The brand new, first ever Incarnation Vestry convened for a full-day retreat in October, and has since had two additional evening meetings. We’ve discovered that collectively we possess a broad range of gifting, and a shared love for the Incarnation community, as well as a spirit of deference to one another while still being able to speak our minds.
As in any startup, in early days significant attention must be paid to setting up the administrative structures that we will depend on to function smoothly as an organization. So after spending some time getting to know one another, we got down to business, drawing numbers randomly to determine staggered terms of service: with Nancy and Jeff serving for one year, Clayton and Emily for two, and Eric and Ben for three years. We chose Emily as Secretary, Ben as Treasurer, and Eric and Nancy as the two Wardens. We’ve reviewed the Vestry Handbook, approved the Child Safety Policy, the Outreach Team Charter and the Finance Charter. All of this was made much easier due to the careful prior work of the staff, the Finance committee, the Personnel committee, and the Transition Team. By God’s grace, Incarnation is operating with a financial surplus, so we’ve had the privilege and responsibility to consider how to deploy some of that surplus towards ministry. . Interested in the gritty details? Incarnation members can access the minutes, here.
Beyond this, in our meetings thus far we’ve spent significant time discussing some of the ‘waves’ heading toward the little boat that is Incarnation—most proximally is our move to AUMC. Our real work as Vestry is not so much to make decisions, but to bring all aspects of this change to God in prayer, and provide feedback to Liz. We’ve prayed together that our workdays would be not just productive, but times of joyful fellowship; that our relationships with our neighbors within AUMC would be characterized by partnership in the Gospel; that we would reach out to the surrounding neighborhood with insight and care; that we as a church will grow our roots deeply in Christ.
We invite all of you in the IAC community to join us in praying this way, as we look forward to this new season of celebrating Advent together in our new location. We all consider it a privilege to serve you on the IAC Vestry, and we welcome your thoughts, concerns, encouragement, and wisdom- please feel free to contact us.
Faithfully and joyfully,
Eric Owen and Nancy Sung, IAC Wardens
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