Hello! We hope you’re enjoying the warm weather and experiencing the joys of summer! And while July and August often mean a slower pace, we’d like to take this opportunity to step back and assess our progress on St. Bart’s Strategic Plan covered in our most recent Vestry meeting. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made these past few months with some notable wins and also continue to be humbled by the charge to be responsible and faithful stewards of our resources as we seek to strengthen the Church for generations to come. Below is a brief summary of recent initiatives related to each of the Strategic Plan pillars.
Pillar 1: Building the organization to support growth
- Due to the retirement of our Human Resources provider, Operations Inc. was hired to manage our HR services, and we’ve filled two vacant roles on our Finance team with permanent team members.
Pillar 2: Achieving financial stability and increasing giving
- Stewardship remains a key focus for the St. Bart’s community. With a 36% increase in the number of pledgers this year, 43% of our Stewardship Goal has been pledged via the 2023 Pledge Campaign. To date, we’ve received 34% of our $2.6M Stewardship Goal and are focused on driving towards fulfillment in the coming months. As always, your support of St. Bart’s remains essential, especially during the summer travel season.
- We are pleased to share that The Mosaic Society welcomed 12 new members in 2023, exceeding projections and bringing total membership to 219. Overall, 59 new donors have chosen to support our ministries which represents almost half of the projected new donors for 2023.
Pillar 3: Growing and diversifying membership
- St. Bart’s is in the process of developing a new church management data system that will allow us to connect with parishioners in fresh and innovative ways. While we are very much in the nascent stages, we hope to share more specifics soon as we seek to bolster our community.
Pillar 4: Boosting parish engagement
- We celebrated Pride with guest speakers, special events and our annual participation in the Pride Parade. Thank you to all who joined us and helped fulfill St. Bart’s call to radical welcome!
- The Reverends Peter Thompson and Zack Nyein have been hosting 20s/30s happy hour this summer, sharing food and fellowship with our young adult community.
- Imagine Worship wrapped up its initial run earlier this summer. This innovative worship experience attracted many new faces to St. Bart’s and we look forward to continuing to find fresh avenues for engagement.
Pillar 5: Fully leveraging buildings and MSAs
- On May 9, we signed an agreement to reserve Transferrable Development Rights through January 2026 in return for installment payments totaling $10M. The church received the first installment of these option payments. Due to the structure of the agreement, these funds are not 100% guaranteed. Therefore, we are being conservative in our approach to managing these assets. The plan is to use these option payments to fund much needed improvements in building mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems (MEP investments) noted below. This opportunity is truly a blessing and timely as we plan for future growth and building needs.
- We’re pleased to report that we recently signed a revised agreement with Sodexo (the tenant who manages Inside Park) that significantly increases the Church’s revenue from the restaurant space and aligns our approach more broadly with the commercial real estate market. In particular, we reduced our risk by receiving guaranteed payments.
- Zubatkin has been hired as the Church’s Owner’s Representatives to guide our upcoming facilities projects. Their expertise will help us navigate the MEP projects which we anticipate will cost approximately $6M between now and June of 2025.
- Athletic rentals are on track to generate significant revenue for the Church this fiscal year. Rentals of the Church and Community House have proven to be lagging in their ability to bounce back after Covid. Please keep the St. Bart’s spaces – the Church, Chapel, 3rd floor Terrace, Gym and Pool – in mind for your next personal or professional event. And spread the word about our facilities rentals by sharing our new video far and wide!
Pillar 6: Capitalizing on digital trends
- The Church continues to build its digital presence and has begun the preliminary work on a welcome video to encourage new folks to explore St. Bart’s.
As always, the success of our efforts is because of your prayers and support. Thank you for all you do for St. Bart’s and we will continue to keep you updated on our work.