Wardens’ Report: April 2016

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.

Our prayers at the rail this month were focused on the work and ministry of Matt Hoppe.  He has a very visible role in our midst as music pastor, but there is so much more that he does for our community that is unseen and faithfully executed.  We thanked God for his thoughtful use of music and art to connect us to God, to each other and to the needs of the world.  And we prayed for continued vision as he raises up leaders and helps nurture our experience of faith through the arts.

Our Finance Report was full of encouraging news regarding attendance and budget performance.  Our Q1 average Sunday attendance was 11% higher than Q1 of 2015 and on Easter Sunday we hosted 757 people who celebrated the good news of the resurrection with us on Quincy Street!  In terms of budget performance, our YTD offerings were 97% of budget and seven months into the year, our spending is essentially on target at 101% of budget.  Thank you to all of you who faithfully invest your time, your treasure and your talent in our community.

Other topics on our agenda were designed to help pave the way for our budget deliberations planned for June and July. (As a reminder, our new fiscal year begins September 1).  We received a report from the Outreach Steering Team, discussed possible options for funding church planting initiatives, discussed a possible Thematic Goal (“most important thing”) for FY 2017, and reviewed the budget timeline.

As we promised in our January Wardens’ Report, we wanted to make you aware of some upcoming happenings related to a few of the postulants (candidates for the priesthood) from our community:

• On Sunday, May 15, Jesse Blaine will preach at both morning services. Jesse was ordained to the transitional diaconate at Restoration last fall.  We look forward to having Jesse and Sarah and the girls in our midst over the next few weeks before they head back to Phnom Penh where he will be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop John on May 29.
• Also on Sunday, May 15, at the 5 PM service, Morgan Reed will be ordained to the transitional diaconate by Bishop John. Please join us if you are able to celebrate this milestone in Morgan’s life and ministry.

What a wonderful way to celebrate Pentecost Sunday!  We hope you will join us for as much of the day as possible as we thank God for raising these leaders in our midst.

Please pray for us over these next few months as we look to the future and discern the next steps in the execution of our strategic plan.

If you have questions, concerns, words of wisdom or encouragement, please know that we are open to your feedback on all aspects of our life together.  Also, please keep an eye out for an announcement of our next parish meeting which will take place in early June in the Fellowship Hall.  We’ll provide more detail on our progress towards our strategic plan and happily respond to any questions you may have.

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’

-Hannah Royal and Carolyn Weimer, Wardens