Letter from Amy: April 22, 2026

We gave TJ LOTS of baptism experience this winter!

Dear Incarnation,

I was sad to reschedule our parish meeting on Sunday, although it wouldn’t be Incarnation if we weren’t flexing around something unexpected! I wanted to share one of the updates from that meeting in this week’s letter. 

You might recall that at our parish meeting a year ago, we announced that TJ Ono would be serving at Incarnation as a deacon. Every deacon needs a church in which to serve, and our bishop had suggested that Incarnation would be a good fit for TJ. And he was right! TJ has been serving and learning here for the past year — first as a deacon, and now as a priest — while also continuing working a full-time job outside the church.

Starting next month, TJ will officially join our staff team as a Church Planter in Residence. He will work alongside me to help preach, shepherd, and support Incarnation in every imaginable way, while also learning pastoral ministry and church leadership. He’ll be taking the time to get to know you and hear your stories so that he can minister among us with sensitivity and care. And he’ll be helping our staff team behind the scenes. That’s the “residence” part of his job title.

TJ will also devote some of his time to laying the groundwork for a new church plant in Washington, DC, where he lives. That’s the “church planter” part of his job title.

I imagine this news raises all sorts of questions, so I’ve attempted to answer them below. 

Why are we hiring a Church Planter in Residence? (Why not, say, a new Associate Rector?)

At our parish meeting last November, when we presented our FY26 budget, we explained that we had budgeted a small amount of money to hire a part-time clergy person starting this spring. We also explained that this budgeted position was a placeholder, because we weren’t sure what our clergy needs would be after launching Holy Comforter and saying goodbye to our beloved Associate Rector, Katie.

Well, spring has come, and to be honest, we are still discerning what our clergy needs will be in the longer-term. But I do know that I need help with Sunday worship, pastoral care, and the everyday work of formation and discipleship in our church. There is always more work to be done in a small church! But I’m also not ready to make a permanent hire until I have a better sense of our church’s “new normal” — where we're headed, what we need, and what we can afford.

At the same time, TJ feels called to plant a church in DC in the future (more on that below), and has discerned that it’s time to take steps in that direction. His hire will necessarily be temporary until he launches his church. This timing works out perfectly for both of us.

TJ already knows and loves our church. He can immediately jump in and be helpful in our areas of greatest need, giving Incarnation more time to discern our longer-term trajectory. And we can provide him a stable place to continue learning what it means to be a priest and pastor a flock, which will help him prepare to plant a church of his own.

Furthermore, a Residency role like this means we can receive diocesan funding to support TJ’s salary, making our budget stretch farther. Our diocese (regional oversight body) gives grants to support residencies because it wants to invest in the formation of its church planters, for the health and flourishing of the churches they will one day lead. We have applied for and received a grant in support of TJ’s salary.

In summary: hiring TJ as a Church Planter in Residence will allow us, at very little cost, to gain a clergy person who can help us bridge the gap between the support we need right now, and the yet-to-be-discerned support we might need over the longer term. TJ is also a wonderful pastor who is highly competent and already works well with our team. It’s a win-win in the alignment of our needs, timing, and provision!

Didn’t we just plant a church? Do we really have capacity (time, money, people) for another one?

We just planted Holy Comforter in January. And what happened here with Holy Comforter was very unusual — homegrown, organic, and completely unexpected, especially in a church of our size. It’s pretty amazing that it happened at all, and the story of our small church being able to plant has been an encouragement to many other small churches. But we also know we don’t have the resources or energy to do it again right now.

However, what TJ will be doing is different. TJ had sensed a call to plant a church in DC since before he ever came to Incarnation. Our diocese has put him through an assessment process and affirmed this call.

The diocese, not Incarnation, will provide the initial funding and oversight for TJ’s plant. Our staff, vestry, and congregation will be cheering him on, praying for him, offering guidance, and helping him learn what it means to pastor a church — but we will not be responsible for his church’s governance, back office, and finances like we are for Holy Comforter.

This is a different model from the mother-daughter relationship we have with our daughter church, Holy Comforter, or our mother church, Restoration. But it’s actually the model that most church plants in the diocese now follow, because it taps into the strengths of the diocese to make planting accessible to everyone, not just to large, well-resourced churches. 

The model was actually pioneered by our own Morgan Reed, one of the original planters of Incarnation along with me and Liz Gray. Morgan left Incarnation to plant a new church in late 2019, when we were barely over a year old and our average attendance was in the 50s. There was no way we could take on a daughter church (babies having babies!), so Morgan’s finances and oversight fell under our diocese. And by the way, his church plant — Corpus Christi, launched during the pandemic — is thriving!

Will Incarnation people join this church plant?

This is another difference between Holy Comforter and TJ’s church plant. Holy Comforter sprang up from within our walls, and we sent out a large group of Incarnation people to form its core team. (Remember the visceral experience of watching a quarter of our church follow the cross down the aisle at the commissioning service in January?) 

TJ will be growing his church largely from outside our walls — through new connections he’ll be building in his neighborhood in DC.

However, we have many people who live in DC, or whose faith has grown through TJ’s pastoral ministry. And we want everyone to be settled in a church home where they can flourish in their faith and invite their neighbors. Some Incarnation people may choose to join TJ’s church plant when the time comes, and we will support and pray for those who do!

How long will TJ be at Incarnation before he leaves to plant?

TJ’s current hope is to plant sometime in mid- to late-2027. This means we expect to have him on our staff team for about 12 to 18 months before he transitions to leading his church plant full-time. 

However, please hold this timeline and all other details loosely, as TJ’s plans are still very tentative!

Why church planting at all? Why don’t we just focus on growing Incarnation or Holy Comforter?

Incarnation is supportive of TJ's call to church plant for many reasons: we love TJ and care about how God is leading him; we care about the flourishing of our diocese, its churches, and our shared mission; and more generally, we truly believe in the work of church planting. Why?

There are many, many people in the DMV who are lonely and longing for community, who have deep questions about their lives, who long for an encounter with the divine. Multiple studies have shown that church plants are far more effective at reaching people outside the church than established churches. It’s easier for someone without a faith background to cross a threshold to into something small, personal, and unintimidating than to walk through the doors of well-established church.

And church plants are also incredibly effective at forming disciples; they foster bonds of belonging, encourage bold steps of faith, and call upon people to practice generosity and exercise their gifts like almost nothing else. We know this is true because we've seen it happen here!

All churches — healthy established churches; scrappy young plants; aging congregations of lifelong-faithful saints — have a meaningful role to play in the kingdom of God. We are not competitors for scarce resources of people or money or territory. We are brothers and sisters and co-laborers, and we have all the riches of heaven at our disposal. God always provides for the work to which he calls each one of us, as we’ve seen again and again in the life of Incarnation. 

I am so excited for TJ and this new work he will embark on. And I am delighted that, by God’s kindness, a small church like ours will once again have a front-row seat to the surprising, generous work of God as he establishes a new community.

More questions? Thoughts? Comments? Please reach out! TJ's been taking a well-deserved vacation, but we'll see him again on his first Sunday back, May 3.

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I haven't written a letter or preached in a few weeks (a merciful break after Holy Week; thanks!) but I'm glad to be back in the saddle with both this week. Please reach out if you'd like to meet up to talk or pray about anything going on in your life these days. I love hearing from you, and as always, it's a gift to be your pastor.

Much love,

Amy