All Saints Anglican Church 2020

What does the future hold for our parish?

The year is 2020 and All Saints has survived but what does the parish look like?

Fr. Lance has retired and a new priest is in place. Many of us have moved on to other parishes due to job change; retirement etc.

Your children are young adults and have moved on to college or have relocated and started a family of their own. The middle aged parishioners who remain have become the senior membership and hopefully their children have become the working bees. Hopefully there are enough new members to take the place of those of us who have moved on to other places. Let’s pray that this will be true.

Did we expand our facilities to accommodate new families? Were we successful over the past 10 years in reaching out to the local area to become a community resource? Let’s pray that this will be true.

Have we grown sufficiently to continue to do God’s work in a meaningful way?   Did we have real growth in church membership and financial resources to accomplish our Christian goals? .Let’s pray that this will be true.

Is God please with us? Are we pleased with ourselves? Are we successful or floundering? Have we passed the parish on to a new generation leaving them with the faith, hope and vision to build on our efforts of the past 10 years? Let’s pray that this will be true.

These questions must be answer in a most positive way through our actions in the coming years. Lets us all ponder these questions and dedicate our efforts to assure that the answers will show a positive result. The future of the parish is at stake. The sacrifices that have already been made financially and emotionally demand that we follow through in our commitment to see All Saints Anglican Church successful in 10 years and beyond. Let’s pray that this will be true.

We are doing many things well and we have shown great love and commitment to each other in the ministries that we practice. We now need to learn to share this same love and commitment to those who we need to reach outside of our current Christian family. We need to learn to practice evangelism which God has directed us to do. This will result in true church growth because the authority for growth is in God’s hands. Let’s pray that we will be true to God’s authority.

The vestry retreat spent much time on the subject of evangelism and the things we need to do to realize our goals. We must put our thoughts and plans into action. Everyone needs to help in his or her own way. If we do our part I know that God will do His. Let’s pray that we will do God’s will.

Arthur Alarie

Stewardship