At our June 4 Town Hall, we shared the full First Pres Forward plan with the congregation, summarizing nine months of listening, feedback, planning, and initiative development. Each of the core initiatives was presented and contextualized with Scripture and vision.

These intiiatives include:

• Worship: Focusing and unifying our worship identity across styles.
• Storytelling: Training leaders and ministries to share life-change stories in ways that inspire.
• Hospitality: Cultivating a new culture of welcome across every part of First Pres.
• Connection: Designing and implementing a clear discipleship pathway for everyone.
• Discipleship: Shaping participants to become contributors through training, tools, and relationships.
• Mission: Engaging every person in missional activity—both locally and globally.
• Communication: Creating clarity in internal/external comms by building systems and alignment.
• Leadership: Equipping leaders to multiply others and carry responsibility faithfully.
• Operational Excellence: Aligning and streamlining resources and support structures.

These initiatives are being handed off to ministry teams for implementation. More resources and updates will follow soon as the church family steps forward together.

Moving from Planning to Action

Since August 2024, First Pres Forward has been a journey of listening, learning, and strategic planning...

Our Five Key Areas of Focus

1️⃣ Healing – Creating a culture of reconciliation, grace, and unity so that past wounds no longer hold us back.

2️⃣ Connectedness – Strengthening how people engage with the mission of First Pres and deepening relationships within the church.

3️⃣ Operating Systems – Improving how decisions are made, how ministries function, and how communication flows.

4️⃣ Places, Spaces & Schedules – Evaluating how we use our facilities and time to best serve God’s mission.

5️⃣ A Life of Mission – Encouraging a seven-day-a-week faith, living as the church beyond Sunday mornings.

Where We Are Now

Session ministry teams are receiving these initiatives and preparing to own and implement them. We want to ensure these leaders are fully equipped, invested, and ready to bring these changes to life.

What’s Next?

March–April 2025 – Session ministry teams work through the initiatives and begin planning for implementation.

Late Spring 2025 – First Pres Forward is presented to the congregation.

Beyond – We step forward together as a church, putting these initiatives into action for the future.

Dear First Pres Family and Friends, 

Thank you to those who attended the December 10th Q&A session with Leighton Ford Ministries (LFM) about the Transforming Church Inventory (TCI) survey which had over 790 responses from the First Pre congregation. We continue to be inspired by the devotion and investment of First Pres members. The meeting was to be an opportunity to delve deeper into the survey results and allow the survey experts to address any questions you had. We received both positive and negative feedback on the meeting. The positive feedback centered on gratitude for continuing to engage in this in-depth listening time and strategic planning process. The negative feedback centered on the feeling of some that the briefing could have been more complete and more straightforward in identifying where we have room for improvement, so we want to address that directly.

We agree that some of the data lacked context that could have better explained the results. We assumed that the time set aside for open Q&A after the presentation would resolve any outstanding questions, but with the benefit of hindsight we recognize that time did not accomplish all of the intent. We take responsibility for how the results were communicated and our commitment to listen well remains firm. We know that, as a church, we have areas where we need to grow - that is exactly why we launched this listening and strategic planning process including the survey. Along with you, we want to make First Pres the best place to worship and the best place to work, so that we can all be Life and Light for the City.

We are including here the two slides that were too small to be legible on the screen during the meeting and were not in the handout: “Top Scores - Single Questions,” and “Bottom Scores - Single Questions.”

As before, the full survey results are available here: Download the TCI Report and the slides from the 12/10/24 presentation. Paper copies of the report and the presentation will also be available at the Welcome Center.

Please remember that we are only part way along this strategic plan drafting journey! We are transitioning from Phase One to Phase Two (see below), but that does not mean we have stopped listening. If you would like to speak to a member of the FP Forward Team about any part of this process, including the TCI survey, we want to make ourselves available. Just send an email to forward@firstprescos.org or speak to someone at the Welcome Center to set up a meeting.

TCI Report

Congregational Debrief

Dear First Pres Family and Friends, 

As part of our commitment to discerning God’s path for First Pres, the First Pres Forward Strategic Planning Team has been engaged in a thoughtful and thorough planning process. Over the past months, we’ve hosted a series of town hall meetings and received valuable feedback from the Leighton Ford Ministries (LFM) Transforming Church Insight Survey. Together, these efforts have helped us better understand the hearts and minds of our staff, congregants, and mission partners—our cherished members. 

Where We’ve Been: Phase One – Listening 

Phase One of this journey focused on hearing from you. Through the survey and listening sessions, you’ve shared profound insights that have shaped our understanding of where we are as a church. Here’s what we’ve learned: 

Our Strengths: 

• We are Christ-centered and gospel-focused. 
• Our worship, music, and outreach efforts are highly valued. 
• Learning is a core strength, deeply impacting our lives and ministry. 

Opportunities for Growth: 

• Communication: Both within the staff and between leadership and the congregation. 
• Connectedness: A desire for stronger relationships and a greater sense of belonging. 
• Leadership: A need for improved handling of conflict and fostering shared ownership among congregants. 
• Generational Balance: Bridging the gap between older and younger congregants to create a unified "we." 

We are grateful for your honest, open input, which has already enriched our understanding of how we can grow together. 

Where We’re Going: Phase Two – Building a Vision 

As we transition into Phase Two, our focus is on developing measurable, time-bound objectives to guide First Pres over the next 5-7 years. These goals will be rooted in what we’ve heard from you and refined through continued feedback. 

We plan to: 

• Present a draft of these objectives to the Session on January 21, 2025. 
• Share the draft with all members in early February 2025 for your input. 

We invite you to participate further by joining us on December 10th at 6:00 PM in the Worship Center for a Q&A session with Leighton Ford Ministries. This meeting will provide an opportunity to delve deeper into the survey results and address your questions. You can find the full survey results here.

How You Can Stay Involved 

Your voice continues to be vital as we move forward. You can: 

• Submit feedback to our Planning Team at forward@firstprescos.org. Submissions will remain confidential. 
• Engage with the next phases of the process as we finalize and implement our strategic plan. 

Looking Ahead: Phases Three and Four 

• Phase Three: Refining the Plan - In December and January, we’ll analyze all feedback to create a strategic plan that reflects our mission to be “Light and Life for the City.” 
• Phase Four: Implementing the Vision - Starting in 2025, we’ll embark on living out this plan, trusting in God to guide our steps. 

We are excited to walk this journey with you, looking inward to build up the body of Christ and outward to invite new believers to join us. Together, we trust that God will equip each of us to fulfill His calling (Eph. 4:11-13). 

Thank you for your ongoing participation, prayers, and commitment to First Pres. It is a blessing to serve alongside such a faithful community. 

Gratefully, 

Scott Blackmun 

Kent Fortune 

Sam Arnold 

Hannah Grace Bauman 

Kris Bauman* 

Randy Case* 

Bonnie Cherry 

Ralph Gates 

Chris Jenkins 

Tonya Lark 

Susan Pattee* 

Cindy Spark 

TCI Report

God is so good! The Lord has been faithful to this church for 152 years, and now we continue His mission in our times, sharing the love of Jesus to be Light and Life for the City.

We want to invite you into a process, a conversation we are calling First Pres Forward: Defining the Heart of the City. It is time to compose a strategic plan to live out our mission in the next five years. There are wonderful opportunities and challenges that we as a church will face, and we want to be focused in our efforts to make an impact in our city for the gospel.

Phase One begins with listening to you. This is where we need your help. We have partnered with Leighton Ford Ministries to participate in the Transforming Church Insights survey, where you'll get to tell us how you feel on a variety of important topics.

This data will be fodder for town halls and small meetings in September and October where your insights will help our Strategic Planning Team formulate key objectives. With your participation, we will be able to present the strategic plan at the Annual Meeting in February 2025.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns email forward@firstprescos.org or call (719) 884-6100