Steve Mulhern
Curtis Robbins
On behalf of the vestry, we want to reiterate the honor and privilege it is to serve the members of Christ Church. We look back on the last year and we are grateful for one another and for the support each of you all have provided to us.
The challenges in 2024 have not been obstacles to overcome, (like a pandemic!) but rather challenges of discernment on how to choose between two or sometimes three different, but equally good, opportunities or strategies. Over the last year, we have prayed, listened, debated and worked toward a shared mission with the hope to strengthen Christ Church for today and for the next generation that follows. We hope this report captures the highlights of last year and the steps we have taken to grow in faith and obedience to what we hear the Lord calling us to do.
The vestry’s efforts in 2024 remained focused on three core initiatives:
Living more fully into the Vision and Strategic Plan for Christ Church
Strengthening the Vision for the future of Christ Church through policy
Engaging vestry members’ capacity as prayerful, discerning spiritual leaders for Christ Church
LIVING INTO STRATEGIC VISION AND PLAN
In addition to reviewing various iterations of the strategic plan (prepared by Fr. Terry, Fr. John, and Fr. Todd), the vestry read, as a group, a book on worship entitled, You Are What You Love by James Smith. The premise of the book is that we are all designed, at our core, to worship, AND all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, worship something AND what we worship is, usually, what we love most. His point further emphasizes that when we step back with this lens on our life, we can see that what we love is what shapes us.
The book has reinforced our vision of Christ Church and helped bring into focus the need to embrace the fundamental gift we have been given as a community—our WORSHIP of God together.
The point is, our core gift to the world is our Sunday worship of God together. We do not need to change what we do on Sunday, rather we need to enhance it and expand it. As such, the vestry has leaned further in to support the offering of new “on-ramps” for worship together. Based on focus groups led by Fr. John and Fr. Todd last summer, which included families of children and youth, we discerned from this process that the development of an early evening service for families to build community and a midweek prayer service should be implemented at the beginning of 2025. Further plans are currently underway for an additional family-friendly Sunday morning service which will be launched in June. The intention of these “on-ramps” is to provide new, welcoming opportunities where new people can connect with Christ Church.
In addition, the vestry has maintained interest and focus on The Narthex Project (see Fr. Joseph’s report on page 11). Earlier in the year, members of the vestry joined strategic thinking sessions for The Narthex Project, facilitated by the Unstuck Group. As The Narthex Project evolves, the vestry has quarterly check-ins with Fr. Joseph, monitoring alignment and identifying opportunities within the strategic vision and plan. Many of the insights that the Narthex Project is uncovering will help pave the way on how Christ Church is viewed and accessed by our culture today, namely, via the internet. We have learned that a newcomer will often “check out” Christ Church online BEFORE they ever come in the front door or experience a worship service. The “on-ramping” starts BEFORE a worship service begins.
Strengthening the Vision for the Years Ahead
One of the more difficult tasks of any governing board is to sift through how existing and future policies will help frame and shape the vision in the years to come. Efforts were made to collect and organize all existing policies, determine where there are gaps, and strengthen or create new policies as necessary.
During 2024, the vestry approved three new policies:
Clergy Sabbatical and Health & Wellness Policy
Cell Phone Reimbursement for Staff
Staff development Policy
Looking ahead to 2025, the vestry has begun to discuss the need for new policies and to intentionally expand our listening. Along those lines, the vestry hopes to meet quarterly with the leadership teams of the Outreach Commission, Treasureland, the Finance Committee and the Narthex Project.
Prayer and Discernment for Christ Church
The vestry continued to review and use a book by Ruth Haley Barton on discernment. The vestry started using this book to explore how to discern the will of God as a group. Brian Gray suggested the book in 2019, and the vestry has utilized it ever since.
As a vestry, we meet twice a month, and at the beginning of each meeting, we either meet as a group to worship and pray together or we meet in groups of three or four to pray together. The goal is simple: we cannot lead together if we do not trust one another, and as we all know, trust takes time.
This year was particularly challenging as we sought to discern if God was leading Christ Church to appropriate financial resources from reserves into the operating budget so that we can grow our offerings of worship and to add resources to support and attract young families. The decision-making process was time-consuming, but we were of one mind and one heart in our final deliberations. We attribute the unity of the vestry to God’s grace, but also to our efforts to grow closer to one another.
It is not a perfect process, and we admittedly are imperfect people, but, throughout 2024, we have, individually and collectively, conscientiously and judiciously sought to be obedient to God’s calling for Christ Church.
Thank you for your trust in us.
Peace,
Curtis and Steve