More than 30 gathered in the Parish Hall of St. Agnes’, North Vancouver on March 8th, 2014, for the second of three scheduled Stewardship & Community Seminars for 2014, presented by the Stewardship and Gift Development Committee of the Diocese. The committee is chaired by Tony Sauder of St. Catherine’s, Port Coquitlam and the staff support person is Glen Mitchell, Stewardship and Gift Planning Director. The Reverend Stephen Muir, Incumbent of St. Agnes’ is also a member of the committee and has had significant input in the programming of the 2014 Stewardship Seminars.
The March 8th morning program, 10am-1pm focused on four parishes (St. Mary’s, Kerrisdale, St. Agnes, North Vancouver, St Chad’s, Arbutus Basin and Church of the Epiphany, Surrey) sharing Case Studies of specific resource development initiatives for ministry that they had recently undertaken and/or concluded. A feature of the event was a presentation by Doug and Carol Williams of the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, Surrey, sharing the exciting story of that faith community’s 2013 capital campaign. The purpose of the campaign was to significantly source the funding to continue their ambitious plan to build a new church to replace their current 1970 structure. They shared information about how they had branded the campaign with the title, “The Time is Now” and had used a professionally produced promo film, multi-panel brochure and comprehensive home visiting in order to give the campaign the best possible opportunity to succeed. And succeed it did. In a six week campaign that took place in April/May of 2013 they achieved their goal of $500,000 in cash and pledges from the Epiphany membership to be collected over a six year period. In that period they raised $523,000 in cash and pledges from an impressive 92% of the Epiphany members. These funds will be pooled with other revenue sources including the proceeds from the sale of some their property and a diocesan grant and loan to build a new church over the next few years.
The seminar included other success stories and also reports of challenges as well as some strategies offered to succeed in revenue sourcing for parishes consisting of helpful guidance with a firm theological underpinning. After each case was presented groups of 10+ were given some time to discuss what they had heard and report back their reflections and observations to the plenary.The third and final event in the Stewardship & Community Seminars for 2014 program is Narrating Budget and Stories and will take place at St. Alban, Burnaby Saturday, May 3rd. 9:30am registration, coffee and snacks and the program from 10am – 1pm.
All material from the March 8th workshop is available by visiting Glen Mitchell’s Stewardship and Gift Planning website for the Diocese of New Westminster, www.thegoodsteward.ca. You may also register for the May 3rd seminar through that website. For more information please contact Glen, 604.684.6306 ext 218
Images, top and homepage, Carol Williams holds up the “The Time is Now” pledge card while husband and co-chair of the Church of the Epiphany capital campaign, Doug Williams looks on. Below, one of three small groups discussing a Case Study in Stewardship at St. Agnes, North Vancouver. Photos – Randy Murray