Wardens’ Report: October 2015
The Wardens’ Report: a brief summary of highlights from monthly Vestry meetings, designed to demystify our work and provide some information about our growth, finances, priorities and progress towards our strategic plan.
As we kneeled at the railing, we said many prayers of thanksgiving — for the hiring of Isaiah Brooms, for our fall retreat and the great good that can come from living into our vocations, for the many friends willing to stand for vestry election, for those thoughtfully considering Restoration membership, and for the steady, faithful preparation for David’s 2016 sabbatical.
The upcoming sabbatical is providing occasion to examine carefully how we make decisions and who makes which decisions. Without doubt, the leadership bench is deep in our church family, and new leadership is already emerging for 2016 and beyond. In addition to adding Isaiah to the staff, the nominating committee is finalizing the slate for our November vestry election. We are also refreshing our advisory teams (outreach, personnel and finance) – asking people to lend their time, knowledge and experience to our strategic operations. These teams toil in relative obscurity and cannot be thanked enough for their important contributions.
The first month of the fiscal year brought more positive financial news. Operations are almost exactly on budget, and outreach is doing even better. Through your unanticipated generosity and the effective fundraising efforts of our short-term mission teams to West Asia, Cambodia and West Virginia, our outreach fund was overflowing by several tens of thousands of dollars at the end of fiscal year 2015. We had the joy of receiving and approving several recommendations from the Outreach Steering Team to expand Restoration’s support to many good partners in ministry.
If you have questions, concerns or words of wisdom or encouragement, please know that we are open to your feedback. We’d love to hear from you!
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’.
-Carolyn Weimer and Ramsey Wilson, Wardens