First Congregational United Church of Christ

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Vision
We believe that First Congregational UCC is who we are and what we do much more than where we are. Yet, our building defines, enriches, and limits us in various ways. Full use of our space for activities consonant with our mission is stewardship. Openness and sharing of our space with the surrounding community is hospitality. Acting and witnessing in the world outside our building takes faith into the world.

We believe it would be useful to clarify what full capacity use of all our building space would allow us to do, to understand the positive strengths of this location and the present building; to state the limits of this location, the physical constraints of this building and the costs (present and future).

Five Year Planning Possibilities
◦ Make long range (5-10 year) estimates of maintenance and use costs including inflation.
◦ Track percentage of budget needed for all building costs.
◦ Identify opportunities (mission and budgeting) from full building use, with or without reconfiguration of space.

Identify all activities that we could do based on the interests of our members.
Identify all community groups that could use subsidized space (mission).
Identify any groups that could pay for use of space (budget).
Re-vision space – if you think of everything but the sanctuary as a shell to be re-constructed, could we

have church school on the first floor as opposed to far away and hard to find?
have six to eight really comfortable rooms for small groups to meet, do, learn, etc.?
improve our Staff spaces to increase connection, interaction?
figure out things we don’t / can’t do because the spaces are shaped / laid out wrong

◦ Explore whether more of the activities and missions of our church should be outside 1609 University in homes, community centers, retirement centers, student sites, etc
◦ Discuss, from the perspective of membership, cost, mission, etc. if we as a community of faith will be located at 1609 ten years – twenty years – thirty years from now. This site does create opportunities, but a group could go to various places in the greater Madison area and ask how our membership or mission would change if we were in South Madison, on the Square, on the far East or West side, etc. This would help us see if 1609 in some ways closes our eyes to possibilities.
◦ Identify patterns of use of parking by current members that may make visitors feel unwelcome.
◦ Keep the needs of those who are differently-abled in mind.
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Staff
Budget
Measurement

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