A Journey of Gratitude, Joy, and Dreams: Our Faith Formation Transition Process
Dear UDLC Friends,
Livvy Steffens shared with us at church on June 5th that she has decided to retire as our Christian Education Director after 40 years of incredible ministry. I remember a story that Livvy tells often about riding her tricycle to the church around the corner and asking her mother, “Who lives there?” Her mom said, “God does.” And Livvy said, “Well, I want to meet him.” So began a life dedicated to caring for God’s people, forming our children and youth in faith, and helping everyone know that they are a precious and beloved child of God.
We are so lucky to know and love Livvy and to have partnered with her in the ministry of Christian education over the last four decades. I treasure Livvy and count it as one of the great blessings of my ministry to have worked with and learned so much from her. She has left a lasting and indelible imprint on us all. Even though she is retiring from this role, she will continue to be here with us at UDLC. We still still benefit from her care (and chocolate chip cookies), her humor, friendship, and wisdom, her affirmations of our gifts and callings, and her example of faith. Livvy sees the best in us and she inspires us to be more than we thought we could be.
Livvy has set the spring of 2023 as her retirement date. So, let me describe for you want the upcoming year will look like as we make this journey of gratitude, joy, and dreams together.
First: Gratitude. God has blessed us ever so richly in our life and ministry together with Livvy. This is a time to express our gratitude for and to Livvy. I know that each of you will do that in your own way. We will also do that as a church—stay tuned, we have lots of ideas—and rest assured that there will be an awesome party.
Second: Joy. Times of change and transition can be challenging. In such times, we hold together gratitude, grief, and, yes, some anxiety about what comes next. That is all very natural. I also want this to be a time of joy as we think about the ministries that Livvy has helped us to build, and the lives that have been changed by those ministries. Whatever and whoever comes next builds on the strong and rich foundation that we have built and expanded under her leadership. We have this incredible treasure and we will joyfully carry it forward.
Third: Dreams. This is a natural time to look at our faith formation ministries for children and youth and to hear from our families how we can meet their needs and support them in their lives of faith. Because this is such a significant transition for us, we have contracted with a church consulting group, Ministry Architects, whom we have worked with before on our visioning process and the Ministry Discovery Tool, to help guide our process. We are grateful to the Living Waters Endowment for funding to make this possible. Our consultant, Monica Lewis, will work with me and a small team to gather the hopes and dreams of our congregation for our faith formation ministry and translate those into a plan, program, and a profile of the person we need to hire to help us realize our vision.
Monica and Ministry Architects will help us do the following over the coming year:
An onsite assessment of the children, youth, and family ministry, identifying assets, challenges, recommendations, resulting in an 18-month timeline
A virtual QuickStart, immediately following the assessment, to launch the newly formed Faith Formation Workgroup into their new role, to identify the pressure points that need to be addressed first, and to begin addressing the pressure points
Implementation support and creation of a family ministry structure that provides resources, support, and programing to families as they practice their faith and navigate parenting
An onsite Program Design Summit on the direction of the ministry and create the weekly, monthly, and annual rhythm of the family ministry
Chairing the Faith Formation Workgroup for 9 months, which includes on going coaching for the Faith Formation Workgroup and transition assistance to a ministry team model upon completion of contract
Coaching the Renovation Team chair for 3 months to assist in transition of leadership and continuation of the team’s momentum as leadership shifts
An end-of-contract survey of families, volunteers, and staff to assess the current challenges moving forward and to create a new 12-month timeline
A virtual recalibration visit at the end of the contract to celebrate the work that has been accomplished and develop a plan going forward
Six months of combined executive coaching, initially for UDLC’s new children, youth, and family ministry staff upon hire, focusing on onboarding to UDLC’s family ministry processes and sustainability in the transition.
Our Goal: The goal of this process is to include the congregation in creating a vision for the next chapter in our faith formation program, and determining what kind of person we need to lead us. Our intent is to combine the two positions of Christian Education Director and Youth Director into one, so we can offer more hours, helping us to attract quality candidates, and providing continuity for families as their children grow through the life of the church. Our plan is to post the new position of Director of Faith Formation in early 2023.
Thank you for your support and prayers for Livvy and this process!
I created the following slide deck to capture the ways in with faith formation has been evolving in the larger church and some of my hopes for this next chapter at UDLC. You can click the arrows on the side of the image or the thumbnails below to scroll through it.
