Vestry meets on the third Tuesday of every month.
This month on our agenda was our bi-monthly look at the finances, the Discipleship House, Youth Group funding and the four P's.

We started the night looking at a very challenging passage of Jesus, with some quite profound insights for us. The passage was Matthew 11:20-24. It challenged us to think about our own sharing of the gospel and how we are good stewards and representatives of the gospel to our neighbours in small ways. It was a great conversation that lead into a conversation around the Leading Your Church into Growth Session on the 4 P's. The four P's are four things that are integral to being a growing church: Prayer, Presence, Proclamation and Persuasion.
We looked at each of these in some depth then had to rate how we thought 12 eggs we distributed amongst these activities in our Parish. We were reasonably well split in our distribution with maybe some weakness in proclamation and persuasion. 

To help you understand these here is a definition of each of these 4 P's:

• Prayer: Prayer activities and a culture of prayer amongst the Parish
• Presence: How people we know we exist and our physical existence on the Penisnula.
• Proclamation: What events and activities help people know the gospel message.
• Persuasion: How are we taking people on a journey of faith to deepen their understanding.

Next up on our Agenda was a look at the Finances of the Parish. These are outlined in the image here: 

Vestry meets on the third Tuesday of every month.
This month on our agenda was a look at the Vestry Retreat Day decision, the Discipleship House, Strathmore Community Church Finance and Ladies Guild Grants.

We started with a particularly striking biblical passage from Matthew 5:43-48. It was a day when war was particularly on the news. Jesus calls us to a higher cause though - to love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you. It was just the reading for the day, but a pertinent one!

We then looked at our Leading Your Church Into Growth module. We are working through them all as a Vestry, taking stock of anything we think is something we can look at in our Parish. This month, we were thinking about Maintenance or Mission and how these two are often in different proportions. How are we balancing Maintenance and Mission? Are we lightweight enough as a Parish to be able to do mission? Where is mission happening? We were struck by how we had many opportunities, but we were sad too that we had lost some of our previous missions, like the Miramar Central School lunch supply. 

Next up, we were looking at the Vestry Retreat Day. Vestry is looking to produce something for the Parish about our next focus areas as a parish. We hope this will happen soon, but the draft that came to Vestry needed some work, so watch this space.

We then looked at a request from a parishioner around the Discipleship House. We were asked to name the Discipleship House to reflect the generous nature of the donation to build it. We decided not to name it, but would recognise the donation by a message inside the house and a story on the website, recognising how the house was made possible. It was envisioned that this would remind occupants and that they would be thankful.

We received a recommendation from the Ladies Guild on where the money they raise through the Shop knitting should go, and we agreed to give:
- $500 to Wellington Free Ambulance
- $500 to LifeFlight Trust

We lastly considered some recommendations around supporting the mission with the Strathmore Community Church and the combined Youth Group. There was no decision on whether there would be contributions to these places. We are waiting to view the financials next Vestry to give us more certainty. We were reminded that a stewardship campaign is necessary for the Parish.

Feel free to discuss any of this with your Vestry members:
Co-Vicars, Matthew Hague, Vickie Humphries, Janet Williams, David Hamilton, David Smith, Trudy Shannon, Alan Wilson or Ben Pringle.

Vestry meets on the third Tuesday of every month.
This month on our agenda was an update about finances, discussing how we continue to improve Shop 89 and talking about the Discipleship House.

Our finance report showed that we have spent more money than was budgetted for so far this year. The main reason for that was that our Annual Insurance bill has come in from the Diocese, so this expense is budgetted for across the year and therefore will even out as the year progresses. The other standout was that giving was down by $5,000.

Shop 89 has been reviewed by Vestry, in order that we can think about the future. There were a whole lot of recommendations from the report and we were discussing further how we can implement some of them. Rev. Andy will be further working with the Shop 89 staff and volunteers to action some of them. Watch this space! The fixed term contract is coming to an end at the end of May, Vestry are looking to appoint a permanent position.

The Discipleship House continues to be empty as we have not managed to secure some tenants for this ministry as of yet. We are continuing to source some tenants but in the meantime are going to explore short term options like Air B'n'B. 

Vestry also met on Sunday 25th May in the afternoon to discuss the future of the church and where we focus our energy, time and money. This was a productive afternoon and we are refining our thoughts and will likely present them to the church soon.

Feel free to discuss any of this with your Vestry members:
Co-Vicars, Matthew Hague, Vickie Humphries, Janet Williams, David Hamilton, David Smith, Trudy Shannon, Alan Wilson or Ben Pringle.