Thanksgiving

What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,
I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

Psalm 116

Happy Thanksgiving, Restoration!

I have so enjoyed this week.  In almost every conversation I have had, we have talked about this past weekend and this past month-  the joy of remembering 10 good years and giving thanks to God.  It was glorious.  (I try not to use that word too often, but this is one of those times that it fits:  having a striking beauty or splendor that evokes feelings of delighted admiration.)  We admired the power of God to birth and build a church in Arlington.  To Him be the glory in His church and in His world!

The reason I love talking about our celebration is that I hear what stood out to you and I think to myself, ‘Oh yeah! I loved that too.’  So here is a way too short list of some of the things that made me glad.  May they inspire you to say ‘Oh yeah!  Thank you God for that…’

• I loved that pizza.  I could have literally stood by the table for an hour and tried everything they brought out.  And putting that wood fired oven in our parking lot???  genius.
• I am still singing that song the choir did on Sunday morning.  (We had a choir!)  ‘Oh Lord we come to say thank you!’
• Watching people drop their envelopes in the bowl.  Watching the envelopes fall out of the bowl because there were so many.
• Preaching to Isaiah, Scott, and Ryan at their ordination-  3 men who have grown up with Restoration and embraced the charge to ‘Preach the Word.’  I am devoted to them and devoted to the calling we will share.
• Watching Steve put the garland of praise on Carolina, Nicole, and Desirée.  Steve’s description of God’s glorious power was beautiful-  he can turn our ashes into garlands of praise.  Let it be, Lord!  Over and over and over, Amen.  Ashes for beauty.  Restoration.
• I was grateful for the 10 years olds in our church (and Isaiah, Jody, and Louise for pulling it together) who talked on camera about 10 year birthdays.  What a creative idea!  And it provided the perfect amount of levity and mirth in our liturgy.  Thank you!
• Singing ‘Be Still’  3 times in one Sunday.  Thank you Endel, for bringing this song to our 10 year celebration.  It helped us remember and it put us in the posture we need to wait for the Good Things that will Grow Here, next.
• Speaking of ‘grow here’, the bulbs!  What a perfect idea from Kathy Kenyon and Laura H.  Thank you to those who stuffed the bags.  Hope you got some.  Hope you plant them.  Hope they prod you to pray for more Good Things when they come up in the spring.
• Saying thank you to John and Susan Yates on Friday night-  ‘We all come from somewhere.  Restoration is grateful that we came from you and TFCA.’  I loved your standing applause.  I loved watching them receive it.  Similarly, grateful for your kind appreciation of Rev. Sinclair-  I regularly say, Thank you God that they (were the uncle who let us crash on their couch) welcomed us in to worship and then entrusted their legacy of 1815 Quincy to us.
• Vocational highlight:  I will hold dear the honor of carrying the bowl of envelopes up to the Lord’s Table and saying thank you, God as we sang the doxology.  I hope to carry that memory to the end.
• I loved having 20 people in the chancel on Friday night-  10 staff and 10 reflectors.  It was such a picture of our team and the way we work together.  We depend on one another.  We serve one another.  We partner together.  I was grateful for the kind words that were said about each of us (Thank you!) and grateful for the beautiful picture that Stephen W. Howard made for each of us.  (Thank you!)  You can see the picture at the welcome desk in our narthex.
• I teared up when Logan asked on Friday night-  Who has led a Small Group at Restoration?  He progressed from Kids’ to APEX to Adult and in the course of that progression, almost every person in the room stood.  (That’s like 300 people).  That is astounding.  We have so many people who have opened their homes, their lives, and given their time to help others study the Bible and experience community.  Thank you!  You have been a part of the good things that grow here.  You have helped hundreds of people grow closer to Jesus.  Thank you.

There is more.

But I need to go run the Turkey Trot with my family.

Feel free to leave a comment and we can remember your thanksgivings as well!

I love Restoration.  I loved our 10th birthday celebration.  Thank you.

-David

Thanksgiving for 10 Good Years

Christmas 2008 RestoKids

A Good Gift of Thanksgiving

In light of all that God has done at Restoration, and in anticipation of what he will do, we’re providing an opportunity to make a special gift to Restoration as we celebrate the fact that Good Things Grow Here. 

Special offerings have always been a tangible part of worship.  They provide an opportunity to rejoice by giving something extra.  This financial gift would be above and beyond what you were planning to give at the end of 2019. 

The vestry has designated this ‘Thanksgiving for 10 Good Years’ gift to go in to our operating fund.  They may use it to fund a curate (i.e. recent seminary graduate) position, to pursue an initiative of our new strategic plan, or to pay down part of our mortgage debt.  We are so grateful for your generosity, so grateful for God’s faithfulness, and so grateful for the chance to give a visible demonstration of our joy and thanksgiving.

You will have 2 options for giving your ‘Thanksgiving for 10 Good Years’ gifts:

1. We will make special envelopes available on Nov. 17 and at the party on Nov. 22.  On Sunday, Nov. 24 we will turn in those envelopes as part of the offering during our worship services.
2. If you prefer to give through CCB, we will make a menu item available called, ‘Thanksgiving for 10 Good Years’ available from Nov. 18-24.

Sunday, November 24 at the 9 and 11.  During the response song after the sermon, we will invite everyone who wants to give a gift in ‘Thanksgiving for 10 Good Years’ to come forward and place their envelope on the Lord’s Table.  In your envelope will either be your actual gift or a card that says what you gave electronically through CCB.  Our intention is to provide a chance for you to worship and give thanks for what the Lord has done.  We want to recognize that by doing something we normally don’t do.

Later in the service, we will take up our ‘normal’ offering for that Sunday.  2 Offerings??  Yep.  We never do that.  But, we have deliberately invited you to give a gift that is above and beyond, so our actual giving will be above and beyond as well.

All of it will make sense on Nov. 24, we just want you to be prepared for what’s happening!

We pray that your generous thanksgiving will launch us into the good things that God will grow here.

-David

Restoration 2025: Update and Request for Plans!

Restoration,

We have been hard at work gathering input about the things you love about our church and the hopes you have for what our church will become.  Thank you!

This is a (long) update about what we know and what we don’t know in July 2019 about our Restoration 2025 Strategic Plan.

Here is an overview of what you can read below:

1. It starts with a preamble that isolates some of our ‘unknowns’.  We want to acknowledge that we need to ‘save space’ for the unknown ways that God might surprise us.
2. It then pivots to what we do ‘know’ because of your excellent feedback given through your survey responses and congregational input sessions.
3. Then it employees a thought exercise about the answers we would like to get to a hypothetical congregational survey in 2025.  Imagine our joy in getting those responses!
4. Finally, it asks for your input:  What plans should we put in place now in order to get the ‘2025 survey responses’ that we desire?

We are ready to read and to hear your tactical and specific ideas for plans that we should implement.  As your ideas materialize, we invite you to share them on this form.

We are SO grateful for the way our congregation has engage this process.  Thank you for praying, for responding, for writing, and for peering forward with hope to what God has for Restoration, next!  We can’t wait to see it!

-David

(As a note of clarity, when I use ‘we’, I am referring primarily to the Restoration leadership team of vestry and staff, but ‘we’ also reflects the over 300 survey responses and hundreds of sticky notes from Restoration members.)

Preamble:  Isolating Unknowns

From the vantage point of July 2019, Restoration leaders are trying to see where God is taking Restoration in 2025.  Your feedback through our congregational input sessions, hundreds of sticky notes, and over 300 survey responses has really helped the leadership of Restoration to hear what you like about and what you are longing for in our church.  Thank you.

There are a few things that affect our visibility to 2025.  They are not bad or good.  They just are.  As followers of Jesus, when we encounter stuff that makes it hard to see, we increase our prayer and we cry out for discernment.  And we trust that God will help us.  He will.

Here are the ‘unknown unknowns’ that we are trying to isolate so that we can focus on the tangible plans we want to make. 

• Unknown #1:  We are a church full of people with ideas and resources.   The creativity and potential within our community is astounding.  We want to pursue and build the ideas we have now, in 2019.  We also recognize that lots of ideas grow here.  So we want to ‘save some space’ for those ideas that might emerge in the next 5 years.  We are not sure what it means to ‘save some space’, yet, but we know it is important.
  
• Unknown #2:  We don’t know what new ideas will come through our doors or grow up in our pews.  Most of our church is in a stage of life that fosters change and transition:  Kids are growing from nursery to APEX.  Adults have changing jobs, increasing responsibility, and growing incomes.  Our area has a lot of transience.   Generally we experience a turnover of about 100 people each year.
  
• Unknown #3:  Restoration has the potential for a lot (more) staff transition between now and 2025.  Specifically the addition of a new Director of Worship Arts will significantly change our most visible experience:  our Sunday Liturgy.  We must be praying every day for this person and the way music and art will change in our church.  (Remember how much staff change we have already experienced in the last 5 years: 14 people were added to our team and 9 people left our team.  That’s a lot of change for a staff team that has hovered around 8 people for those five years.)
  
• Unknown #4:  What is the threat or opportunity that is represented by our mortgage due date (July 2023)?  How do we continue to be a good steward of our building-  managing the capital expense (mortgage), the maintenance expense, and seeking to make it available to everyone that we can?

We are isolating these ‘unknowns’ so that we can focus on the ‘knowns’ for which we are trying to plan.  We invite you to pray about these things.  Perhaps God will grant us more clarity in the months to come. 

What we DO know:

May 2019 Survey

Here is the most salient feedback that we received from our May 2019 Congregational Survey.

[338 total people took the 2019 survey. 

• 82 out of 338 (24% of respondents) used the link that was sent to our core leadership team (for this document, ‘core leadership team’ refers to the 135 vestry, staff, and small group leaders of Restoration).
• 82 out of 135 represents 61% of the people on that core leadership team. 
• 255 out of 338 survey respondents attend Restoration. 
• 83 respondents no longer attend Restoration.  Those who no longer attend were not given the feedback questions about current Restoration programs.]

The 2019 congregational survey said these things: 

1. The primary things that people are looking for when they choose a church:  preaching/teaching (98%), music (85%), ability to form friendships (82%), Small Groups (81%) are things that Restoration is doing well.
2. Restoration does a great job serving kids (92% said that Resto serves this group well) and families (91% said that Resto serves this group well).
3. Restoration is not great at sharing the Gospel with those outside the church nor teaching people how to share the Gospel.  This is a place where we could improve.
4. Restoration members are passionate about growth.  They want to grow closer to Jesus and they want to see an increase in the number of people making commitments to follow Jesus because of the efforts of our church. 

What if we offered another Restoration Survey in 2025?

The leadership of Restoration is working to articulate 2 goals that came out from our 2019 survey feedback:

1. We want to use the resources of Restoration to seek after strategic groups of people that are under-served by Christ-filled communities. We want to build/create things together that will compel people who are outside the church to come in to friendship with Jesus and friendship with people at Restoration.
2. We want people who attend Restoration to grow closer to God by trusting Jesus in everything and being filled with the Holy Spirit.  We think these people will have a compelling story of God’s power to restore broken people by grace which they can share with those in their sphere of influence who are not in a church.

If those goals were accomplished in the next 5 years, how might people respond to a 2025 congregational survey?  Here are some examples:

1. In response to the question, did you decide to follow Jesus in the last 5 years, we would like over 100 people to say ‘yes’. This would be one of the products of Restoration growing disciples who tell a compelling story about life in God’s Kingdom and seeking groups of people around us with winsome invitations to consider Jesus and gracious acts of service. 
   
2. In response to a question about being an active member of a small group, we would like 100% of people to have been in a small group in the previous year (1 out of 3 trimesters). We would like the diversity (kind, length, focus) of small groups to increase.  We believe that small group involvement is still the primary metric for measuring people choosing opportunities to help them grow.
   
3. We would like an increased correlation between age (mid 20s to mid 30s) or location (The Orange Line Corridor) and involvement in:  a Restoration service, a Restoration small group, a Restoration mentoring relationship.  We think this group of people is strategic for Restoration because of the people who attend Restoration and the location of our building (very close to Metro).  The service or small group might be something new that we created or it could be a concerted effort to integrate people in that age and location into current services and small groups of diverse demography.
   
4. In response to the question, “in the last year, how many times have you served at RILA or one of our local outreach partners?”  We would like an increase in involvement by people who regularly attend Restoration.  We think that our partnership with RILA is critical.  We want to more holistically serve RILA clients.  We want everyone at Restoration to have an opportunity to serve RILA clients.
   
5. In response to the question, ‘Do you give a 5-10% portion of your annual income to the work that God is doing through Restoration?’  We would like 100% of people to say ‘yes’.  In response to the question, ‘Has this percentage increased in the last five years?’  We would like 100% of people to say yes.  We think generosity and trusting Jesus with our money is a critical discipleship issue for people in our congregation.
   
6. In response to the question, ‘Have you told a friend or neighbor about your relationship with God in the past 6 months?’  We would like 100% of people to say ‘yes’.  As a follow-up, ‘Have you invited that person to follow Jesus?’  We would like 100% of people to say ‘yes’.  Restoration is currently good at engaging the nuance of spirituality in Arlington County.  We need to grow in boldness and willingness to ‘close the deal’ with our friends.
   

Plans that might lead to those survey results

If these potential survey results get us excited, what kinds of things would Restoration need to do to bring them about? 

The leadership of Restoration is very engaged in ‘plan brainstorming’ right now.  If you read these goals and potential survey responses and think of plans that might help us achieve them, we would love to know.  As your ideas materialize, we invite you to share them on this form.     

Here are some notes to help you articulate your ‘plan’ idea:

1. Please be very specific and tactical in your plan.    
2. If you can estimate cost in terms of dollars in the budget or hours per week needed from staff/volunteers, that would be helpful. 
3. If your plan is to hire someone, be as specific as you can about characteristics this person would need to have. 
4. If your plan is to create a structure or a program, tell us how it will work.  Would we need to eliminate or change a current plan to implement your plan?

To help you think of plans that might lead to those survey results, here are 4 questions to get you started.  We invite you to share them on this form.

How do we maintain/sustain and improve what we do well today.  What would help us decouple the things we do well from the individuals who do them?  

Potential things to focus on include:  Gospel teaching & worship, Small groups, Kids small groups, Global outreach

1. In five years, what would success look like?  E.g., Restoration has amazing kids small groups, and a strong set of volunteers and clear ‘succession planning’ to backfill key staff.
2. What are specific ideas or suggestions we should consider to achieve success?  E.g., Have each staff member/volunteer leader build a ‘handbook’ for their core responsibilities (calendar, cheat-sheet of names/numbers, policies/procedures, etc.)
   

How do we grow disciples within our church?  What plans will catalyze people who attend Restoration growing closer to God by trusting Jesus in everything and being filled with the Holy Spirit?

1. What would success look like?  E.g., Restoration is a church full of first-time visitors and new Christians who came because they were invited.
2. What specific ideas or suggestions should we consider?
   E.g., community/teaching events (like the technology for families event) every month
   E.g., specific classes or small groups talking about apologetics and/or how to share the gospel

How do we serve our local community better?  How do we grow our partnership with RILA?  Are there new local partners whom we should engage?

E.g., Restoration is known in the community for our service to our neighbors, and there are members of our church who got to know us through this service.
E.g., We have increased our support to RILA by doing…

1. What would success look like?
2. What specific ideas or suggestions should we consider?

How do we use the resources of Restoration to seek after strategic groups of people that are under-served by Christ-filled communities?  Specifically how do we seek and invite young adults and people who live along the Orange Line Corridor?

E.g., Restoration has a vibrant young adult ministry or a Fellows Program or a second van to pick people up at the Metro on Sundays or…

1. What would success look like?
2. What specific ideas or suggestions should we consider?

As your ideas materialize, we invite you to share them on this form.

We are excited to share a draft of our 2025 Strategic Plan at our Congregational Vision Night on September 10 at 7pm in our sanctuary.  Until then, please pray and share your ideas!

-David

Here is the form for your ideas.

Restoration 2025: Congregational Input #1

You are invited.

Restoration, I invite you bring the enthusiasm, energy, and ideas you’ve always shared with me to the first congregational input session on March 17^th.  We will not have childcare.  But we will have snacks!

There are 2 more congregational input sessions on March 31 @1 (at Restoration with childcare) and April 10 @7:30 (at the Weimer Home).  If you can attend all 3 input sessions, GREAT!  I imagine that they will build on each other and you will enjoy the sense of momentum.  If you can only attend 1 or 2, GREAT!  We want to hear what you have to say and you will have an opportunity at each session.

As things occur to you, this form is a place you can share more ideas, concerns, and things you hear in prayer.

To make the best use of our sessions together, I want to summarize some of the feedback we have already received, share the questions with which our vestry and church leaders are wrestling, and give you an idea of where we would like to focus our time together in the coming weeks.  

What we have heard so far.

On September 6, 2018, we hosted our first vision night (this is the link to the audio summary) with over 100 of you participating.  We had stations setup around the building and welcomed the chance to hear your thoughts about our strengths and weaknesses across a variety of topics including evangelism, discipleship, how to celebrate our 10^th anniversary, the church mortgage, church planting, kids and youth, etc..  It was a great session and we received a ton of valuable input.

Out of Vision Night, we prioritized 6 important areas for the vestry and staff to consider for Restoration2025:

1. Church Planting–  We believe there are communities that would benefit from the kind of church that Restoration could plant.  Is this the time to keep pursuing those opportunities?  What is the place?  Who is the person?
   
2. Serving and partnering with the Spanish speaking population in Arlington.  We love how God provided an opportunity like RILA-  we identified a need (immigration legal aid) that Restoration people could meet with great effectiveness.  Are there other opportunities to serve and partner with our Spanish speaking neighbors? 

1. People aged 14-26 who live around us.  We want to build on the vibrant growth in Kids’ Small Groups and APEX.  We want to build up and equip those just starting out in their careers. What programs would disciple them?  What needs can we meet?  How can we offer vibrant community for them as well?  Programmatically, we have seen that a Fellows Program (like TFCA) or a mentorship program (like the CS Lewis Institute) has been effective.  Should Restoration pursue a similar programmatic initiative? 

1. Disciples are connected, available, moving, healthy, and thankful.  They are living God’s Story and they know their place in it.  How do we help people grow deeper and closer to Jesus?  Our small group system has been very effective for a number of years.  Anything we need to add, edit, or delete in relation to this core structure of Restoration?
   
2. We want to be a church where people choose to follow Jesus–  where they move from curious to convinced.  We want to invite the tens of thousands of people around us to follow Jesus.  How do we do that more effectively?  What could we create to foster relationships that move people closer to Jesus?
   
3. 2025 feels far away and it will be here sooner than we think.  What should we be doing now to be ready for what comes after 2025?  Specifically, our mortgage will be due in 2023.  The vestry has commissioned a capital campaign team.  Should we orient ourselves to be in a place to pay it off by 2023?  What other areas should we be working on now so that we are ready for 2025 and beyond?  A rector succession plan?  A pipeline of young(er) staff who are coming up to fill staff gaps that will emerge in the next 7 years?  

The vestry and staff have been praying about and discussing these questions.

We invite your input on Sunday, March 17.

1. In our Restoration community, who do we serve well?  Who could we serve better?
   
2. What are programs or events that we do really well?
   What are the programmatic gaps that require concentrated effort to develop?
   What are things that we are currently doing that we should consider not doing in the future (for the sake of something else)?
   
3. Which communities in and around Arlington do we want to pursue?  (could be categories of geography, ethnicity, vocation, avocation, or other demographic descriptors)
   
4. What does growth look like in the next 5 years?  (more attendees, more churches, more sites, more fruit, more disciples, etc)

On Sunday, show up ready to dive right in with ideas and prayers.

Our time will feel tight.  We want to use every moment of our 70 minutes together.  That means you need to arrive ready to listen, pray, and share.  (Little known fact:  the highest number of goals in soccer are scored in the last 2 minutes of each half.  After 45 minutes, the play takes on a sense of urgency and things happen.)  We invite you to come in with a sense of urgency and quickly share what is on your mind.  Don’t take 45 minutes to get warmed up.  We want to hear from every person who has something to say.

And if you can’t come this Sunday, we invite you to provide input on this form. and to join us on March 31 and April 7.