To help us think about what it is that we need to do in order to live into our mission, which is To become like Christ as we serve others,proclaim God’s love, and grow in the Spirit, an aspirational budget has been created. It is long (15 pages) and you will want to study it and pray on it. Only the introduction is shown here. You will want to download the pdf document to study it.
1. INTRODUCTION
As we celebrate our 60th anniversary, CHS is at a juncture. Earlier this year our congregation joined together and confirmed our desire to grow our parish and to determine priorities for our outreach ministries. We met in small groups during Listening Sessions and on Good Friday; ministry teams, families and individuals also met with Mother Kimberly Reinholz and one another to share their dreams.
Coming out of these sessions we identified three areas of focus for outreach ministries; feeding the hungry, clothing the needy and welcoming the stranger. We also identified many new programs we’d like to bring to CHS and to our community to help us grow in our faith and serve God.
Mother Kim gathered all our ideas and created this Aspirational Plan for us to consider as we enter our Stewardship Campaign and ponder what God is calling us to do in 2027. It required a significant time and effort on Mo. Kim’s part, and was supported by Diane Hrozencik, Senior Warden, Sally Bird, Treasurer and Diane Bendahamane, Vestry Recorder. It is a living document that will evolve as the Holy Spirit guides this community. We’ve done our best to use accurate figures in this report. The numbers are based in information we have collected, but many are estimates and they may change as more information becomes available.
Drawing on information from various aspects of our common life, this proposal answers the question: If money were not an issue, what would we want to do in the coming year to respond to God’s call to us? In other words, this is a wish list. It includes the parish's expenses for operations, outreach, ministry, Diocesan Marks of Mission and debt repayment. It also includes ministry and mission programs that depend on available funding. In short, it provides a clear and complete picture of the actual costs of running CHS, as well as those costs of our hopes and dreams for new programs and activities.
As such, it includes two categories of expenses that previous budgets did not mention. The first is the estimated cost of programs and activities that we would like to carry out but do not have specific plans to do so at the moment, such as holding an all-parish retreat, or hiring a parish administrative assistant. Ideally, the Vestry will look at all such CHS "dream" programs and decide which among them are feasible in 2027. Making these decisions will not only assist us to apportion scarce resources appropriately, but it will give us some idea of where thecongregation is heading long term. The second category is the expense of programs, ministries, and missions covered ad hoc through donations or in-kind gifts from individuals. Such gifts will continue to be given, but now with this new budget process, we will be able to see what their monetary value is and to ensure that the congregation is aware of and supports these activities as important elements of CHS's long-term planning and stewardship and the concept of shared responsibility.
It is not surprising that there is a large gap between the estimated expenses and income for 2027 in this plan. This gap can be narrowed by cutting down on activities or increasing contributions or some of each. In fact, the plan suggests some ways of doing so, but there is not getting around that only a substantial raise in pledges and contributions will close the gap completely. In January of 2027 the vestry will present an actual budget based on the aspirations described here and the congregations response to the request to give more, so that our dreams and visions can become reality.
This document enumerates costs for a Full Aspirational Plan and also for a more modest, yet very optimistic, Modified Aspiration Plan. The Modified Plan is not a recommendation; it is simply a demonstration of how we could select different programs and timing to spread the costs out.
As we celebrate our 60th anniversary, CHS is at a juncture. Earlier this year our congregation joined together and confirmed our desire to grow our parish and to determine priorities for our outreach ministries. We met in small groups during Listening Sessions and on Good Friday; ministry teams, families and individuals also met with Mother Kimberly Reinholz and one another to share their dreams.
Coming out of these sessions we identified three areas of focus for outreach ministries; feeding the hungry, clothing the needy and welcoming the stranger. We also identified many new programs we’d like to bring to CHS and to our community to help us grow in our faith and serve God.
Mother Kim gathered all our ideas and created this Aspirational Plan for us to consider as we enter our Stewardship Campaign and ponder what God is calling us to do in 2027. It required a significant time and effort on Mo. Kim’s part, and was supported by Diane Hrozencik, Senior Warden, Sally Bird, Treasurer and Diane Bendahamane, Vestry Recorder. It is a living document that will evolve as the Holy Spirit guides this community. We’ve done our best to use accurate figures in this report. The numbers are based in information we have collected, but many are estimates and they may change as more information becomes available.
Drawing on information from various aspects of our common life, this proposal answers the question: If money were not an issue, what would we want to do in the coming year to respond to God’s call to us? In other words, this is a wish list. It includes the parish's expenses for operations, outreach, ministry, Diocesan Marks of Mission and debt repayment. It also includes ministry and mission programs that depend on available funding. In short, it provides a clear and complete picture of the actual costs of running CHS, as well as those costs of our hopes and dreams for new programs and activities.
As such, it includes two categories of expenses that previous budgets did not mention. The first is the estimated cost of programs and activities that we would like to carry out but do not have specific plans to do so at the moment, such as holding an all-parish retreat, or hiring a parish administrative assistant. Ideally, the Vestry will look at all such CHS "dream" programs and decide which among them are feasible in 2027. Making these decisions will not only assist us to apportion scarce resources appropriately, but it will give us some idea of where thecongregation is heading long term. The second category is the expense of programs, ministries, and missions covered ad hoc through donations or in-kind gifts from individuals. Such gifts will continue to be given, but now with this new budget process, we will be able to see what their monetary value is and to ensure that the congregation is aware of and supports these activities as important elements of CHS's long-term planning and stewardship and the concept of shared responsibility.
It is not surprising that there is a large gap between the estimated expenses and income for 2027 in this plan. This gap can be narrowed by cutting down on activities or increasing contributions or some of each. In fact, the plan suggests some ways of doing so, but there is not getting around that only a substantial raise in pledges and contributions will close the gap completely. In January of 2027 the vestry will present an actual budget based on the aspirations described here and the congregations response to the request to give more, so that our dreams and visions can become reality.
This document enumerates costs for a Full Aspirational Plan and also for a more modest, yet very optimistic, Modified Aspiration Plan. The Modified Plan is not a recommendation; it is simply a demonstration of how we could select different programs and timing to spread the costs out.