Well, the Vestry has challenged parishioners to raise $400,000 to pay off one of parish mortgages and to provide a modest ($40,000) supplement to the 2009 budget. This assumes, of course, that parish revenue stays stable from 2008 to 2009.

The Vestry has also called parishioners to staff core parish programs in lieu of staff support. In the Vestry plan, parishioners will:

• Manage Newcomer incorporation,
• Parishioner ministry deployment,
• Parish communications, and
• Parish Fellowship.

The Vestry plan reflects parishioner feedback. In a number of workshops and in a parish convocation participants expressed a desire to operate on a volunteer basis rather than provide staff to support parishioners in ministry. The plan could work, if parishioners step up.

The center of gravity for leadership in this process has shifted over the course of the past five or six months. It began when I asked the Vestry to address the long-term financial instability of the parish at the 2008 Annual Meeting in January.

The center of leadership at that time was with the Rector. It was my responsibility to call the Vestry to take responsibility for material limitations in our capacity for ministry. With the support of our volunteer staff I led a Vestry retreat that allowed the Vestry to grapple with the problem. Many said this was the first time in their relationship with the parish – some going back over ten years -- that they understood how their finances worked.

Once they understood the challenge before them, I stepped back. This is not a problem a Rector, any Rector can solve. All I have the power to do is to help the people who do have the power, to decide whether or not they want to fix it.

After the Vestry retreat leadership shifted from the Rector to the Vestry.

Interesting: The nature of this particular challenge is such that the Vestry lacks the power to solve it. All the Vestry has the power to do is to help the people who do have the power to understand the problem. They have to decide whether or not they want to fix it.

The Vestry worked very hard, very hard, to help the parish understand the problem. The Vestry also worked hard to listen to what parishioners said they were willing to do. This led, finally after five long months of work, to The Vestry Resolution: To Build a Hopeful Future.

Now that the Resolution has been published, leadership has shifted once again. This time it has moved from the Vestry to our parishioners. The problem is in the hands of the only people who have the power to fix it.

I am hopeful. The Vestry sent its letter on Thursday of last week. Already the parish office has received financial pledges from 20 families totaling $132,484.

Even more importantly, parishioners have begun to respond to the call to ministry. Ministry plans are in process and teams of forming.

Our future forever remains hopeful as we stand together and continue "to learn love one another, even as we learn to be loved by Jesus."