Trustees’ report

9

The trustees give thanks to

God as we look back on 2021, reflecting on where he has led us, stretched us, and held us together as his body. Our hearts are full of thanksgiving that we could safely re-open to gather for Sunday worship together as Christ’s family once again and provide parallel online access.

Trustees are responsible for overseeing the overall direction of the church and this past year we spent time reviewing our overall vision and strategy. Part of that effort involved re-affirming our vision’s three pillars and setting four areas of priority for Trustee oversight. In 2021 the following progress was made on Trustee priorities: 1. Evangelism: We welcomed Chris Ley as our Director of Evangelism and Outreach.

Chris’ role is to make St. John’s a welcoming place for newcomers to “Come and See” who Jesus is. Evangelism at St.

John’s will also take the form of church planting, beginning with an initiative that will be led by Jeremy Graham and Joel

Strecker over the next 18 months as they seek to grow the church beyond the current borders of St. John’s. 2. Congregational composition: We identified the need to expand the composition of our congregation by prioritizing initiatives that will grow the 20s to 40s age group.

PEOPLE’S WARDEN

JOANNE SAWATZKY, ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES OF ST. JOHN’S VANCOUVER ANGLICAN CHURCH 3. Community life: Building a stronger community in the midst of COVID-19 has been challenging. One area where we have seen real growth in our sense of community is through the week-day services of morning prayer and compline.

The trustees spent time during the year updating our succession planning process, especially given the changes that will result from Dan Gifford’s appointment as bishop. 4. Property search: This past year we spent significant time and effort deliberating and discerning the way forward for ownership of a church property. We considered very seriously a specific opportunity and ultimately decided not to pursue it. Despite this, we are very encouraged by the level of congregational engagement in the process and the vision that God has given us to renew our property search, and we look forward to continuing engagement in 2022. Finally, we are so thankful for the faithful commitment to St. John’s that is made evident in your generosity towards the gospel work that God is leading us into. We give praise to God for the ways he has worked among us to provide for St. John’s needs financially in 2021. As we have in the past, we put our trust in God’s ever-faithful and gracious hands as we look forward to where he is leading us in 2022. Blessings