RECTOR'S REPORT AGM 2025

Rectors report

2025 Annual General Meeting

What really is a church? A building? Congregation of believers? Denominational organisation? It is really the earthly manifestation of a heavenly reality. It is what is happening in the new creation. So, we are seeking to do that. To meet around God’s word, to grow, to bring our requests to our heavenly father - and we trust that people will join us in doing so.

In the words of John 15 from a few weeks ago, Jesus said, “I am the vine you are the branches, remain in me”. So, we are seeking to remain in Him. Put another way, to ‘Lean in’ to Jesus - and help others to do that as well.

I am wanting more and more branches to be grafted into the vine and more and more fruitfulness. In that great passage from Acts 2, it says of the early church, that ‘The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved’. So, the hour on Sunday is the key.

I would like to express my thanks to some people but unlike the ‘Oscars’, this won’t be by name. Thank you to those who have served us over the past year. Those who have made the gardens beautiful, those who’ve prayed for someone, those who’ve given a word of encouragement, those who’ve paid the bills, sung, welcomed a visitor, hosted a home group. You are serving each other but more than that you are serving Christ.

From and administrative perspective, I consider that you have been well serviced by the Parish Council and wardens. We have organised ourselves differently this year with three sub-committees (Finance; Building and Grounds; Mission and Outreach) and most of the work is done in these groups outside of the Parish Council. We have tried to spread the work around to promote longevity in these roles and have the ability for various people to cover each other. We have managed to get things done and free up time and resources, to make our operations more efficient and simpler. We have done a lot of work improving our financial processes, there has been a lot of work done on property (repairs, reducing clutter, upgrades. We have spent a good deal of time and resources on website and signage to let people know we are here. We ran the Alpha Course for the first time and ‘Dinners for 8’.

The number of people coming on Sunday’s has been steadily trending higher. In addition, over January and February 30-40 screens are watching our services online. This helps those who are unable to be here in person

to stay connected as well as helping newcomers to ‘see inside’.

Over the previous years, we went through a process of formulating our deciding our vision. This took some time, and it is still evolving but here are some key points:

1. Although everyone is welcome here our focus is local. About 60% of our congregation come from the North Sydney Local government area and another 10% from Mosman. People are welcome to travel here but our identity and focus is local. Likewise, we seek to more closely represent the cultural and demographic fabric of our locality.

2. We are aiming to become a more ‘multigenerational’ church. Families and children are important to us.

3. Our site and greenspace should be a blessing to those around us.

Why Families? There are several reasons:

1. The body of Christ is naturally heterogenous (Each age group brings its gifts and encouragement).

2. We are a young area so there a many children and families all around us

3. It seems that more and more families will live in apartments as a choice (The cost of buying a house vs lifestyle trade-off).

4. The site is attractive to those living in apartments.

5. We already have a pre-school, so families are here on site already.

6. Preschool is already set-up for Sunday use.

The challenge is how do we do this when we currently have very few families and children.

As we look to the year ahead, the two words to think about are growing and belonging. Growing because we are hoping that people will continue to join us but equally that each of us a growing personally. That involves both support and challenge. People often think of Pastoral care as just support – that there is someone there when things are tough (maybe a pastor). Yet it is also challenge. Belonging is crucial in helping people make Christ Church a ‘spiritual home’ - even if just for a season.

As mentioned earlier, I see it as a priority to make the Sunday hour worthwhile and attractive. The 10 am and 5pm services are the key meetings for the week. We aim to grow the number of our bible study groups. This may require some dividing and adding members. This year we will institute a quarterly prayer meeting (Central Prayer). I have begun a small lunchtime fellowship group for those who work in North Sydney. On

Wednesday we will open the church for lunchtime ‘Refresh’ group so that people who are wanting a break from the four walls of the office can find some time and space to stop, listen to a psalm and pray. There is a growing interest in Weddings at Christ Church and a good deal of thinking is required around how to best harness this interest.

We have reorganised our administrative support. Alice has returned on half her old hours and with reduced job description. We think we need the help of a ‘verger’/tech support person as well as someone who can manage the logistics of church (a ministry co-ordinator). We also have need for help in managing our online presence, website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram as well as internal communications.

I’d also make some observations about our financial situation. It is instructive to take a snapshot of our financial situation from 2018 (well before the pandemic) to 2024. In that time, our offertories have increased by a bit over 1% per year (compounding). However, our cash reserves and investments have doubled over that same period.

This suggests to me that we have embraced the conservatism of ‘saving for a rainy day’. Yet, people have contributed – often sacrificially - to support ministry here. I’m of the view that we can’t just conserve this when we have opportunities before us.

Some of these funds should be directed towards growing the ministry team. We have around 120-140 people either on our parish roll or on the fringes. I think that the pastoral staff are at capacity. I think Di Nicolios works many more hours that she is given credit for. I have heard the view expressed that we have always been a 1 minister church. However, if we were to double in size (which is realistic), how would that be possible? The conventional wisdom is that limiting the ministry team also limits our growth as it restricts our ability to go forward. Again, in 2018, we had 5 retired full-time ministers. They were involved in preaching and leading services, leading groups, outreach events, weddings, baptisms and funerals. For various reasons this is no longer the case. As I look back over the past 23 Sundays (almost half a year), I have preached all but two of the sermons. Whilst I believe that preaching is an important way for me to contribute, that intensity is not sustainable in the long term. It depends on me staying healthy, not taking leave and so forth.

It is a great privilege to serve here at Lavender Bay – I trust that we will seek the Lord’s will as we look forward.

gw

‍