Wardens’ Report: February 2019
The Wardens’ Report: a brief summary of highlights from monthly Vestry meetings, designed to provide information about our growth, finances, priorities and progress towards our strategic plan.
At our February 26th Vestry meeting, we enjoyed dinner together, and we prayed before starting the meeting. This month Johanna Montague led us through prayer which included a time of intercession and thanksgiving for David Hanke and the Hanke family. We prayed that David would feel God’s presence as he emerges from working so diligently on the Matthew 25 Gathering that Restoration hosted last week. We prayed that he, his wife Laurel, and their kids would find rest in God’s comforting hand as they reconnect in the midst of a season of transition. Finally, we prayed that David would hear God’s voice as he leads Restoration in a process of discerning plans for our church over the next five years. As always, we hope that you will pray with us for all the staff, vestry and God’s work here at Quincy Street.
In our meeting, we approved the Outreach Steering Team’s recommendation to give away our Ash Wednesday and Holy Week offerings to Caminemos Juntos, a ministry cultivating Anglican church-planting throughout the Americas. We also received another good report from Incarnation, and approved RILA’s board, a step that, in part, was a celebration of a milestone in RILA’s development: it recently received approval to become an “integrated auxiliary,” which will expand its opportunities to receive wide and sustaining support. We also approved this year’s rosters for our invaluable advisory teams, and we adopted an Emergency Response Plan.
Brad Jones, our Treasurer, walked us through a finance report that showed January giving was again below anticipated levels. Although giving was generous in December 2018, we have been below anticipated giving levels for all of the months since the fiscal year began in September 2018. The vestry discussed possible explanations and options looking ahead to the rest of this fiscal year. (Restoration’s fiscal year runs from September to August.)
David led a discussion with vestry about the strategic planning process, and he shared an update from the team that is facilitating the development of Restoration’s next five-year strategic plan. (Our current strategic plan expires at the end of this year.) As we pass our tenth anniversary this fall, this is a great moment to reflect and to look ahead as a church. We are grateful for all God has provided, and we recognize ways the Holy Spirit is already beginning to guide the development of a new strategic plan that will help Restoration be faithful in the next chapter of our lives together.
We look forward to hearing from you: what is God saying to you about Restoration in 2025? Come out next Tuesday, March 5 to Pancakes and Parish Meeting, where we will talk about the strategic planning process. First, we will enjoy fellowship and pancakes starting at 6:00 pm. Then, around 7:00 pm, we will open up our spring Parish Meeting so that we can share more about God’s provision for our church to date and how you can join in that journey. See you there!
As always, if you have questions, concerns, words of wisdom or encouragement, please know that we are open to your feedback. You can read an archive of past Wardens’ Reports on our website or Vestry Meeting minutes on CCB, under the ‘Files’ tab in the ‘Entire Church Group’
– Chris Belen and Johanna Montague, Wardens
Below is a recording of our March 5, 2019 Parish Meeting.