Wardens’ Report: October 2022

October 25, 2022 

The vestry met at Restoration on Tuesday, October 25, for our tenth meeting of 2022. David Fahrenkrug used the Book of Common Prayer to lead us through a series of prayers on God’s faithfulness. We then responded with a time of reflection on how God has been faithful to our community over the last year. It was a beautiful and encouraging time of remembrance and thanksgiving. We gave thanks to God for Bishop-Elect Chris Warner. We are grateful that God’s sovereign hand has been leading the process from the beginning and he led our Diocese to elect, in the words of Bishop John, “a godly, faithful, and wise pastor.” We rejoiced alongside David Hanke that he will continue to be our Rector for another season at Restoration and wait with expectant hope for how God will use his gifts and our church to further His kingdom in Arlington and beyond. We also remembered God’s faithfulness in calling Isaac Wardell to be our Director of Worship Arts and spent time praying for Isaac and his family. In particular, we gave thanks for the ways they have felt welcomed into our community and the ways they have been a gift to us. We prayed that they would continue to make friends and build connections at Restoration and also in the places where they live, play, and go to school.

Over dinner we debriefed the Bishop election process and results before moving into our formal agenda for the evening. During our meeting, the Vestry approved the September 2022 minutes and two new additions, Tim Thurlson and Robert Mackey, to the Race + Reconciliation Advisory Team. We also approved an additional $48,000 in outreach grants to eight organizations. The additional funds were approved to align our outreach giving with our final FY22 budget. In total, we gave $234,736 to outreach in FY22. We also discussed potential recipients of our Christmas Eve offering and will make a final determination on that organization in our November meeting.

Our Co-Treasurers, Dan Vogel and Meaghan Maguire, provided on update on our September attendance and budget. We averaged more than 880 worship participants (in-person and online) during the first month of FY23 and giving was $33,000 above the projected budget for September. Given the sustained number of people worshiping at Restoration each week, we began discussing how we might respond by starting a third service and/or considering a second campus or new church plant in the future. We encourage you to join with us in asking the Holy Spirit how we can best respond to this ripe opportunity for us to create new places and ways for people to connect with us in worship.

David Fahrenkrug shared a report from the Facility Advisory Team on how the building has been used over the last quarter, including for a wedding, small group meetings, an INOVA blood drive, and a steady stream of people each week that utilize RILA’s legal services. He also shared how he and the team are thinking about how to best steward the building fund for the ongoing maintenance needs of the facility and its use to support the church’s vision and future needs.

We concluded our meeting by discussing David’s sabbatical scheduled for 2023. We initiated the planning in October with the understanding that it will be ongoing discussion for the next few months as David considers how and his family would like to use the sabbatical and we consider what is in store for our church over the next year. Again, we are grateful that God has provided a time of rest for David and his family after an intense season of ministry and invite you to join us in prayer for this opportunity.

We welcome your questions, encouragement, feedback, and most of all, your prayers. 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.’

~ Lorene and Adam