The Vestry met last night for its regular meeting.

For the past couple of months the Vestry has been working on its Strategic Ministry Plan. In May it defined the Vestry mission statement:

The role of the Vestry is to focus the vision of our parish through strategic leadership and oversight as we follow Jesus toward a more intimate, life-transforming relationship with God and one another.

Last night the Vestry took the next step in completing its ministry plan. It defined Outcomes it hopes to achieve in pursuit of its mission. An outcome is simply a result of action taken. An outcome changes the world in some way. It is a fruit of ministry.

I often cook at my house on Friday nights. The mission is to feed my family. The outcome (hopefully!) is two grateful children and a contented wife.

The mission of the Vestry is: To focus the vision of our parish. This mission involves: Providing strategic leadership and oversight. It also identifies a hope rooted in the Gospel: Following Jesus toward a more intimate, life-transforming relationship with God and one another.

The challenge the Vestry wrestled with last night was to identify Outcomes that would signal completion of its mission. How would the world of St. David’s Church change if the Vestry achieved its mission?

The Vestry identified four Outcomes:

The Vestry and the Parish will have shared strategic understanding.

This means that the parish will be informed. There will be transparency in the parish as an institution. Parishioners will know what is going on, why decisions are being made, and where we are going.

The Vestry will have methods of resourcing ever-increasing congregational capacity for ministry.

This means the Vestry will develop practical means for supporting parish ministries and raising-up able leaders. This involves identifying and deploying necessary parish resources to assure that a healthy, growing covenant community can continue to focus on serving the needs of others, without burning-out our leadership.

The Vestry will produce an annual metric-based summary of parish performance that drives strategic decision making.

This means the Vestry will develop ways of measuring ministry. It cannot provide strategic leadership, if it cannot see what is happening in the parish. Where is there strength? Where is there weakness. Having to producing a metric-based summary of parish performance will require the Vestry to remain diligent in its responsibility to stay in touch with the health of the parish.

The Vestry will nurture a strong, empowered mutually supportive leadership ethic.

This means the Vestry is committed to support one another in the leadership responsibility of each. A vibrant, healthy church that really invests in the real needs of real people requires leadership that is both willing to take risks and willing to fail. Safe leadership is poor leadership. Good leadership is always criticized by someone. This outcome assures the Vestry embraces the emotionally taxing responsibility of leadership. It assures the Vestry actually leads.

The Vestry did hard work last night. We have much to celebrate in the quality of the commitment of our Vestry.