LAMS_Montreal_Presbytery
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<div><div> <div> <p><strong>Pastoral Charge:</strong> Argenteuil Pastoral Charge</p> <p><strong>Les noms d'églises / Church Names:</strong> Lachute United Church; Knox-Wesley United Church, Grenville; St. Mungo's United Church, Cushing</p> <p><strong>Adresse Mail / Mailing Address:</strong> 232 Hamford Ave, Lachute QC J8H 3N6</p> <p><strong>Téléphoné de Bureau / Office Phone: </strong> 450-562-6161</p> <p><strong>Bureau Email / Office Email:</strong> <a>aupc@bellnet.ca</a></p> <p><strong>Le personnel du ministère / Ministry Personnel: </strong>Rev. Cathy A. Hamilton (United Supply)</p> </div> </div><div> <div> <p><img src="/portals/0/Images/Churches/Argenteuil_Lachute.jpg" /></p> <h4><strong>Lachute United Church</strong></h4> <h5> </h5> </div> </div></div><div> <div> <div> <p><img src="/portals/0/Images/Churches/Argenteuil_Knox_Wesley.jpg" /></p> <h4>
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LAMS_Montreal_Presbytery
- 1. LAM - Loving Your Neighbour EDGE – A NETWORK FOR NEW MINISTRY DEVELOPMENT AND MINISTRY RENEWAL
- 6. Shawbridge Sainte Adèle Morin Heights Laurentian Area Ministry
- 8. Arundel Hamford Chapel, Lachute United Church Knox Wesley, Grenville St Mungo’s Cushing
- 12. Where We Are Now (Jan 2015) Congregation Assessment Report Pastoral charge Argenteuil PC Rouge Valley PC Congregation Knox- Wesley, Grenville Lachute Cushing Arundel Harrington Avoca St Adele Morin Heights Shawbridge Age Distribution 5 members 3 members < 24 16% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 18% 0% 5% 25-59 16% 0% 20% 0% 0% 17% 55% 15% 35% 60-75 48% 20% 60% 10% 33% 33% 18% 80% 35% >75 20% 80% 20% 90% 67% 50% 9% 5% 25% Sunday School 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0? Average Sunday 18 20 n/a 9 3 n/a 8-30 20 9 Reserves $ 45,250 $362,000 $0 $116,000 $ 22,400 $11,000 $ 0 $ 50,271 $139,709 maintain presence in community maintain presence in community maintain building in community remain as is maintain building - keep church going maintain building in community growing - large need Survive and grow spiritual and social presence in our community
- 13. Challenges: Distance Arundel to Lachute: 58 km, 52 min Shawbridge to Harrington 92 km 61 min
- 14. Challenges • Struggling / ageing/small congregations • Limited financial resources and energy vs. property rich (relatively) • Buildings part of the community but without a congregation • Growing French ministry - large French / Bilingual population • Ministers are moving on
- 15. Church Has Changed In 1959 four new United Churches each week; in 2000’s one church closes each week United Church – 2002 to 2012 ◦Membership decline - 26% ◦Average attendance decline – 38% ◦Church school decline – 53% All main stream protestant denominations have declined in Canada since mid-1960’s Major societal changes = it is not anyone's fault!
- 17. Laurentian Area Ministries (LAM) -Ministères des Laurentides
- 18. We are Hanging On – But….. 1. Insufficient resources to engage our neighbours and grow. 2. Working in isolation - each congregation is trying to solve this church-wide problem on their own
- 19. Proposed LAM Strategy: Shared Ministry, Services & Governance 1. Reduce duplication of worship preparation 2. Develop programs for families & engage communities to grow the congregations 3. Increase cooperation among paid leaders, lay leaders & congregations, English & French 4. Maintain individual pastoral charge buildings, identity, governance & ownership of resources
- 20. How? Shared Worship Leadership Worship Coordinator Minister (1 full time) Lay Worship leaders: Gail Hocquard, Stephane Godbout, Kelley Molloy, François Frenza, Retired Minister: Georgia Copland Other Guest leaders as necessary
- 21. How? Shared Community Ministry Family and French Coordinator Minister (1 full time) Family ministry programs; French ministry throughout the LAM; community engagement to identify how to follow God's calling in the community and who to partner with
- 22. How? Shared Services LAM Web Site ◦Promote building rentals & weddings; provide LAM & congregation information Central Admin Support ◦Central phone for initial rental requests & information; scheduling, bulletins (48 hrs / month) Central Salary Management ◦payment of minister salaries & benefits, deal with UCC ADP system ◦All other treasurer functions handled locally
- 23. Adhésion des Congregations Engagement Worship Culte Développement communautaire M&P Stewardship Intendance LAMs Council Chair, Secretary, Treasurer ProgramSupport Local councils/Conseils locaux
- 25. Sharing of Costs 1. Local Costs 2. Common Costs 3. Grants 4. Shared Fund Raising
- 26. How did we get here? Initial conversations led by Wendy MacLean and ministerial staff. EDGE Consultant hired to Montreal presbytery December 2014 January online meeting to gather data January meeting for all interested to assess situation and to dream Asked for commitment to continue discussion
- 27. How did we get here? Feb – May Working group established with electronic meetings to identify Descriptions of ministry positions Possible cost sharing models Shared administration possibilities Timeline Consultation with French-language ministry teams
- 28. How did we get here? June meeting with all to review and adapt each element of the proposal produce “marketing” material for congregations Applied for funding from Presbytery
- 29. How did we get here? October shared worship service, meal and Q and A session Treasurers produce detailed financial model Each congregation held a congregational meeting Consultation with Presbytery about governance structure Consultation with Presbytery about Personnel issues November: provisional approval by Montreal Presbytery January: first General Meeting of LAM
- 30. Lessons Learned Active participation by Ministerial staff was critical for trust and support EDGE Consultant provided outside perspective and able to do some of the leg work. Combined viability report across congregations highlighted the challenges and that they were all in the same situation Building community was crucial.
- 31. Lessons Learned Detailed financial plan developed with congregation Treasurers lent credibility and trust No discussion of amalgamation or closing churches – avoided major contention. Key issues were Worship scheduling, language, and finances. Presbytery was supportive but stood back to allow congregations to develop own plan.
- 32. Body of Christ together ◦Critical mass- more spiritual gifts to share ◦Understand the needs of our neighbours ◦Yearning to feel the divine We believe that by joining together we will find a voice to express the sense of soul and the life spiritual, a voice that will replace an unthinking secularism.
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Thank you for inviting us to speak about this exciting new ministry, formed from 9 tiny churches in the Laurentian area, north of Montreal. In English, we call ourselves the LAMs .
- What is LAM.. You might well ask Laurentian Area ministries
- A bit of a joke
- But after 4 years of dreaming, of conversation, of challenges, of argument, Last month, we people of Christ in the Laurentians decided that we were a Ministry Instead of 9 Ministries…
- And it was these crazies, filled with the Spirit..
- Cathy Maybe you’ve been to some of these churches.
- Cathy Or these ones
- Cathy Do you notice a similarity…We are almost all little white rural churches really out in the country
- Cathy While we love our buildings, we prefer to think of ourselves like this though.
- Cathy Or like this We are young and old, we are French and English, we are conservative and a-theist, we are rooted in the Laurentians and new retirees, we are hopeful and skeptical. We are the United Church
- Cathy We are the Laurentian Area ministries. Nous sommes le ministère régional des Laurentides Vera Young will tell you about where we are (were) I’ll come back and tell you about the vision Gail Hocquard will tell you about our journey And Marion will witness to the Body of Christ among us. And then, we’ll take questions
- Vera; IN January 2015 we were in a very serious situation – staff leaving –Fred and Libby had already retired, Lee-ann had been ordained and called, Georgia was retiring, Johanne’s funding was ending. Cathy was appointed year by year. With the help of Edge consultant (hired by the presbytery to help us) we assessed our situation. RED – a small number worship in their building – They want to preserve their building as part of the community GREEN – approx 20 or more in worship – generally broader age distribution YELLOW – in between – low worship – broader age distribution – Ste. Adele seemed to be growing slowly but has no reserves
- Vera And we are challenged by distance. For example it is nearly an hour to drive from one end to the other in any direction. Mostly because you can’t go through the middle. And all of that is at least another 45 minutes from Montreal.
- We also have similar challenges to those you find everywhere: small ageing congregations limited energy community buildings supported by a small number of people growing french opportunity with out facility in the french language
- You’ve seen these statistics before- decline decline decline everywhere
- We need to recognize that we are in a time of great transition something is giving way, and something new is coming into being, the question is how will we respond.
- Cathy: Et nous avons partagé tout cela avec nos communautés de foi En effait nous avons appris qu’il faut soit continuer comme nous sommes, décroitre et fermer ou Prendre les riszues d’etre pertinent en cooperer pour partager.
- Cathy: At the end of the January meeting, we agreed that if nothing is done, closure is inevitable. But we also discovered some great learning as we sat together, as we shared. Arundel has some great fund-raising ideas Cushing has renovated its historic building and is planning an anniversary fair. Morin Heights is great at engaging the community. You should go to Cosy Corner’s 25th anniversary this summer. Ste Adele is a lively place with french-speaking families that have chosen to be part of the United Church. They speak evangelism with enthusiasm. And boy is the music great! Shawbridge is becoming bilingual as they engage with their neighbours. And so on So we identified two issues we could address
- Cathy: Grow the congregations – English and French – don’t just manage the decline and closure of congregations Reduce duplication of worship preparation Focus on develop programs for families & engage communities to grow the congregations Increase cooperation among paid leaders, lay leaders & congregations, English & French Maintain individual pastoral charge buildings, identity, governance & ownership of resources
- Cathy: More specifically and this has already started. Meet each season each having prepared a worship service and share our work. Not exactly the same, but base of work done.
- Cathy: Lead development of programs . Also share in worship leadership and pastoral care as necessary
- Cathy: share promotion through the website for weddings, rentals and programs Share admin support Share salary management
- Cathy:
- But of course sharing cost was a sticking point: Local Costs – each congregation pays its local costs (e.g. building mtce. & utilities) Common Costs – each congregation will give the balance of its income to a shared ministry fund. To the extent that there is a shortfall, each community will pay its share according to its relative wealth, its investments. Grants- Montreal Presbytery $50,000 each year for 3 years. $10,600 start up from United Church Foundation. Applied to Erskine and American for project support.
- Gail: We created and managed to maintain momentum. We started with conversations among ministerial staff with Wendy MacLean in the fall of 2012 After a few false starts, in December 2014 Montreal Presbytery hired Bob Richards, an Edge Consultant to help manage the process. We met online to gather data and then in person in January 2015 And we asked for a commitment from each congregation to continue the discussion
- Gail: Between February and May a working group worked through a series of issues mostly through online meetings: ministry positions cost sharing sharing administration They established a timeline so that we could have work done in time for the presbytery committees that need to approve it. And they consulted with the various French-language ministry teams.
- Gail: In June we held a general meeting to review each element of the proposal We decided to produce material so that the congregations could study the idea over the summer And we applied for funding from Presbytery and from the United Church foundation
- Gail Here is where we get to the real hard stuff In October, having shared the information with the congregations, we met for shared worship, a meal (of course) and a question and answer session The treasurers met together to clarify the finances Each congregation held an official meeting and voted. We consulted with Presbytery about governance sturcture and personnel issues In November, we had provisional approval by the Montreal Presbytery Although not everyone was in agreement, all 9 congregations voted by majority to join LAM. And in January 2016 we had our first ever General Meeting of LAM
- Cathy: What did we learn Leadership is critical Bob Richards is a hero and Edge was invaluable The viability report was a great place to start but learning each other’s names Being community was critical That is incarnation. That is God among us.
- Cathy: The money needs to be right Honouring the buildings as symbols of the roots in each community was important Worship scheduling, language and finances were hot topics Presbytery support was invaluable- particularly as we came up against procedures that are not built for regional ministries- Heather McClure, Marc Grenon, Fred Braman We are not done, we are just beginning. Every task will bring us up against the institution, Who calls a meeting when there is no Chair, and it is the meeting that will elect a chair? Who establishes how people will be paid when it is those among us who are being paid? The Spirit will not be tamed by the rules of the institution… and yet It is important for all us to see the Spirit active among us, for us to perceive the Spirit inviting us into newness. I’m always one to stretch the limits…my dad, Of blessed memory, would tell you give her an inch, she’ll take a mile. Before I go to far…
- Marion: Whether the focus is on family, on green church, on justice issues, it all comes back to being the Body of Christ together and We are hoping that together we will have more critical mass, more spiritual gifts to share If LAM is to succeed, we need to trust in becoming active listeners and observers. By meeting others more than halfway, through church sponsored/supported events and projects, everyone gains a sense of community. Becoming a community offers greater possibilities of understanding the needs of our neighbours and We believe that there is a deeply felt but unexpressed yearning of the spirit to feel the divine, to feel that one is part of something larger than oneself. and We believe that among other benefits of being a church for the community at large, there will be those who will find a voice to express that sense of the soul and the life spiritual, one that will replace an unthinking secularism.