Our Parish Legacy of Growth

St. Bart’s story starts in 1959 with a home meeting of about 20 people interested in starting an Episcopal Church in Poway. Over the past 58 years our parish has been a church known for strong growth, building ministry, and outreach to the community. This St. Bart’s vision and mission continues as we prepare our campus and buildings to meet the needs for today and future generations.

St. Bart’s history tells us that when our parish community committed to building projects in response to membership growth and supporting needs for ministry, our spiritual growth and membership also increased. Today St. Bart’s is welcoming many new members and experiencing renewed spiritual growth, and it is again time to discern together our needs for campus facilities.

Following the completion of our Strategic Plan two years ago, Mark Davis formed a team to review and evaluate our campus master plan and buildings. A summary of this master plan work and parishioner survey results from the 2017 Annual Meeting were presented at the recent all parish Listening Meetings.

Parishioner Feedback is Clear

The Annual Meeting question was “What two things would you like to improve about St. Bart’s buildings and facilities?" The three top responses were: accessibility, expanded/flexible worship space, and sustainability for today and the future. 

We learned at last month's Listening Meetings that the feedback above was used to provide direction for Mark’s team to explore options for remodel of buildings and the expanded sanctuary plan from our 2000 capital campaign. While these approaches could offer improved worship space and some Parish Hall needs, the top improvement request - accessibility and expanded parking - were not addressed. Some initial concepts to incorporate the top ranked parishioner requests for improvement with construction of new buildings was presented and then discussed at the two Listening Meetings.

More to Think About—Listening Meeting Feedback

Overall there was a high level of enthusiasm and excitement expressed by parishioners who attended the two Listening Meetings about the process and the initial concepts. As we broke off into smaller discussion groups, we considered three questions about the initial concepts and ideas: 1) What are you most excited about? 2) What was missed? 3)

What do you need more information about? A summary of that feedback is included here:

What are you most excited about?

• New Parish Hall with commercial kitchen
• Increased parking, more handicapped parking, and better campus access
• New sanctuary with chapel and quiet meditation space
• Concept plan shows good use of space and option to use campus during each construction phase

What did we miss?

• Dedicated spaces for our youth
• Develop cross area to tie in with Columbarium
• Consider entrance from Pomerado Road, improve sight lines and width?

What do you need more information about?

• Location of the chapel/meditation space
• How to ensure the new buildings provide the welcoming feel that is so important to our parish
• Where is the main entrance to the campus? To the church?
• Access to campus through proposed Parish Hall entrance—other access?
• Access to campus during construction
• Timeline and cost of the projects

A Redevelopment Steering Team was formed following the January Annual Meeting to lead the process for parish discernment about addressing the needs of our campus and building redevelopment. Following an extensive process of recommendations and interviews with multiple fundraising consultant candidates, the Vestry approved the Steering Team’s recommendation to engage with CCS Fundraising (www.ccsfundraising.com) and to begin a feasibility study this summer.

What Comes Next?

During the summer, we will work with our CCS consultant, Martin Camacho, to learn more about our readiness for campus redevelopment and our financial capacity to support the projects. During this two-month process about 70 parish families will be invited to participate in one-on-one interviews with Martin to discuss the opportunities for our campus redevelopment in more detail. In addition, the entire parish is invited to participate in a survey during the August 5-6 weekend. Parishioners who are not in church on the survey weekend can still complete a survey on line through August 11.

During St. Bart’s Day activities (Saturday, August 26 following the 5 p.m. service and Sunday August 27) you will have the opportunity to review updated concepts for the new campus buildings and get a status report on the Feasibility Study progress. In September, the Feasibility Study results and recommendations for next steps will be presented to the Parish. We’ll decide together about the scope and timing for our campus redevelopment based on the Feasibility Study results and recommendations from parish leadership.

Need More Information? Please Ask Questions!

Have a chat with a member of the Campus Redevelopment Team each weekend this summer starting July 1-2 following all services at our Listening Table on the patio. You can also connect with Judy Macemon and Mark Davis directly at . We will post Frequently Asked Questions and Answers on a new redevelopment website page in July as well.

This is an exciting time of transformation and redevelopment visioning for our parish. We need everyone’s feedback, listening and participation as we grow together.

Redevelopment Steering Team: Brooke and Jim Grandinetti (co-chairs), Judy and Jim Macemon (co-chairs), Suzi Farrar (chaplain), Jean Glow, Jaime Munoz, John Savory, Don Spencer, Nancy Walters, Nina Zettinger, Bill Angus (advisor), Mark Davis, Fr. Mark McKone-Sweet

Master Plan Architecture Team: Mark Davis and Cynthia Webb (co-chairs), Dan Crane (Sr. Warden), Tom Osborn, Larry Salvadori, Mike Fuqua, Connie Munoz, Christine Cowart, Fr. Mark McKone-Sweet