Senior Warden's Report December 2011

by Dennis Belcher

Vestry Liaisons

There are a number of committees, ministries, and efforts at Grace Church.  This includes everything from Grace Church’s involvement with the Salvation Army to Confirmation to Choir activities to Coffee Hour to Lay Eucharistic Ministers.  In fact, the vestry has identified about 70 different activities which occur at Grace Church.  To assist in these efforts, the vestry began identifying these ministries and how best to insure people and efforts are not getting lost among everything else that is occurring.  As a result, the vestry has taken the past few months to develop a Vestry Liaison structure.

The Vestry Liaison model will assign certain vestry members and Shariya to communicate directly with a committee or ministry.  This will allow the vestry to have a better understanding of the activities of Grace Church, and it will also allow the committee or ministry to have clear communication with the Church leadership.  If one of the committees or ministries has a need, then it should be easier for that need to be communicated to the vestry.  It should also allow the direction of the vestry to be communicated to the committees or ministries in return. There are five major categories under this structure: 1) Mission and Outreach, 2) Formation/Education, 3) Worship, 4) Pastoral Care and Hospitality, and 5) Administration.

So, if you haven’t had a lot of communication with vestry members, expect that to change over the next few months.  The increased vestry involvement in committees and ministries is not designed to exert more control, but rather, the vestry member will act a resource for committees and ministries at Grace Church.

The Vestry Liaison assignments are posted on the new Vestry Bulletin Board in the parish hall.  The bulletin board also has photos of the vestry members, and the minutes of vestry meetings will be posted each month.