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EESTI ELU reedel, 10. juunil 2022 — Friday, June 10, 2022
St. Peter’s Church – A transformation plan June 06, 2022 Are we facing imminent bankruptcy? No, clearly we are not. The most recent financial statements do not support the assertion that the church is facing imminent bankruptcy. The assertion is wrong on two counts: Bank ruptcy would occur only if the church were no longer able to cover its accounts payable. Secondly, it presupposes that no management action can or will be taken to rectify financial issues which the financial state ments highlight. There is a reluctance to think of the church as a corporation. By legal definition it is in fact a not-for-profit corporation and should be managed as such. But can one simply apply business variables like efficient use of resources and consolida tion of assets and cost benefit analysis when examining the viability of a church? Is a cost benefit that which determines the worthiness of maintaining and preserving places of wor ship? Much as we would like to assume that maintaining a place of worship should be a matter of faith alone this is not the case. A church cannot exist on faith alone. It needs a solid financial framework to survive. Our church is in need of both spiritual leadership as well as management expertise. A transformative process There is a tendency to elieve that all we need is a b proper “business plan” and everything will be OK. The truth is we need more than that. This church needs a transformation process before it can be a vibrant place of com munity activities and worship. Presenting statistics and mapping trend-lines in and of itself is not management. One has to understand what the
numbers are suggesting and have the courage and the good sense to actually confront the issues and then deal with them pro-actively. Before we look at the num bers in detail, let’s look at the issues we are facing. If a ‘business’ is failing, the question is always… why is it happening? So in this case, we must ask: Why are the people not com ing to church? Why are people on the membership roster not contributing financially to the church? What do the people want of the church that they are not getting? A marketing analysis Let us assume that these members are our customers. A marketing analysis begins with the 4 P’s: Product, Placement, Price, and Promotion. Product: What is our “product” and is it still relevant to our “customer”? What aspect of our “product” needs to be re-defined? Is it our Lu theran religion, or is it the way it is presented? What makes the “customer” walk away rather than embrace the service? Placement: Is there something wrong with where we are located? Has the customer base shifted geograph ically, and we are no longer convenient? Is the packaging or placement of the “product” out of date? Price: Is it too expensive to partake of the service? If it is not expensive, is there a question of value derived for the price paid? Does the customer evaluate the benefit of the service in terms of dollars, or the time invested, or the fulfilment it provides? Promotion: How are we reaching out to our customers? How do we create the desire to participate? Do we
Usually bustling with life, for the last two years, the pandemic has forced Kotkajärv to be fairly silent like the deep Muskoka forest surrounding it. But this summer the camp will be reviving its traditional Guide-Scout camp from August 13 to 20 and Metsaülikool from August 21 to 27. This required the usual ‘talgud’ of volunteers to repair, clean, paint and build. It’s an energetic effort that’s always sincerely appreciated. Photo: Maimu Mõlder
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take the customer for granted? Do we have a network of peo ple that promote the church? When conducting an evalua tion such as this, we need to be both open-minded and honest. As the issues surface it gives us an opportunity to ask not only “what’s the problem”, but “what are we going to do about it?” A S.W.O.T approach To help us frame the strategy we must undertake another analysis – SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Strengths: What are our strengths? We need to acknowledge our people, our facilities, our spirit, our heritage, our organizations. Weaknesses: We need to be honest in assess ing our weakness because here is where we have the greatest likelihood of denial. Is it our “product” – what we have to offer? Does it need to change, to be updated? Does our reli gion have demands that are not aligned with the values of our “customers”? Do our “custom ers” have negative feelings about our church? If so: Why? Why have our “customers” stopped making use of the church facilities for other pur poses than attending religious services? Opportunities: What are our opportunities? What is happening in the world around us? What is changing? Is there an opportunity for us to capitalize on our strengths and make this organization more relevant and more effective in the community? What are the business opportunities our church could benefit from? Threats: What is happening in our com munity, our people, our custom er base? What is taking place around us that will impact our attendance? What if there is another pandemic type of threat? Is there a reason why people walking away from our community? Who are our customers? Not just our members, but also those who have walked away, and those whom we wish to attract. What are they look ing for? They have needs and wants. Needs are perhaps the easiest to define. They need the church as a place for spiritual fulfillment, as a centre for community, and as a location to gather for funerals, and wed dings and celebrating holidays. Do they have any needs or wants that go beyond this? Can we define them? Once we understand our customer, we can define how we can best meet his/her needs and wants. With this in mind, we can proceed to structure a business strategy to meet those needs. To be meaningful, our business strategy will also need to estab lish real objectives for our selves. This would include financial goals but also goals for issues that are important to our congregation such as atten dance, personal satisfaction,
The Estonian Radio Girls’ Choir The Estonian Radio Girls’ Choir, one of four choirs of The Children’s Music Studio of Estonian Radio, consists of 30 girls between the ages of 14 and 19. The choir has given many concerts in co-operation with professional concert agencies and festival organisers (Eesti Kontsert, Viru Folk, Jazzkaar etc.) and also partici pated in charity projects. They regularly record for Estonian Radio and Estonian Television and have premiered choral works of several Estonian composers (René Eespere, Tõnis Kaumann, Riho Esko Maimets, Margo Kõlar, Kadri Hunt). The Estonian Radio Girls’ Choir has successfully partici pated in several international festivals and competitions, the latest of which are: • Two 1st prizes in youth choirs and folk music categories in the Antonio Vivaldi International Choir Festival in Carpenisi (Greece) 2019 • Concert in VocalEspoo Festi val with Cantores Minores Boys’ Choir in Helsinki 2018 • Performing in the finals of EBU choir competition “Let The Peoples Sing” in Helsinki 2017 • 1st prize in children’s choirs category and 2nd prize in the folk music category in the 33rd International Choir Festival in Cantonigros 2016. Kadri Hunt (b 1964) is a choral conductor, singer, com poser, arranger and music teacher. Since 1990, she has worked with the choirs of Collegium Educationis of Tallinn and since 1995 has been the conductor of St Michael’s Boys’ Choir, whose repertoire consists of Gregorian chant, old sacred music, folk hymns and folk songs. Kadri Hunt has been
the chief conductor of the Children’s Music Studio of Estonian Radio since 1999. Kadri has been a workshop leader in several Estonian children’s choirs festivals, and conducted mass choirs in Estonian Song Festivals and Church Song Festivals. In 2011, she led the open singing in the 6th International Children and Youth Choirs Festival Europa Cantat junior, in 2015 she was a workshop leader in EUROPA CANTAT festival in Pecs, Hungary and in 2018 in the EUROPA CANTAT festival in Tallinn. Kadri’s choral works have been performed by choirs both in Estonia and abroad, also in several Estonian Song Festivals. Kadri Hunt is also active as a soloist. Kaie Tanner (b 1975) is choral conductor and manager. She holds the position of Secretary General in the Estonian Choral Association and conducts the choirs of Children’s Music Studio of Estonian Radio since 2010. Kaie Tanner has conducted children’s choirs in several Estonian Song Celebrations, Church Song Festivals and Estonian Mixed Choir Festivals, conducted workshops and given presentations at numerous Esto nian and international festivals and conferences, published articles in Estonian and inter national magazines and news papers, and been a member of the jury of international choir festivals (Bejing, Neerpelt, Hong Kong) etc. Concert by The Estonian Radio Girls’ Choir – Sunday June 26th, 2022 at 12 noon, St. Peter’s Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, 817 Mt Pleasant Rd. Toronto. Free ad mission. Voluntary donations gratefully accepted.
community participation, and positive feedback.
Please take the survey at https://forms.gle/GxHcM6F LBHmt7cFu6 or on our website www.friends-of-st-peters.com Thank-you for helping.
This is how we begin the transformative process that is needed if we want our church to be successful and viable. We cannot do this alone. We need your input, your thoughts, your critique.
FRIENDS OF ST. PETERS CHURCH
Editor: The names of the Authors can be found from their website.
