Wardens’ Report: May 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 May 28th vestry meeting, we enjoyed dinner together and prayer before starting the meeting. This month, Danny Lee led us through prayer which included a time of intercession and prayer for Louise Brooks, our Director of Kids’ Small Groups. We prayed that above all every child who enters Restoration would know how precious they are and how deeply loved they are loved by the amazing God who created them. We prayed over our nursery and the staff that care for our youngest children and, for our kids’ small groups, that we would be wise as we disciple our kids well. We gave thanks for our kids’ small groups leaders and how generously they serve each year. We prayed for new leaders to come this summer and fall (if you are interested in joining our kids’ ministry by leading a small group, please contact Louise). We prayed for peace, joy and clarity for Louise and her family as they pursue all that God has for them. Additionally, we prayed for those who are sick in our community, for the hiring of two new positions, and for the Strategic Plan (Restoration 2025). As always, we invite you to join us in praying over the staff, vestry and all of God’s work on Quincy Street.

In our meeting, we received an encouraging update from Incarnation Anglican Church and voted to approve their Articles of Incorporation. This is a big and exciting step for Incarnation as it is one of six requirements for moving from Mission to Congregation status in DOMA.

Brad Jones, our treasurer, led us through a financial report that showed April giving was better than originally expected and the budget shortfall this year seems to be holding steady at approximately 12% below budget. Our finance team has already begun budget preparations for fiscal year 2020 (Restoration’s fiscal year runs September to August) and is currently looking to hold our budget steady or make approximately 5% in cuts to the FY19 budget.

Johanna Montague, one of our wardens and our liaison with our personnel team, gave a brief update on the hiring process for the position of Director of Worship Arts and for the position of Communications Coordinator. Both positions remain open to applicants until May 31 and we invite any interested parties to apply. You can find more information for yourself (or someone you may think is interested) here.

We spent the remainder and majority of our evening preparing for the congregational meeting on May 29th about the termination of Matt Hoppe’s employment. If you were unable to attend the meeting and/or have questions about its content, please contact a member of our vestry.

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