

  • How would you describe this congregation to its prospective ministers? 

  • Looking back, after our minister has been with us a year, what will be your measures of success? 

  • What achievements will make you say you’re glad the minister is among you?

The Search Committee set up a schedule of 6 cottage meetings and 4 focus groups. Cottage Meetings were held outdoors at a state park during a church retreat, and at church in the Hearth Room; some were held after Sunday service, another on a weeknight evening, another on a Saturday mid-morning, and a discussion on ZOOM after Sunday worship. 

Some focus meetings were held at church with parents, another with staff during their regular weekly meeting, a third with youth during faith formation hour. Focus groups for long term members/elderly included interviews held on a one-to-one basis via a personal phone call and a dinner meeting held with a small group at an assisted living facility. 

The Cottage Meetings and Focus Groups often pointed to themes already developed in the Congregational survey, but some topics led to a clearer focus and to hopes for a better future. The following bullets address some of those issues:

  • We value our strong presence in the Oak Ridge/Anderson County community and want our minister and our congregation to be involved in it too. Examples: challenging members to donate for R.I.P. Medical Debt Program, delivering doughnuts to the police station when a crisis arises, writing articles in the Oak Ridger on timely issues, etc. Other important activities include our monthly free community meal, (Stone Soup), sharing half of our weekly offerings with outside groups (Split the Plate), making the decision to pay our staff better than a living wage, and putting on a summer camp, Rainbow Camp, that aims to bring in children from other social circles to teach inclusion and acceptance of diversity.

  • We communicate about deep issues- homelessness, firearm policies, immigration, politics, but these conversations are often challenging and sometimes are nuanced with unaddressed aspects.

  • We have had tough times in our past and survived with lots of work: one ministerial misconduct, one music director misconduct, one RE director leaving with hard feelings.

  • We are a breath of fresh air in the Christian Bible-belt south.

  • We are comfortable with failure, and this is a liberating feature of this church. 

  • We want to attract more members- young families, young adults, fuller pews at services, youth bringing friends to church. We need to develop a “pathway to membership” program for newcomers.

  • We have a strong RE program, which we call Faith Formation, but it needs revitalizing after a period with no established minister. We need fresh ideas, new endeavors, a minister who engages with/listens to our children and knows their names and to which family they belong, has regular encounters in classrooms.  Parents wanted a return of a broader focus to Rainbow camp (wider than LGBTQ); visits with other kinds of churches; youth outreach programs, a children’s choir. Both staff and parents hope to see the minister in sustained dialog with the RE director and staff. Our high schoolers and post-high school youth are especially interested in forming a Young Adults Group.

  • The youth especially want a safe place where Trans people are truly welcomed by the congregation, not only “talk a good game”, but “reach a true understanding of how to treat the people they say they are open to”.

  • Our lay leaders are strong and capable partly due to good training by Rev. Tandy. We want to return to/renew a leadership curriculum, and a plan to grow more leaders.

  •  We are very accepting and welcoming and have many ways that the members can get involved with the church. This includes numerous small group ministries that are formed around a specific purpose and can function without direct involvement by the minister or staff. We hope our new minister will be intentional about listening and visiting with SMAs and other organized groups.

  • We want to plan activities and fun times with our minister so we can get to know them better and they us. We hope our settled minister is excited, passionate, and energetic about being a fully immersed member of the church activities and community.. 

  •  We want our minister to make a dedicated effort  to be inclusive to choir and Zoom attendees in worship. (Rev. Lisa does this well.) 

  • We hope to continue recording services and posting them on our website as an accommodation to those who are ill, homebound, or just unable to attend on that Sunday morning.

  • We hope our new minister relates well with staff and can see staff involvement as part of the vision for community change. The staff especially want someone who is willing to collaborate on  job descriptions, conduct useful performance reviews, and encourage all staff to stretch and grow in their positions.