2011 Annual Report - St John's in the City

34
Sunday morning, do they find us modern, funny,
edgy, ground-breaking, lively and more?
Our slogan “More than you might expect” is not
unique; it is the same slogan as the city of Hamilton.
Are we more than the new comer would expect? If
we are not, we could be wasting our communications
money and misleading people. Last year we
mimicked Tui’s campaign of “Let’s be honest”.
Would our signs be more honest if, like St Peter’s,
we had more traditional signs telling what we do in
our church community? For example St Peter’s had
a sign shaped like a temperature gauge informing
people how they were going with the fundraising for
their organ refurbishment. This creates an accurate
impression of what you’d find if you came into the
church.
In contrast our sign “Blessed are the meek for they
shalt inherit Aotearoa” took a social justice angle. It
took a huge number of hours to develop, engaged
many opinions and, after changes and two debates,
was narrowly approved by the St John’s Council. We
had some interesting feedback from people outside
the church. A Wellington Presbytery minister commented
that we were “talking to ourselves, but in
public”. We had criticism and worry from within the
church. Perhaps the opportunity it created to engage
with the Mana Whenua after church and learn about
their land would have been too divisive.
The question we need to answer is that, on reflection,
was a seven votes in favour and six opposed to
the ‘meek’ sign representative enough for it to go up?
Perhaps not. Perhaps we need to rethink the way
that our committee operates, as we rethink the vision
of our church?
The Communications Committee has been guided
by these words from our mission statement: “We
are a restless community. Discontent with the status
quo… we seek to find new ways to convey the Gospel”.
With this in mind, we have not reprinted the
brochure and postcard you’d expect about our building’s
historic significance. We have tried to embrace
this sense of a church stretching in mission to new
people, wanting to change and include them.
Is this approach consistent with who we are as a
church, or is it misleading? Is it time to be more
honest and communicate the history of the building
and celebrate it more? Would it be more honest
if we changed our mission statement to “a content
community” or “a community dedicated to tradition,
worship services, and pastoral care of our members”?
Other alternatives we might all agree on could be “a
community dedicated to providing a peaceful oasis
in the midst of a concrete jungle” or “come and enjoy
the ambiance of this historic place and the sounds
of the rare historic organ”. My personal experience
of being on various church committees is that some
of these would better suit the majority view than
‘discontent’.
The flames of our burning bush logo represent us nationally
as people who ask each other “Wasn’t it like
a fire burning in us when he talked with us on the
road?” Is that us? If so, what evidence does the newcomer
see of that? Locally our logo is of a building
shining among office buildings. Is that a better fit?
On reflection, I have encouraged the committee to
produce signage indicating what the church could
become, rather than what it is. More time and effort
needs to go into agreeing that what we convey is
consistent with who we are. Then the signage can be
more authentic.
There is a very good communication plan and policy
written for the church. If we decide to try and grow
our church, I believe it would require a skilled dedicated
volunteer, or a part time person – like we have
for property and administration – to manage and enact
all the aspects of the communications plan, which
covers everything from how we answer the phone
to the consistency of our logo specifications and
how we welcome new-comers. I am thankful for the
considerable skills and experience Elizabeth Gibbs
will bring as our new Convenor. However, until our
vision is clearer and enthusiastically agreed on at a
congregational level, it will be difficult to consistently
communicate our true identity to our neighbours in
our city.
Ross Davis
Convenor