By Ed Thompson

Overall, I did pretty well on my goals in 2019. In order to strengthen the relationship between congregations and the presbytery, I planned to visit 35 churches for worship, preaching 25 times, and aiming to visit at least 15 churches that I had not visited before. I actually worshipped 59 times in 39 different churches, preaching 26 times. I had not worshipped with 15 of those congregations prior to the year.

In order to provide pastoral care and support to the pastors of the presbytery, I planned to meet with 30 different pastors, at least 15 of whom I had not visited/met with before. I actually did meet with 30 different pastors a total of 39 times – 17 of whom I had not met with before.

In order to provide guidance and support to presbytery staff members, I planned to meet with each staff member individually twice, once for reflecting on the prior year’s activities and setting goals for the year ahead, and once, mid-year, to reflect on where they were in meeting those goals. I did that, and actually, it was pretty easy. We have a great staff.

For my own personal growth and renewal, I planned to attend two different continuing education events in 2019, with at least one dealing with staff management and supervision. This one gets a little more complicated. I actually attended three different continuing education events this past year: Sprunt Lectures at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Big Tent in Baltimore, and Coach Approach Skill Training in Miramar Beach, Florida. All of them were good continuing education, but you’ll notice none dealt with staff management and supervision. (Spoiler alert – this will happen in 2020.)

In order to be more intentional in my work, I planned to find a coach by at least March and then meet with them monthly. This was probably one of the best things I’ve done, and I could almost kick myself for not doing this sooner. I’ve been working with Bruce Stevens, and we met over the phone 8 times, starting in February. I also mentioned that I took some coaching training last year, and I plan on working to be certified as a coach myself. A lot of people at the seminar I attended apparently planned on doing this during their retirement. I think it’s going to be helpful now as I work with pastors, PNCs and committees. At this point, retirement still seems pretty far off.

In order to help the Leadership Team be more effective, I planned to meet with the chair of Leadership Team prior to each meeting. Actually Maureen Wright and I started doing this together. I think there was one time I might have missed because I was sick or away on vacation or had another commitment, but this did happen on a regular basis. I think the Leadership Team does good work but could be more efficient. That’s really a design flaw and has nothing to do with the people involved.

In order to help churches find pastors more quickly, I planned to work with the Committee on Ministry as they refined the process for calling a pastor and to check with the chair of active PNCs monthly. I quickly decided that checking with the chairs of active PNCs each month was over-functioning, so I never did that. I did work with the COM to refine the process of calling a pastor. That’s still a work in progress. I feel like I had a better idea of how to help churches find pastors 15-20 years ago. The church has changed, life has changed, and I’m still trying to figure out how we as a presbytery can be more helpful now.

For 2020, I kept some of the same goals and added others. My primary goal continues to be to strengthen the relationship between congregations and the presbytery. This year, though, I plan to worship with the 19 largest churches in the presbytery as well as with 10 congregations I haven’t worshipped with before. Since I’ve been back in West Virginia (four years next month), I’ve worshipped with something like 94, maybe 95, of our churches. Technically, I still have 30 to go, but some of those churches have administrative commissions working with them, so I may not get to them before they close. I suppose I could make it a goal to visit all of these congregations this next year. I decided, however, to get to at least 10 of them as well as to worship with our 19 largest congregations. Those churches contain a little more than half of the total membership of the presbytery.

Another of my primary goals is to provide pastoral care and support to the ministers of the presbytery. To do that, I intend to meet with at least 8 of the active ministers members I have not yet met with as well as any new ministers in the presbytery, with the goal of meeting with 25 ministers throughout the year.

I also want to be a better head of staff, so I intend to attend at least one seminar/workshop dealing with staff management and supervision. (I’ve already signed up for two one-day seminars, so unless I get sick or they get snowed out, I should have this.)

I also intend to continue to work with the Committee on Ministry on improving the search process, specifically dealing with better criteria for mission studies. Sometimes, this feels like Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill, but it still seems like a worthwhile goal.

To better strengthen staff unity and morale, I want to have an overnight retreat or have us do a workshop on the enneagram together. This still needs fleshed out.

How did you do on your goals in 2019? What goals have you set for this coming year?