Evans/Davis is excited to sponsor an exhibitor’s table at the 124^th Council of the Diocese of Southern Virginia, scheduled for February 4 to 6, 2016 at the Williamsburg Lodge, Williamsburg, VA. In addition to introducing ourselves to churches and Diocesan ministries for the first time, we will have the opportunity to visit with a number of churches and other diocesan ministries we have scheduled to meet around that time frame.

Evans/Davis asks any church in the Diocese of Southern Virginia to contact us should you wish to have us visit with you during the first week of February in 2016. We can meet you at the Lodge, at your church, or at a convenient location nearby.

Evans/Davis, working with the leadership at Grace Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, has completed their Vision Planning Program. During the process they have developed their core purpose and values and have envisioned a plan for their future.

We received this note from one of the Church leaders.  “I am writing you on behalf of Grace Church’s Mission Council and Visioning Committee.  We would like to thank Evans/Davis for your guidance and leadership in helping us design and frame an initial vision for Grace Church.  As a Common Ministry Mission Church, Grace was not the “normal Episcopal Parish” that you company helps. We presented you with a unique set of challenges and you worked with us to craft a vision thatauthentically represents who Grace is at the current time. “Again, on behalf of Grace Church, we thank you for going the extra milewith us in helping us delineate our goals, hopes and dreams and then usingyour contacts to help us put real costs next to each item on our plan/wishlist.”

Evans/Davis is happy to receive this message and will monitor the church as it proceeds through its vision plan. Please contact us to learn how we can help you with long-range vision planning.

Over the years, the Finneytown Schools Educational Foundation (FSEF) of Springfield Township near Cincinnati, Ohio, has raised funds to provide teacher grants and to fund special projects. In addition, it has been a funnel for student scholarships. The Foundation is now at the crossroads and needs to determine future funding needs and determine where these funds can be developed for these needs.

For this reason the FSEF is moving forward with a vision/discernment program and development of a revised mission statement. Once a vision for the Foundation’s future is determined and a revised mission statement has been written, Evans/Davis will conduct a fundraising feasibly study to determine if there is a sufficient dollars from the FSEF donor base to make the long-range plan a reality.

Evans/Davis specializes in long-range planning. Please contact us if you would like more information.

We are experiencing challenges in changing times. Many of our congregations are diminishing in size. Now, more than ever, church leaders must discern God’s call for their future. This means looking at all aspects of church life…worship, fellowship and ministries to determine the best ways to grow both spiritually and numerically.

The bible encourages both planning and involvement of counsel in this process. Here are just a few:

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision the people will parish.

Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel plans go wrong, with advisors they succeed.

Proverbs 19:20 Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom for the future.

Evans/Davis can assist you in customize a long-range plan, within your budget, to assist your church in this discernment/visioning exercise.

The firm can shepherd you through the entire development process…from vision planning, conducting a feasibility/ assessment study to providing guidance and counsel for both annual and capital campaigns. Evans/Davis can also assist in the development of Legacy Society or other planned-giving program.

The mission of Evans/Davis is to assist churches in setting hearts on fire for Christ. Please contact us so we can explore possibilities and discuss options.

Sean Rowe is the Bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern PA and Bishop Provisional of the Diocese of Bethlehem. He recently made a provocative statement during a discussion hosted by the TREC Task Force of the Episcopal Church: Bishop Rowe said, simply and bluntly:

“The Episcopal Church is over-led and under-managed.”

Originally I scoffed at that comment (if anything, I thought we were under-led and micro-managed), but I have come to repent of that assessment.  My assessment today is that both effective trained leadership and effective trained management – working together – are needed in the church more than ever.

Since Bishop Sean made his remark, lots of people both inside and outside the church have responded to his provocative statement.  Most of those responses are far more insightful than anything I can offer here. I am, however, going to reflect on how Bishop Rowe’s statement relates to vision casting and fund raising, and the role of both leadership and management ministries in the church to successfully carry out vision and fund raising efforts.

I summarize my thoughts on Vision and Implementation as follows:

1)      It is the task of the Leadership team of a congregation/Diocese to cast a passionate, compelling and understandable Vision and to broadly outline what resources (time, talent, treasure) will needed to accomplish that vision.

2)      It is the task of a Management team (either already in place or assembled for the task) to first understand the vision as articulated, and then to solicit the necessary resources ( gifts of time, talent and treasure) needed to implement the articulated vision. The Management team that carries out these tasks is usually designated as a Fund-Raising or Resource-Raising Team.

Here’s a bit more detail:

In order for the vision to become a reality, the Leadership team must articulate the vision in such a way that it will be clearly understood and embraced by those who will be asked to commit their own resources to the implementation of the vision. The Management (Fund-Raising) team will in turn coordinate the solicitation of those resources that will be applied to making the vision a reality. In many cases, a given individual may find themselves serving on both the Leadership and the Fund-Raising teams.

In a successful endeavor, both the Leadership team and the Management (Fund-Raising or Resource-Raising) team must be equipped with the skill sets needed to accomplish their part in making the vision a reality.

This development of skill sets is where vision and fund-raising counsel (such as Evans/Davis) proves invaluable.

First, when the Leadership team develops a vision, it is always wise to ask if that vision is understandable to anyone who may be called upon to provide the resources needed. Too often, that articulated vision is only comprehensible and compelling to the Leadership team! Helping the Leadership team to form, articulate and communicate a compelling vision is part of our mission at Evans/Davis. Are the resources needed too much or too little to implement the vision? What is the potential within the circle of donors to achieve the acquisition of those resources, and under what time frame? Again, Evans/Davis has the skills necessary to provide guidance for answering those questions.

Secondly, there is a specific set of skills that are required by the Management (Fund-Raising) team to successfully solicit the resources needed. Does the Fund-Raising team have the necessary skill set, or do they need to be trained in the skills needed? I can’t emphasize this enough: if the team responsible for successfully soliciting the resources does not have the skill set needed, this critical aspect of the vision implementation will fail. The skill set necessary to conduct a successful fund-raising campaign is a skill set that Evans/Davis is able to share with our clients.

Again, I’m trying to be brief here, and I will have much more to say in future newsletters, but in summary, a successful Vision and Fund-Raising effort in our congregations involves the Leadership team clearly articulating a compelling vision and describing the resources needed to turn that vision into a reality. The solicitation of the resources needed to bring that vision to a reality is carried out by a Management (Fund-Raising) team that has been trained to clearly communicate that compelling vision to others and to successfully solicit and gather those resources. These are not skill sets learned in seminaries or in the business lives of most people, but they are skill sets that can be taught to those who wish to acquire them. Evans/Davis stands ready to help your congregation acquire these skill sets and provide overall direction, leadership and management to turn your vision into reality.

Rev. David Bailey

Just before Thanksgiving, the firm will be meeting with Bishop Dan Martins, of the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield, to discuss professional services. Evans/Davis will be recommending and discussing a number of services that includes vision planning for Diocesan churches as well as growing their current endowment.

The mission of Evans/Davis is to assist both churches and dioceses in setting hearts on fire for Christ. It is hoped that the firm will becoming active in the Diocese of Springfield in the months ahead.

We will be meeting with St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Trotwood, Ohio this month to finalize plans to develop a long-range vision plan and conduct a feasibility study in preparation for a capital campaign sometime in 2015.

The parish has several areas that need to be addressed. Through a vision planning process, the church leadership will discern God’s call for their future and determine if a capital campaign, to cover the costs associated with these needs, is feasible. If it is a “go,” a capital campaign will be used as funding for these needs.