Marble Initiative Status

Please check out the Vision Page to see what was visualized!

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hospitality

Improvements to the Outreach of Guests and Church Members

• Connection Cards were put into use on December 2, 2018. By using the Connection cards, Pastor Jackie is contacting our first time visitors via email, while our second time visitors are receiving a handwritten note within a week of their visit.
• The “Cup of Grace” coffee time beginning every Sunday at 9:00AM.
  
• Cup of Grace is also offered after Sunday worship service and is intended to provide a more comfortable setting for Marble visitors to make a personal connection to our friendly and inviting membership!
• Please contact Barb Bachant, Mary Karr, Brenda Kempher or Mary Beth Ludwig for further information or if interested in hosting. Hospitality has additional projects related to guest services​.
• The Hospitality team has completed their scope of work with the placement of welcome centers for visitors.  Welcome Center signage is coming. 
  

facility upgrades

Facility Upgrade Plan On its Way

• A multi-phase facilities upgrade plan was submitted and endorsed by Church Council.  It will be implemented in coordination with Trustees and other stakeholders.
• Rod Hill has presented an interior church signage plan which has been endorsed by the VCI Leadership team and Church Council. This plan will be implemented with Trustees and Finance.​
• The Nursery/Cry Room is going through a thorough clean-up.
  
• Pew reconfiguration is complete

COMMUNICATIONS

Managing the Way We Communicate and Inform

• Website revisions for visitors are complete. Other website content will continue to evolve.
• Ideas and questions about content should be directed to the church office. ​
• Ministry plan work complete.  The standing Communications Committee members are Lisa Jarema, Pastor Matt, Paul Salow and Erin Tellas.  Please send ministry or church photos (with explanation or caption) to any of these committee members.

children's MINISTRY

Church Curriculum for Children

• The team visited Grace (Ann Arbor) and Flint Court Street UMC; they will be visiting Royal Oak First UMC
• The Children's Ministry Team would like to encourage young families seeking a church home to join us as we work to design our children's ministry program in a way that addresses your specific needs.  Feel free to ask questions and/or to outline the needs of your own children with comments made via our  "Connect" Page.

CHURCH NAME TEAM

​Decision to Rename?

• Team members include: Vicky Engelbert, Lisa Jarema, Tim Kartje, Mary Dennison, Sue Sweet and Pastor Jackie. Please see the Ministry plan for this scope of work.
• The first meeting was held in January, and included educating the team on Marble's history and prayerful consideration of the Ministry Plan.
• This work is postponed pending the outcome of the May 2020 United Methodist Church general conference.
  
  

WORSHIP DESIGN

Meeting with our worship consultant.

• ​Members to date: Barb Bachant, Vicky Zilke, Tammy Balk, Paul Salow, Erin Tellas, Andy Charter, Chris, and Pastor Matt. First meeting date is set. Please see the Ministry plan for this scope of work.
• This team met with consultant, Cathy Townley in March 2020.  There were so many great ideas brought up. As this team continues to meet, there will be a plan set into play. 

outreach

Who is in our Church Community?

• Team members: Brian Foster (lead), Amanda Thornton, Vicky & Andy Charter, Naida Albin, Vicky Engelbert, Laurie Williams, and Lisa Jarema.
• This team held their launch meeting on January 17th, with time focused on familiarization with the MissionInsite database (demographics for our area), additional to other information regarding our local Milan community. Please see the Ministry plan for this scope of work.​
• If you have any thoughts about what Marble could be doing to help in our community (whether you attend the church or not!) please contact the office with your ideas!

​VCI Outreach Team Update - Brian Foster
      - Nearly FIFTY $25 gift cards were collected and donated to Aid In Milan. 
      - Tins of cookies were delivered to employees at 6 local businesses on Christmas Eve.
      - Marble hosts a walk-in free Drug/Alcohol Risk Assessment walk-in program open the 2nd and 4th  
         Tuesdays of every month.
      - F.I.S.H. family program is the 3rd Thursday of each month offering a meal, activities and mission projects.
Events coming up, or in the works:
     -Thursday, March 12th 7:00 p.m. -  Financial Seminar on "Budgeting" Free and Open to anyone.
       Two more financial seminars are planned for later in 2020: "Trust and Estate Planning" and "Fraud and
       Identity Theft".  Keep watch for those dates and times.
    - United Methodist Women are planning a "Parent's Night Out" for parents of children with special needs this spring.
Projects in the Learning and Planning stages: 
    - VCI Outreach is examining "How can Marble do more to support the Paddock summer lunch program?”  
      Congregants have reached out to Aid in Milan, the school, and other churches in the community to understand how
      to help programs in place.
     -VCI Outreach is examining the local homeless situation in Milan. Talking with Police, the City, Aid in Milan, schools       
      and others to better understand the situation.  We will look at working with other churches in the area to come up
      with ways we can serve.
    - In 2020 Marble plans to have a "booth" for Downtown Trick or Treating and for the Christmas Parade.
    - In February 2021 Marble plans to be involved in next year's "Let's Chill" festival.

The goal of VCI Outreach is to create a resource for groups and individuals who have ideas for programs and
events for Marble Memorial. The team is ready to help sort out feasibility and offer support for these programs. 

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Special March 5, 2020 Meeting
Your Church Council, the Vital Church Initiative Leadership Team and those engaged on the ‘home’ or ‘away’ teams during the 2016-2017 Phase I VCI all joined on March 5, 2020 with the Rev. Sherry Parker- Lewis and the Rev. Gary Step. Both Sherry and Gary have been with us previously during our ministry revitalization journey. The purpose of this meeting was to engage Sherry and Gary – who have repeated and significant experiences with churches seeking to revitalizes ministries. The group shared the 50-year trend of Marble worship attendance, other more recent indicators of the health of our Marble ministry and a summary of our VCI progress thus far. Sherry and Gary confirmed  what a number of those in Marble leadership were starting to realize. While the VCI Ministry Plan we adopted was an excellent plan
for preparing for ministry growth, additional key elements are still necessary to achieve long-term ministry growth:

1. A fuller and more detailed “vision” for our ministry – beyond our Vision Statement - a “vision plan” to drive our ministry program and to create accountability. A ministry vision plan will embody our passion and our dreams. A ministry vision plan will create more focused and consistent alignment of our congregational activity in support of the ministry.

2. A cultural foundation necessary in the long- term to create, grow and sustain a healthy ministry. We need the patience and fortitude
to realize that culture change – which can take 4-7 years. We will launch a Visioning Team - once we are able to do so. We will engage the entire congregation as continue on this ministry journey.

This joint leadership team wants the congregation to know that we will continue to complete our VCI Ministry plan actions as we are able to do so.