Pastoral Letter From Fr. William

Greetings Mission Family,

Every November, we engage in two corporate rhythms—Pledgeship & Vestry Nominations—that lay the foundation for effective church leadership & decision-making in the year to come.

Through Pledgeship, every member and regular attender who calls our church home is invited to share their plans for financial giving to The Mission in 2025.  Our staff and vestry use this information to plan our ministry budget for the coming year.  Your prayerful participation in pledgeship helps our leadership make wise and accurate budgeting decisions.

Through Vestry Nomination, every church member is invited to nominate other qualified members of the church to serve on our Vestry.  The Vestry is our church’s chief lay leadership team.  The Vestry oversees church finances and operational life.  They ensure our church stays in alignment with our vision and mission, and advise me on ministry strategy.  Your prayerful participation in the Vestry Nomination process ensures we consider as many great leaders as possible to serve on our Vestry in the coming year.  Each spring, two of our current Vestry members complete their terms of service and roll off the Vestry.  We are trusting God to raise up two new leaders from amongst our current membership to begin new terms in their place.

These processes are as exciting and important!  This is an amazing season in the life of our church.  Every part of our community is growing.  We need to fund our growing ministries as well as new, wise, lay leaders to help our staff steward and shepherd this growth. 

Over the coming weeks, you will hear more about the Pledgeship & Vestry Nomination Processes.  You will receive a mailed letter from our Vestry members, announcements will be made in service on Sunday, November 3rd, and lots of information including Vestry member qualifications, Pledgeship & Nomination FAQs, a description of the timeline for each process, and more will be shared in the Mission Minute and on other communication platforms.  We’ll celebrate progress we’ve made so far this year as a maturing church plant in the areas of our finances and lay leadership development.  We will also share vision for the opportunities God has placed before us to strengthen and move our church forward in 2025.  Throughout this process, relationships and transparency are priorities for us.  If you have any questions at any time, please come talk to one of our Vestry members or pastors. 

The window for you to submit a pledge or make a nomination opens on Wednesday, November 6th and closes at the end of the day on Wednesday, November 20th.

I cannot wait to see how God will provide in and through us as we engage these rhythms together!  To prepare our hearts, I ask you to join me in praying for God to inspire and align us, to give us faith and courage to step out in giving and nomination of leaders, and to provide abundantly, more than we could ask or imagine to exalt Jesus and reveal His Kingdom more and more through our church.  To aid our prayers, here is a collect for The Mission of the Church from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer:

“O God, our heavenly Father, you manifested your love by sending your only begotten Son into the world, that all might live through Him: Pour out your Spirit on your Church, that we may fulfill His command to preach the Gospel to all people.  Send forth laborers into your harvest; defend them in all dangers and temptations; and hasten the time when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in, and faithful Israel shall be saved; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and give you His peace,

Fr. William