Annual Report | August 2011

Page 1

AUGUST 2011

ANNUAL REPORT



VISION Worship

Formation

Weekly gathered worship is the center of our life together. At the center of worship is the Word of God. Our liturgical worship is a joyful response to the sovereign call of the Triune God to love Him with all our being, and our neighbors as ourselves. Preaching and sacraments, confession and affirmation, hymns and songs, passing of the peace ... throughout the service we seek to embody the gospel — the good news story of God reconciling sinners to himself in Jesus Christ. Rooted in the historic Christian faith and practice, we strive to make this good news intelligible and beautiful to the people and culture of Austin.

The church is the people of God who are growing up in every way into Christ. This formation is the work of the Holy Spirit and is rooted in and shaped by the Scriptures. Formation necessarily occurs in the church community as the word of God is heard, understood, applied, and lived together — among individuals; among families. Outside of worship, we foremost seek to cultivate these relationships through a citywide network of small groups meeting regularly for fellowship, Bible study, prayer, and service. Our hope is that these groups (and the relationships they represent) will nurture a welcoming and vibrant community in which God’s covenantal love and promises are known from generation to generation.

Mission God is at work in Christ bringing spiritual, social, and physical life and peace to the world. We want to humbly and boldly tell the redemptive story of Jesus to the city of Austin while joining others who are telling it throughout our region, country, and world. This mission requires that we employ all of our resources (finances, time, abilities, and lives) in acts of word and deed toward this end. Thus, our prayer is for the Lord to use us to plant churches, establish ministries of mercy and justice, partner with foreign missionaries, and send each of our members out into their particular vocations to bring the peace of Christ to our world.

Place Christianity is incarnational. There is nothing abstract about the faith or its practice. It is historical, relational, embodied, and local. The church must be too. Everything we do together — worship, mission, formation — occurs in real time and place. Context matters. All Saints’ mission is to be a church for all of Austin, dedicated to its blessing and engaged in its culture. West Austin is our home, the place where our worship is centered and from which our mission springs. All ministry — including our strategic goal of owning a church facility — must be pursued with this place in mind.


SESSION In many ways, fall 2011 represents a new start at All Saints. The past year has indeed been tumultuous. Yet we believe God used all these events to constrain us to look deeply into who we are as leaders, and as a body of believers. God is at work, and for that we are both humbled and thankful. We have assembled this annual report as a way of sharing where we believe God has brought us and, to some degree, where He is leading us. Included are ministry updates from the Finance Committee, Missions Committee, diaconate, and Pastor Search Committee. Additionally, we are excited to present our vision. We are grateful for the work of the All Saints staff and the many members of our body who have contributed to this effort.

Staff God has blessed us immensely with a very gifted and willing staff. A couple of months ago we asked Tim to serve as the interim lead pastor. This essentially added chief of staff to his other pastoral roles (preaching, teaching, visitation, and shepherding). The Session believed that organizationally we needed one person to fill the staff leadership role. We felt that Tim’s experience and knowledge from within our staff was more beneficial compared to possibly filling that role with someone less well-known from outside All Saints.

Tim is under consideration as a candidate for Senior Pastor. By asking Tim to serve as the interim lead pastor, we believe we are recognizing that God has put him on our staff and that he can fill the important interim role of leading our staff. We are excited about the ministry plans the staff has put in place, and we’ve asked Tim to share a report about what is taking shape on-the-ground with our various ministries.

Vision After much discussion and prayer we have recently put the finishing touches on a vision. We considered where we are as a congregation, our commitments and values from the beginning, our context, and where we believe God is leading us. Further clarification came in the form of your robust responses to the PSC questionnaire. Thank you again. This vision is by no means perfect or exhaustive. It is primarily descriptive, leaving space for the specific applications to be worked out by our next Senior Pastor in concert with the Session. For now, this statement will also help guide the Pastor Search Committee as they determine what kind of man God would have for us as Senior Pastor.


Congregational Meeting We believe that we are at a very important juncture for our church. This codified vision is a guiding document that, to some degree, will determine both what we do and what we look like in the future. So, we understand it will evoke questions. We welcome these. On September 25, we would like to speak to these questions with you at an evening congregational meeting. Please submit any questions or comments beforehand. You can do this by finding the Session contact form on the “Officers” page of the All Saints website. These secure messages go directly to me.

Finance We have approved the Finance Committee’s recommended budget with a posture of faith. Frankly, the total giving goal was arrived at, to some degree, by what we believe we will need to meet our ministry expenses. The staff and Finance Committee trimmed as much “fat” as they deemed possible. With all of the changes this last year brought and with all of our ministry needs, the Session did not think staff reductions represented a wise solution to achieving a more conservative budget. We do have a rather substantial

reserve of uncommitted funds that could be used. We will be carefully monitoring our giving as the year proceeds. Thank you for your generous giving over the summer which exceeded expectations.

Pray The Session is devoting itself to pray for this body. We pray for its growth in Christ, for unity within its diversity, for love for God and for one another, for a growing faith, for passion for the community of Austin and the world, and for Christ’s work to be done through us. We pray for wisdom and faith for the PSC, our deacons, staff, Missions and Finance Committees. We pray for our children, that they may grow in faith, love, and hope. We pray for God’s provision of our next Senior Pastor and for a place for us to worship, minister to one another, and to reach out to the community and beyond. Please pray with us and for us. —Stephen Hurd


STAFF What does it mean to be the people of God? This is one of the primary questions we’re asking as we cover the terrain of Exodus. It’s a question that recently spilled over to my reading of Psalm 112. Psalm 112 is an ancient Hebrew hymn that typically doesn’t show up on many Christians’ Top 10 Psalms hit lists, mine included. But maybe that will change now, because I’ve found Psalm 112 capturing my imagination with its preposterous affirmation: “The man who fears the LORD … is not afraid of bad news.” Bad news abounds in this world, but fear doesn’t have to abound in the church. The delighted reverence that God’s people have in him is meant to drown out fear and fortify the hearts of his people for whatever will be faced in the future. This is part of what it means to be the people of God. “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD… He is not afraid of bad news.” At All Saints we have had a roller-coaster year since last fall. Along the way we’ve been hit with a lot of news - both good and bad. I’m persuaded that our fall ministry plans represent more of the good kind of news. As a staff we’ve spent the last several months working with the Session to better organize our team that we might do the good and necessary gospel ministry that is

at-hand. And there is plenty of ministry-athand to do. First we made some changes with staff responsibilities. Our goal was to best employ the people already working here. Here’s a brief, bullet-point summary: • Mary Freiberger – Creates our Sunday liturgy bulletin and children’s curriculum. • Ashley McAndrew – Just joined us and oversees database and membership tasks (replacing Summer Oakes). • David Lutes – Leads worship music. Also finishing up the second All Saints album for this fall. • Melissa Kummerer – Oversees women’s ministry &, now, children’s ministry • Annie Camacho – Works closely with Melissa to coordinate many of the dayto-day aspects of the children’s ministry • Woonny Kim (pronounced “ooo-knee”) – Serves as the interim Director of Youth Ministry. • Gate Davis – Communication and administration; oversees and coordinates all of the various communications and the operations of the church • David Breeding – Financial administrator, Excel expert; also routinely helps out with music and missions • Rev. Benjie Slaton – Oversees small groups and adult formation classes (ok, Sunday School)


• Rev. Greg Grooms – Continues to bring his considerable experience and giftedness to our worship (leading, preaching), music, Sunday School, & shepherding. • Rev. Tim Frickenschmidt – I’m overseeing worship/preaching, young adult ministry, and, as Stephen noted in his letter, leading the staff during this interim period.

Worship Until Advent the biblical text around which we will continue to order our common life in worship is Exodus. As I’ve written before, general knowledge about someone or something is quite different from personal knowledge — to know about is not the same as to know of. Exodus is concerned with this of-type knowledge; it is a story about a people knowing God through personal encounter. And we are a church that needs to move on from our general knowledge about to a personal knowledge of the LORD, the gospel of Jesus, ourselves, and one another. Exodus, I pray, will help take us there. To complement worship, a number of ministry initiatives (some new, some more familiar) begin in the coming weeks. Two of them warrant highlighting: Children’s Ministry and Small Groups.

Children’s Ministry We have around 200 children (fifth grade and under), which is a beautiful gift from God and an unmistakable sign of life

within our congregation. In recognition of the call upon us to “tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD,” All Saints now has more staff and volunteer resources than ever before devoted to our kids. And this priority will show. A more developed Sunday School curriculum includes a biblical lesson, an activity associated with that lesson, and catechism memorization. Children’s church now encompasses five age-based classes for children up to 2nd grade. Small Saints (the gathering of our pre-K through 2nd grade children during the sermon) will even have its own printed liturgy with a sermon-based curriculum inside.

Small Groups Spiritual formation — the growing up of the Church in every way into Christ — happens in community, as we encounter God with one another … hearing the gospel of grace in faith and then living it out together daily. Finding the way to connect and “grow up” with others has not always been easy or simple at All Saints. Relationships are vital to life, but often prove difficult to form, even at church. To alleviate as many obstacles as possible to All Saints becoming a community of mature disciples, we have restructured our entire small group ministry. In terms of leadership, we have tasked a pastor (Benjie) with directing the creation and leadership of our groups. A new small group webpage with an interactive map offers greater ease and accessibility in


joining. Outside of worship this network of friendships, dedicated to learning, fellowship, service, and prayer will be our primary means of establishing the Christian relationships necessary for growth in the faith. Hopefully these groups will bring a depth of personal knowledge to the relationships at our church and create a welcoming and vibrant culture of discipleship among us as well.

people of God. And I know that we must continue to answer our Exodus question. And I also know that we don’t have to — we must not — fear our future, whatever the news. And we won’t, if by God’s grace our “heart is firm, trusting in the LORD,” who has already secured the final future for all his people through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Resurrection is our future.

What will this next year hold for All Saints? On the one hand, I don’t know. But on the other hand, I do know that we are the

— Tim Frickenschmidt


FINANCE On behalf of the All Saints Finance Committee, it is my privilege to share these annual financial statements along with a few notes. 2011 marked our transition to a new fiscal year: July 1 – June 30. The switch has gone smoothly, and we’re hoping to realize some significant budget-planning benefits by having our December giving (our biggest inflow month, by far) occur in the middle of the fiscal year. We’ve tried to make the reports as detailed and comprehensive as possible, while maintaining general readability. A few things to point out: • For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2011, our operating account had expenditures of $1,507,273 and giving of $1,457,909 for a net loss of $49,364. • Our operating account as of June 30, 2011, had an ending balance of $279,380. • For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2012, we are projecting expenditures of $1,627,088 and giving of $1,627,088; so, we are projecting a balanced budget for FYE 2012. The expenditures in this FYE 2012 budget reflect the key programs and personnel as identified by our Session leadership. We believe these programs and related personnel are essential to the continued ministry of All Saints, both to its

congregation and to its outside missions. As in prior years, major categories are personnel (46%) and missions (30%). The projected giving is pegged at the amount needed to accomplish a balanced budget. We acknowledge that a projected 11.6% increase in giving over the 12-month period ending June 30, 2011 is an aggressive goal, but we believe it is an appropriate goal that is consistent with the love, care and faith that has been revealed to us through our Lord. We have a strong operating account reserve position. As your Finance Committee, we will carefully monitor our financial progress throughout the year, and we will be reporting to you regularly. Anytime you have questions, please direct them to me or any committee member. We see it as a privilege to steward these financial resources as a means of providing a steady backdrop for the programs and ministries of All Saints. The staff, diaconate, and missions reports herein flesh out the many ways these resources given to us by our Lord are put to use here at All Saints. In closing, we want to thank you for your continued support of our All Saints body and for your prayers and your giving. —Toby Tobleman


FINANCIAL SUMMARY Six-month period ending June 30, 2011 General Fund

Actual

Budget

Missions Fund

General Fund Beginning Balance

396,201 396,201

Missions Fund Beginning Balance

184,604

Tithes & Offerings

595,079 622,245

Income from General Contributions

178,524

Other Income

1

489

0

Personnel Allocation to Missions

Total Income

595,568 622,245

Net Income from General Contributions

Missions Fund Allotment

-178,524 -186,674

Other Missions Income1

Sunday Worship & Christian Education2 Congregational Life & Care Administration Office3 Personnel

-64,466

-70,430

-3,241

-5,026

-19,403

-17,485

-45,210

-48,032

-363,998 -377,620

Missions Expenses Net Change Missions Fund Ending Balance

12,231

12,231

Building Fund Beginning Balance

Pastoral Ministries & Discipleship

-14,615

-13,443

Building Fund Income1

Programs

-35,164

-47,352

Building Fund Expenses

-712,389 -753,831

Net Change

-116,822 -131,586

General Fund Ending Balance

279,380 264,615

4,985 -197,582 -26,304 158,300

Property & Building Fund

Personnel Allocation to Missions

Total Expense

-12,231 166,293

Net Change Building Fund Ending Balance

549,942 7,510 0 7,510 557,452

Fellowship Program Fund Fellowship Prgm Fund Beginning Balance

13,332

Fellowship Contributions

24,037

Fellowship Disbursements

-33,395

Net Change

-9,358

Fellowship Fund Ending Balance

3,973

Benevolence Fund Benevolence Fund Beginning Balance Benevolence Fund Income1 1

Benevolence Disbursements

2

Net Change

3

Benevolence Fund Ending Balance

Other Income includes Designated Gifts and Interest Sunday Worship includes worship space/building use Office includes Office Rent

52,795 8,959 -18,125 -9,166 43,629


BUDGET Historical View 2009 actual TOTAL INCOME

2010 actual

SY2011 (Jan.–June 2011) budget actual

7/2010-6/2011

actual

FY2012 budget

1,478,469

1,484,586

622,245

595,568

1,457,909

1,627,088

100,976

113,657

70,430

64,466

128,820

142,015

80,000

89,297

53,285

52,877

102,174

111,580

Congregational Life & Care

14,938

3,978

5,026

3,241

4,409

9,997

Administration

24,465

31,772

17,486

19,403

37,512

46,961

Office

99,240

95,560

48,032

45,210

96,637

94,582

68,454

69,079

34,739

34,739

69,279

73,579

675,310

767,378

374,020

363,998

749,773

764,856

(90,000)

(12,231)

(12,231)

(57,231)

(24,462)

675,310

677,378

361,790

351,767

692,543-

740,394

18,081 86,154

19,623 92,857

13,443 50,952

14,615 35,164

20,664 89,317

28,550 76,373

EXPENSES Sunday Worship & Sunday School St. Gabriel's Rent

Office Rent

Personnel Personnel Allocation to Missions Net Personnel Pastoral Ministries & Discipleship Programs (& 2010 Communication Projects) Total Operational

1,019,163

1,034,824

567,158

533,866

1,069,901

1,138,871

Missions Fund Allotment

441,490

445,046

186,674

178,524

437,372

488,216

Building Fund Allotment

73,582

TOTAL EXPENSES NET INCOME

1,534,234

1,479,870

753,832

712,389

1,507,273

1,627,088

(55,766)

4,716

(131,587)

(116,822)

(49,364)

0


MISSIONS Over the last year God has used the people and resources at All Saints to bring great growth and maturity to gospel work happening throughout the world. The giving from All Saints to missions represents approximately 30% of the church’s overall budget (plus designated gifts made to the missions fund). Over the last twelve months we have disbursed over $383,000 to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Join us in thanking God for a year filled with discovering new relationships and deepening long-term partnerships. God has given us such blessings that we feel a tremendous responsibility to steward them generously and wisely. Pray that God will continue to give us opportunities to partner with the spread of the gospel both in Austin and to the world. To that end, here are a few highlights from this year.

Tanzania – McReynolds and TIMO We have been telling you about the McReynolds a lot recently because we are so excited about their work. TIMO will send a team of rookie missionaries to train while serving with an experienced missionary family (the McReynolds). The goal of that collaboration is the establishment of a church plant after two years and the equipping of an entire team of new missionaries. All Saints is partnering with a number of other Texas

PCA churches to build this team and fund their work.

Haiti – The Global Orphan Project Over the past year, All Saints has sent four teams to Haiti to visit our orphans … our orphans. This year we began fully supporting one orphanage of 36 children just outside of Port-Au-Prince. All Saints is helping to bring these children shelter, food, loving care, education, gospel oversight, and most importantly, hope. Our prayer has been that these children would grow to become physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy adults who will participate in developing a similarly healthy Haiti.

Austin – ESL Last fall, the grassroots efforts of a few All Saints members seeking to love a poor, immigrant population in Austin turned into a full-scale English as a Second Language (ESL) program. Each week twenty All Saints members teach English to seventy Spanish-speaking immigrants in central Austin. Through partnering with another local church, we have been able to assist the ‘alien and stranger’ (Lev. 19:33) among us. Even more than that, we have been able to share the gospel.


Austin – Community New Start CNS seeks to serve poor children in Austin by providing a gospel-based after-school program and one-on-one mentoring. There are literally hundreds of children benefiting from this love and gospel care every day. All Saints’ involvement with Community New Start reached new levels this year, including taking part in an extremely successful fundraiser and sending regular volunteers and teachers to serve their children. The graphic breakdown below demonstrates how our missions fund is having great impact here in Austin and around the globe. 1 In particular notice that the greatest portion of funds supports church planting. That is intentional. We believe that the best way to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the world is to establish new gospel-centered churches.

1 Many of the missions efforts All Saints supports have multiple spheres of influence, oftentimes crossing local, regional, and global borders. Likewise, while a ministry may have a primary focus, it may employ some combination of church planting, evangelism, and mercy ministry in its method.

We’ve been working to strategically realign some of our support channels to reflect this church-based focus. Along the way we’re seeking to achieve deeper support of our ministry partners — both relationally and financially. This new focus is beginning to take shape and we’re excited to see what’s in store. Missions is for everyone and involvement takes all sorts of forms: praying, participating, going, serving, hosting, giving. The All Saints Vision sums it up well: “Our prayer is for the Lord to use us to plant churches, establish ministries of mercy and justice, partner with foreign missionaries, and send each of our members out into their particular vocations to bring the peace of Christ to our world.” —Benjie Slaton and Eric Buescher


FUNDS GIVEN TOWARD MISSIONS July 2010 to June 2011 Total = $383,000 City School

GIVING, BY GEOGRAPHIC AREA

Community New Start

Sum of categories exceeds 100% due to overlap in categories. Raw totals without overlap are: $115K Local $139K Regional $130K Global

Austin LifeCare Texas Reach Out RUF, UT Hill House, UT RUF International, UT Center for Latino Leadership Campus Crusade for Christ, UT

Bridges International, UT Southwest Church Planting Network

Local $193,000

Redeemer PCA in Temple, TX

Providence Church in Austin, TX

Regional $159,000

Redeemer PCA in New Orleans, LA Church of the Cross PCA in Kyle, TX Christ Church PCA in Georgetown, TX

Brooklyn PCA in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, NY

Global $154,000

Covenant Seminary & Francis Schaeffer Institute Student Support: Covenant & Redeemer Seminaries Bryan & Rebe McReynolds, Africa Global Orphan Project, Haiti Kris & Paula Lundgaard, Slovakia Michael & Erica Jarrett, Mexico Peru Mission, Peru Hannes Pieters, Africa Kristin Madison, East Asia International Justice Mission Food for the Hungry

Medical Assistance Programs Internat'l Tim & Cheri Hoke, African Bible Univ, Uganda Travis & Brooke Scott, New Zealand Seima & Naoko Aoyagi, Japan


FUNDS GIVEN TOWARD MISSIONS July 2010 to June 2011 Total = $383,000 GIVING, BY MINISTRY FOCUS Sum of categories exceeds 100% due to overlap in categories. Raw totals without overlap are: $157K Church Planting $ 99K Evangelism $128K Mercy

Church Planting $206,000 Evangelism $137,000

Mercy $152,000


DIACONATE “The office is one of sympathy and service, after the example of the Lord Jesus; it expresses the communion of saints, especially in their helping one another in time of need.” — Book of Church Order 9-1 “…It is their duty also to develop the grace of liberality in the members of the church…” — Book of Church Order 9-2 Sixteen men currently serve the body at All Saints as deacons. Our charge is set out in scripture and formalized for the PCA in the Book of Church Order — an office of sympathy and service, after the example of the Lord Jesus. Members of All Saints continue to give generously to the Benevolence Fund, and for this we are grateful. In fact, this reflects a reciprocal relationship between the body and the diaconate. As we are encouraged by your generous care for each other we find motivation for walking alongside members experiencing a challenging season. We would like to recognize the key role the Women’s Ministry has played in extending mercy to many people in our body. This organized, compassionate group of women works alongside the deacons when certain needs arise. Beyond this

they continue to proactively devise means of encouragement and care. Your deacons have walked with members through a variety of situations this year. At times these meetings are short and infrequent; others are more involved, spanning months and even years. Some needs contain a financial aspect but many simply involve broken brothers and sisters meeting together and seeking Jesus. To those that have worked with the deacons, your trust and humility have been the means of communion and growth. Additionally, your deacons have served the body in a number of administrative roles including: finance committee, logistics (usher/greeter/etc.), mercy, Growth in Grace Conference, new member assistance, men’s ministry, and financial stewardship classes. We ask for your prayers and encouragement in the coming year. Please pray that God will continue to sanctify and teach us while helping us grow in love and intimacy with him. If you have questions about the diaconate, please come and ask. Additionally, if you have a need, please contact us directly. A full list of deacons can be found on the All Saints website. —Ryan Motola


PASTOR SEARCH The Pastor Search Committee was formed by congregational vote and commissioned by the Session in March 2011. We began meeting in April and have met weekly since that time. To this point, our focus has been two-fold: we have been working to establish the process by which we interact with potential candidates and we have been gathering information about who we are as a church body. Currently, the PSC is concluding the process and information gathering phases of our pastor search and beginning to interact with candidates. In an effort to establish a faithful and wise process, the PSC spent time in conversation as a group, read books and talked with other churches who have recently been through pastor searches. In order to facilitate clear communication with the congregation, we have posted weekly updates on our blog and delivered updates from the pulpit every 3-5 weeks. At the same time, the PSC has been working to understand our church body so that our interactions with candidates will be undergirded by a sense of who we are as a congregation. To that end, we developed and implemented a Congregational Input Questionnaire to gain information from our church body so

that we might better understand who we are and what qualities we desire in a new Senior Pastor. Also, we have worked closely with the Session to understand the vision for the church, and have received a draft job description for the Senior Pastor position. Discussions with the church staff have also been extremely helpful during this process. We pray that God blesses these efforts and uses them to enable us to recognize the person He is leading to be the next Senior Pastor of All Saints. Thank you for your patience with the process. Know that the PSC is and will be dealing with confidential information that impacts a large number of people. Confidentiality is necessary to protect the candidates and their families. Information will be reported when it can be through frequent updates, without compromising confidentiality. As a committee, we are both encouraged and humbled that “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Ps. 127:1); please pray with us that our time and efforts will bring glory to God and blessing to His Church. Also, we ask you to join us as we pray for our church body, for those with whom we interact, and for the man that God has to be our Senior Pastor. —Pastor Search Committee (PSC)


PSC | QUESTIONNAIRE SUMMARY The Pastor Search Committee’s study and discussion of the Congregational Input Questionnaire (CIQ) was enlightening and helpful in understanding who we are as a congregation. Working in conjunction with the Session, our aim was to “take the pulse” of our body; to find out how those who responded to the Questionnaire view All Saints. The results illuminate joy, contentment, and optimism as well as concerns and longings within our congregation. Understanding both these joys and concerns will be essential for any candidate considering the role of Senior Pastor at All Saints. Of the over 400 members and regular attendees of All Saints, 58% (280 people) participated in the questionnaire. Several themes emerged in the long answer responses. Many of the questionnaire responders expressed a desire for/to: • Stability for our church – emotionally, geographically, and programmatically. A number of responders mentioned a lack of unity that has been evident for more than the recent past when we experienced the difficult circumstances of losing our Senior Pastor. Many expressed the hope that a new senior pastor will help facilitate healing in our body.

• More and stronger leadership within the church along with the formation and communication of a clear vision. • A more purposeful, comprehensive, and consistent ministry for children and youth in suitable classrooms. This was a common theme across all areas of the questionnaire. Responders desire a rich biblical education for the children at All Saints and assistance for parents as they disciple their children, not simply entertainment. • Solid biblical teaching for adults that goes beyond the worship service, along with teaching on Reformed theology. • Be mentored by someone older in the faith. • Make a more significant commitment to serving our community and our city. While there were varying opinions regarding how All Saints should move forward with various mission opportunities outside of our community, numerous responders affirmed continuing a significant commitment to missions.


• Facilities that enable fellowship and teaching throughout the week and deeper engagement with our community; possibly more centrally located within Austin and within easier reach for many of our members. Many respondents wrote that finding or building a permanent home for AS was the best way to achieve this presence in our community. • Plant new church(es) to reach the unreached throughout Austin. There was strong interest in following through on this vision that was established at the inception of AS. • Patience and time to allow for healing and stabilizing of our body before we make a decision about planting or building. • A wise and humble man who has a strong commitment to teaching the Truth and a lifestyle of leading and lovingly shepherding the congregation according to the Word. These point summarize some of the major themes that were repeated throughout the over 1000 long answer responses. They do not reflect every answer, nor do they constitute statements of direction or vision.

Along with the desire for stability and healing in our congregation there was genuine optimism about the future of All Saints. There was noticeable contentment in the midst of difficult circumstances. The responders provided concrete, constructive thoughts on who we are and how we should move forward as a church. Thank you to those who assisted the PSC in developing and executing the questionnaire and to those who took the time to complete it.



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